Promote a Culture of Health and Safety in the Workplace
ProQual Level 3 NVQ Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety
A positive health and safety culture encourages safe behaviours, workforce participation and continual improvement. This mandatory unit of the ProQual Level 3 NVQ Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety focuses on developing the practical skills required to assess culture, plan improvement activities and review their effectiveness.
Learners completing this unit will demonstrate competence in identifying opportunities for improvement, developing culture improvement plans, gaining management support, communicating effectively and encouraging workforce engagement.
Unlike traditional classroom-based qualifications, the ProQual Level 3 NVQ Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety is a competency-based qualification assessed through workplace evidence. This means learners demonstrate their ability to apply health and safety knowledge in real workplace situations rather than sitting written examinations.
This unit is particularly relevant for:
Supervisors and Team Leaders
Health and Safety Coordinators
Health and Safety Representatives
Site Supervisors
Team Managers with culture improvement responsibilities
Individuals progressing towards Technician Membership of IOSH (TechIOSH)
By successfully completing this unit, learners will demonstrate their ability to plan, promote and review activities that improve health and safety culture and encourage people to work safely.
What Does This Unit Mean?
This unit is about developing, implementing and reviewing activities that encourage positive health and safety behaviours throughout the workplace.
The unit requires learners to understand the current health and safety culture, identify opportunities for improvement, develop a plan to improve awareness and engagement and monitor whether the planned activities have been successful.
In simple terms, this unit is asking:
“Can you help improve health and safety culture by planning, promoting and reviewing activities that encourage people to work safely?”
What Competence Does This Unit Require?
You are expected to demonstrate that you can:
Assess the current health and safety culture within the workplace.
Identify opportunities for improvement.
Develop a health and safety culture improvement plan.
Promote the benefits of following health and safety procedures.
Gain management support for improvement activities.
Communicate health and safety information effectively.
Encourage workforce participation and engagement.
Monitor the effectiveness of improvement activities.
Review performance and identify further opportunities for improvement.
Understand the legal and moral reasons for promoting health and safety.
The focus is not on delivering a single campaign or toolbox talk.
The focus is on demonstrating that you can plan, implement and review activities designed to improve workplace health and safety culture.
Evidence Requirements: Unit 05
How do you identify opportunities to improve health and safety culture?
Maps to AC 1.1
Evidence Examples:
Employee feedback, survey results, inspection reports, audit findings, incident trends, safety observations or consultation records identifying where improvements and changes may be necessary.
Evidence showing the issues or areas for improvement that were identified.
How do you identify how health and safety information is currently communicated?
Maps to AC 1.2
Evidence Examples:
Communication records such as toolbox talks, safety briefings, newsletters, notice boards, emails, training records or meeting minutes.
Evidence showing how information on health and safety instructions and regulations is currently shared within the workplace.
How do you determine the current level of workforce understanding and support for health and safety?
Maps to AC 1.3
Evidence Examples:
Employee surveys, consultation records, safety committee minutes, interviews, feedback records or training assessments.
Evidence showing the current level of workforce understanding of and support for health and safety instructions and procedures.
How do you develop a plan to improve health and safety culture?
Maps to AC 1.4
Evidence Examples:
A health and safety culture improvement plan, action plan, campaign plan or engagement plan that you developed based on your findings.
Evidence showing performance measures, review dates, responsibilities and resources included within the plan.
How do you plan activities to promote the benefits of health and safety?
Maps to AC 1.5
Evidence Examples:
A campaign plan, awareness programme, toolbox talk schedule, communication plan or engagement initiative.
Evidence showing planned opportunities to promote the advantages and legal necessity of following health and safety procedures.
How do you gain support for your health and safety culture improvement plan?
Maps to AC 2.1
Evidence Examples:
Meeting minutes, emails, presentations, briefing records or approval records showing that the plan was presented to the people responsible for the workplace.
Evidence showing support, approval, resources or actions were agreed.
How do you identify who needs information and support regarding the plan?
Maps to AC 2.2
Evidence Examples:
A communication plan, stakeholder list, training matrix, department list or action plan identifying those in the workplace who require information and advice about the plan.
Evidence showing the groups or individuals who required information or support.
How do you communicate the plan and encourage participation?
Maps to AC 2.3
Evidence Examples:
Toolbox talks, briefings, training records, meetings, newsletters, emails, posters or campaign materials showing that relevant information and advice was provided in a timely way.
Evidence showing opportunities for employees to contribute ideas on good practice, such as participation records, feedback or suggestions received.
How do you measure whether the plan has improved health and safety culture?
Maps to AC 2.4
Evidence Examples:
Survey results, consultation records, inspection results, audit findings, behavioural observations, participation records or performance reports.
Evidence measuring the effectiveness of the plan against past and present performance.
How do you ensure your activities consider legal and moral responsibilities?
Maps to AC 3.1
Evidence Examples:
A culture improvement plan, presentation, briefing, training material or communication that references legal duties, organisational responsibilities or workforce wellbeing.
Evidence showing that the legal and moral responsibilities implied were researched and considered during planning or implementation.
How do you monitor and review the effectiveness of the plan?
Maps to AC 3.2
Evidence Examples:
A management review, progress report, action plan review, audit report or culture review showing performance measures instigated to monitor the effectiveness of the plan.
Evidence showing recommendations, lessons learned or opportunities for further improvement identified.
Some of your evidence against one Assessment Criterion may also be used to meet the requirements in other assessment criteria (Where applicable).
Important Note for Learners
The competence requirements outlined above describe the practical workplace activities, systems, processes and records that may be used to demonstrate competence against this unit.
As this is a competency-based qualification, learners are expected to demonstrate that they can apply their health and safety knowledge and skills within their own workplace or working environment.
In addition to the competence-based assessment criteria, this unit also contains a number of knowledge-based assessment criteria. These are typically assessed through:
Written responses
Professional discussions with the assessor
Assessor questioning
In most cases, the knowledge-based assessment criteria relate directly to the same workplace activities, systems and processes described above. Learners will therefore often find that the workplace evidence gathered to demonstrate competence also helps them prepare for and satisfy the knowledge assessment requirements.