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COSHH Spill Kit Training
Half a day on the kit in the corner. Most spill kits are bought, mounted and never opened until the day of the spill, which is the worst possible time to read the instructions.
About this course
A spill kit is one of the few pieces of safety equipment that is guaranteed to be used under pressure by somebody who has never used one. The contents are unfamiliar, the packaging is usually sealed, and the first instinct with a spreading spill is to reach for a mop.
This half day fixes that by opening the kit. People handle the absorbents, learn what a sock does that a pad does not, find out which absorbent is wrong for which substance, and practise containing and cleaning up a simulated spill from start to disposal.
It also covers the decisions around the clean up: when a spill is yours to deal with and when it is an evacuation, what to do about drains, how to protect yourself, and the reporting that follows. A spill that reaches a surface water drain is a pollution incident and it is treated very differently from a puddle on a workshop floor.
Finally it covers restocking, because a used kit that nobody refilled is the reason the next spill goes badly.
- What is in a spill kit and what each item is actually for
- General purpose, oil only and chemical absorbents, and why using the wrong one makes it worse
- Socks, pads, cushions, booms and granules, and when each earns its place
- Deciding whether to contain and clean up, or to evacuate and call for help
- Protecting yourself first: RPE, gloves, eye protection and ventilation
- Containing a spill and protecting drains and gullies
- Cleaning up in the right order, and the mistakes that spread a spill
- Bagging, labelling and disposing of contaminated material as hazardous waste
- Reporting: internally, and to the environmental regulator where a spill escapes
- Restocking the kit, checking it, and siting it somewhere people can actually reach
How completing this course helps you
- An Acadame certificate in COSHH Spill Kit Training
- People who have opened a spill kit before the day they need one
- Fewer small spills turning into pollution incidents
- A kit that gets checked and restocked rather than assumed
Who should attend?
Anybody likely to be first on the scene of a spill: warehouse and yard staff, workshop and maintenance teams, cleaners and facilities staff, transport and fuel handling crews, laboratory and process operatives, and the supervisors who will be asked what happened.
Entry requirements. None. It assumes no previous training and it is written for the people doing the work rather than the people writing the policy.
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.
Worth pairing
Spill kit training works best on top of COSHH awareness
The two sit together. COSHH awareness teaches people what the substances do and why the controls exist. Spill kit training teaches them what to do when a control fails and there is a pool of it on the floor.
Run on its own, spill kit training still works, and for a warehouse or yard team it may be all that is needed. Run after COSHH awareness, it lands harder, because people already know why the substance on the floor matters.
A good many employers run both across a single day at their own site, using their own substances and their own kit. That is usually the best value version of this.
Understand the substances
COSHH Awareness. Half a day on what you hold, what it does and how it is controlled.
Rehearse the failure
Spill kit training. Half a day with the kit open and a spill on the floor.
Check the kit quarterly
A used or expired kit is the commonest reason a small spill becomes a big one. Put the check on somebody's list.
Course content
What you will cover
The qualification is structured around the management of health and safety and the practical application of risk assessment.
Before the spill
- The substances you hold and what each one does if it escapes
- Safety data sheets and the spill response section
- Types of spill kit: general purpose, oil only and chemical
- Contents: socks, pads, cushions, booms, granules, bags and PPE
- Siting, checking and restocking the kit
The response
- Assess first: what is it, how much, where is it going
- Raise the alarm and decide whether to evacuate
- Protecting yourself: RPE, gloves, eye protection and ventilation
- Stopping the source where it is safe to do so
- Containing the spill and protecting drains and gullies
- Absorbing and cleaning up in the right order
After the spill
- Bagging, labelling and storing contaminated material
- Hazardous waste disposal and the duty of care
- Decontaminating equipment and the area
- Reporting internally and to the environmental regulator
- Restocking the kit and reviewing what happened
Method of assessment
How spill kit training is assessed
Assessment is built into the session rather than bolted on. Your trainer checks understanding as you go and there is a short written check at the end.
Practical spill exercise
A simulated spill worked through from assessment to disposal, using a real kit. Everybody handles the absorbents rather than watching.
Written check
A short paper at the end of the session covering absorbent selection, drain protection and waste disposal.
Certificate
An Acadame certificate on completion, with a recommended refresh every three years.
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 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 COSHH Spill Kit 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
COSHH Spill Kit FAQs
They cover different ground. COSHH awareness is about preventing exposure and using controls. Spill kit training is about the practical response once something has escaped, which is a hands on skill people do not pick up from a folder.
Yes, and it is the version we recommend. Opening your own kit in front of your own team routinely finds the wrong absorbent type for the substances you hold, or a kit that was used months ago and never restocked.
Broadly, when a substance escapes to the environment: a surface water drain, a watercourse, or uncontained ground. The thresholds and the reporting route depend on the substance and the nation you are in, and the course covers how to work out quickly whether you are in that territory and who to ring.
Yes. Oil only absorbents, drain protection and the pollution reporting duties get proper time, because fuel and oil are the spills most likely to reach a drain and become an incident rather than a mess.
Acadame. It is general awareness training rather than a regulated qualification, which is the right shape for this subject: it is built around what your people actually do and it can be adapted to your own equipment, substances and procedures. Where a regulated qualification is what you need instead, we will say so and point you at it.
Yes, anywhere in the UK, and it is usually the better option. Training on your own equipment, in your own building, with your own procedures in front of people, transfers to the job in a way a generic venue does not.
Up to twelve on a standard session. For practical subjects we will talk through numbers with you, because a room of twenty watching two people practise is not training.
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