NPORS Harness and Fall Arrest Training (N723)

Half a day, with a maximum of ten candidates to one instructor. Two half day groups can be run back to back in a single day, which is how most sites cover a whole team in one visit.

No. It is a short safety course covering the use and inspection of harness and fall arrest equipment. There is no machine and no operating assessment. It sits alongside operator categories rather than replacing any of them.

Work restraint is set up so the person physically cannot reach the edge, so no fall happens. Fall arrest allows a fall and then stops it, which puts loads through the body, the equipment and the anchor, and needs enough clearance below to work. Where the task allows it, restraint is the better arrangement and the course teaches it that way.

There is no fixed interval in law. The requirement is that people are competent for the work, which means training is refreshed when equipment, working methods or the person's role changes, and periodically to keep it current. Many sites work to a three year cycle for this kind of short safety training, and the NPORS card has its own expiry.

Before every use by the person wearing it, and periodically in more detail to the manufacturer's instructions, with the result recorded. The course covers what a pre use check involves and what should take a harness straight out of service, such as damaged webbing, broken stitching, a deployed energy absorber or a missing or unreadable label.

Yes, and we would rather do so. People learn on the harness they will actually wear, the faults found during inspection are real, and you get an honest view of the state of your kit. Tell us what you are issued with when you enquire.

It is not a formal prerequisite, but it is sensible for boom platform operators, because recognised guidance recommends a harness with a restraint length lanyard in boom type platforms. Plenty of firms run the two together so operators understand the equipment as well as the machine.

No. The assessment is carried out at low level, with fitting, adjustment, inspection and connection to a suitable anchorage. That keeps the training itself safe while still assessing the things that decide whether the equipment works when it matters.

NPORS courses are priced per course, not per person. What you are paying for is the instructor, the registered tester and the machine time, so the figure turns on four things: the category, which route your operators need (novice, experienced, conversion or refresher), how many people are coming, and whether we run it on your site or at one of ours. It is also why a squad works out considerably cheaper per head than sending operators out one at a time. Use the course builder on this page: tell it who is coming and it works out how many days the course takes and how many times it has to run, which is what the price is built from. Then ask us and you will get a figure for that exact group rather than a list price with conditions attached.

We run NPORS courses across the UK rather than out of one fixed centre, and for most categories the better answer is that we come to you: your operators are assessed on the machine they will be using anyway, nobody loses a day travelling, and for a group it costs less. If you would rather come to us, we have centres at Trent House in Stoke, Pride Park in Derby, Europa House in Manchester and Kingsway House in Liverpool. Tell us where the work is and we will say honestly which way round makes more sense.

There is no fixed timetable to wait for. NPORS courses here are run to order, which means the dates are built around your programme rather than ours, and a single operator or a full squad can normally be booked in within a couple of weeks. If you have a card about to expire or a start date to hit, say so when you enquire and we will work to it.