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IOSH Leading Safely
Half a day for the people who set the budget and the tone. Not a technical safety course: a leadership one, with a diagnostic of where your organisation actually is and a plan you leave with.
About this course
Leading Safely is IOSH's course for chief executives, directors, board members and senior managers. It runs to about five hours and it is deliberately short, because it is written for people whose diaries are the obstacle.
It is not a technical course and it does not try to make a director into a safety practitioner. It is about the decisions taken above the manager: what good safety leadership looks like, how your organisation compares with best practice, and what you are going to do differently when you go back.
Delegates use IOSH's diagnostic tool to judge where the organisation stands and leave with a personal action plan rather than a set of notes. We run it in a classroom, live online, and in your own boardroom anywhere in the UK.
- What safety and health leadership actually means at board level, as opposed to compliance
- The responsibilities and the behaviours that sit with a senior leader rather than with a manager
- How your organisation benchmarks against best practice, using IOSH's own diagnostic tool
- Shaping the vision and the priorities, so the safety effort follows the strategy rather than fighting it
- Driving improvement, and knowing whether what you have asked for is actually happening
How completing this course helps you
- An IOSH Leading Safely certificate, which can be verified online with IOSH
- Access to IOSH's diagnostic tool, action planner and safety leadership community
- A written personal action plan rather than a folder that goes in a drawer
- An honest read on where your organisation sits against best practice
Who should attend?
For chief executives, managing directors, board members, senior managers, directors and business owners, and anyone responsible for strategy and governance.
Entry requirements. None. The course is written for senior leaders and is about strategic leadership rather than technical safety expertise, so no qualifications or safety background are assumed.
Ready to take the next step?
Choose a delivery option, compare dates and book with confidence, or ask MB and get an answer straight away.
Where it sits
Leading Safely, and why it is not the director's version of Managing Safely
Managing Safely is three days and teaches a manager to run their own area safely, with a 30 question paper and a practical risk assessment project at the end of it. Leading Safely is about five hours and does not teach safety management at all. It is about the decisions a board takes, the tone it sets and the money it releases, which is a different job.
That is why it carries no written exam. The assessment is a personal commitment and an action plan the delegate wrote themselves, off the back of a diagnostic of where the organisation really is, and that is the only thing that survives contact with a board meeting.
In construction specifically, the CITB Directors' Role for Health and Safety covers similar ground for a director of a construction business and is the one CITB grant applies to. They overlap, and which one fits depends on the sector rather than the seniority.
About five hours
A single session, in a classroom, live online or in your own boardroom. Short by design, because the diary is the obstacle.
Diagnose, then commit
IOSH's diagnostic tool to see where the organisation stands, then a personal commitment and action plan. That is the assessment: no written exam and no pass or fail.
Certificate and the community
An IOSH Leading Safely certificate, verifiable online, plus access to the diagnostic tool, the action planner and IOSH's safety leadership community.
Method of assessment
How IOSH Leading Safely is assessed
There is no formal, pass or fail written exam on this one. The assessment is what you produce on the day.
Take part across the session
About five hours, run as a single session in a classroom, live online or at your own premises.
Use the diagnostic tool
IOSH provide a diagnostic tool which delegates use to evaluate where their own organisation currently stands, rather than answering questions about somebody else's.
Write the personal commitment and action plan
This is the assessment. Each delegate produces a personal commitment and an action plan for improvement, which is the only thing that survives contact with a board meeting. There is no pass or fail paper.
Certificate
An IOSH Leading Safely certificate, verifiable online with IOSH, plus access to the diagnostic tool, the action planner and IOSH's safety leadership community.
Ways to learn
How you can take this course
Every route covers the same accredited syllabus and the same support. Pick the one that fits how your people work.
Classroom
Tutor-led at one of our centres, with everything provided.
Ask us to open a classroom date →or ask MB nowLive online
The same tutor and the same timetable, joined from anywhere.
Ask us to open a live online date →or ask MB nowDates and locations
Arrange this course
There are no scheduled dates for this course at the moment. It is normally arranged around you.
Tell us roughly when you need it and how many people are going, and we will come back with dates and a price.
Also available
In-company training
We run this one to order, at your place or ours.
Onsite / in-company
Run IOSH Leading Safely at your site
We deliver anywhere in the UK, on your dates and around your shift patterns. For six or more people it is usually cheaper per head than sending everyone to a centre, and nobody loses a day travelling.
Tell us roughly how many people and when, and we will come back with options and a price, or ask MB and get an answer straight away.
What onsite includes
- The same tutor, materials and certification as our centres
- Your venue or one we arrange near you
- Dates and start times built around your operation
- One invoice and one point of contact for the whole group
- Content examples drawn from your own workplace
IOSH Leading Safely FAQs
No. There is no formal, pass or fail written exam. The assessment is the personal commitment and action plan each delegate produces on the day, worked up from a diagnostic of where their organisation currently stands.
IOSH set it at approximately five hours, so it runs as a single session rather than a full day. We deliver it in a classroom at our centres, live online, and at your own premises anywhere in the UK.
Chief executives, managing directors, board members, senior managers, directors and business owners, and anybody responsible for strategy and governance. It is pitched at the level that sets budgets and priorities.
Managing Safely takes three days, teaches a manager to run their own area safely, and ends in a 30 question paper plus a risk assessment project. Leading Safely takes about five hours, is about the decisions taken above that, and ends in a commitment and an action plan rather than an exam.
For a director of a construction business, the CITB Directors' Role for Health and Safety covers similar ground and CITB grant applies to it. For a board outside construction, Leading Safely is the one. Tell us the sector and we will say which fits.
Yes, anywhere in the UK, and for a board that is usually the only way it ever gets into the diary. Tell us how many and where and we will come back the same working day.
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