315 Principles of Health and Safety in a Work Setting

Unit Overview

315 Principles of Health and Safety in a Work Setting is a unit within the CMI Level that is designed to promote the acquisition of knowledge of the principles and approaches that should be used in driving the desired principles of setting healthy working environments. This unit improves the understanding that middle managers have of their immediate organisational environment and the roles that they should play in ensuring that the workplace environment is improved to achieve a healthy and safe environment. The workplace environment has a significant role to play in influencing the performance of the individuals.

Additionally, organisations exist in a highly competitive labour market, and addressing the issues of health and safety in the environment is critical in ensuring that organisations are competitive in attracting and retaining the top talented employees within the organisation. Middle managers have a central role to play in achieving this goal and objective of ensuring that healthy and safe environments are managed for effective workplace integration and interaction. 315 Principles of Health and Safety in a Work Setting is designed to improve the ability of the leaders to facilitate success in handling the health and safety principles within the workplace.

The main purpose of this unit, therefore, is to develop an understanding and ability of the managers to create and manage a healthy and safe environment which is a requirement of practising and potential middle managers within the organisation. The unit provides the learners with the relevant training that they need to promote the ability to understand the safety and health needs of the workplace and use this principle in developing an effective workplace environment. The unit is taught in 24 hours of guided learning and contributes 6 credit values towards the completion of the CMI Level 3 module.

Suitability of the unit

315 Principles of Health and Safety in a Work Setting is mainly designed to improve the abilities of the first-line managers and supervisors within the organisation. These are managers tasked with the duty of directly interacting with different stakeholder sot ensure that the goals and objectives of the organisation are achieved sustainably within the organisation. Within this unit, the middle managers are provided with theory and practice that is important in building their awareness of the organisation and health and safety principles. However, the unit is not limited to these individuals. The top management tasked with the responsibilities of making critical decisions within the organisation needs to mate the skills of managing a healthy and safe environment. 

The unit is, therefore, suitable for them to boost the information on which they base their managerial decision to ensure that it is centered on health and safety principles developed within the organisation. Other forms of leaders, including junior managers, line managers, and supervisors or team leaders within the organisation, can pursue the unit to boost their mastery of principles and information relayed within the unit, which is critical in boosting their contributions to the organisation in their different areas of responsibilities by ensuring their personal activities and managers duties are based on improving the health and safety principles within their areas of responsibilities.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the unit, the learners should be able to:

• Understand the benefits of health and safety within the workplace for the employees and the organisation

• Understand the legal requirements in relation to health and safety within the UK

• understand the organisational standards and requirements that have been established to guarantee health and safety in the organisation

• Understand the difference between risk and hazards within the workplace

• Show knowledge of the ability to develop effective work-based risk assessment that provides interventions that can be used to address the risk within the workplace

• Develop an effective risk assessment from the context of their organisation or area of responsibility

• Identify various workplace health and safety emergencies

• Show knowledge of the role of the manager in providing responses to workplace relater risks and hazards

• Establish effective approaches that can be used to improve the ability of the organisation to meet its obligation in relation to health and safety management.

Key Learning Areas

315 Principles of Health and Safety in a Work Setting focuses on addressing the ability of middle managers to assess the workplace environment and ensure that critical risks that could arise within the areas of operations are addressed. The unit, therefore, focuses on two main areas, which are understanding safety and health policy in alignment with UK law and legislation and effective risk management. These areas address information such as:

  Health and Safety Policies

Middle managers should show an understanding of the basic principles that are applied in creating and managing a healthy and safe environment. In this area of learning, the learners are provided with information and guidance based on the UK legal frameworks that are put in place to govern the process of creating and managing a working environment within the workplace. This information is important in putting into context the practices and procedures within the organisation, especially with a focus on the well-being of employees and stakeholders within the organisation. 

Risk Assessment and Management

This area of learning provides the main principles of managing a healthy and safe environment. Within this area of learning, the learners are introduced to the principles that they can use to conduct an effective risk assessment and generate recommendations within their areas of operations and responsibilities. This is a critical aspect in ensuring that the learners understand the contributions that they can make as middle managers in improving the compliance of the organisation to the preset regulations and principles on health and safety. Additionally, middle managers should have the ability to effectively prepare reports on the risk assessments that they have conducive, including recommendations to improve the health and safety of their areas of operation. 

Evaluation

On completion of this unit, the learners are assessed using different approaches. The first method of assessment is a written assessment comprising 2500 to 300 words responding to questions provided in the area of study. Additionally, supervised practice is sued to evaluate the ability to implement learned principles in a real-world context.