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NEBOSH HSE Certificate in Health and Safety Leadership Excellence
One day for directors, senior managers and business owners. Written by NEBOSH with the Health and Safety Executive, and aimed squarely at the thing that actually sets safety culture, which is what leaders do rather than what the policy says.
Why candidates choose Acadame
What makes our Health and Safety Leadership Excellence different
About this course
Safety culture is set at the top, and everybody says so. This is the one day qualification that treats that as a practical problem rather than a slogan. It was developed by NEBOSH in collaboration with the Health and Safety Executive and it is built around the five HSE leadership values.
It is not a technical course. It does not teach risk assessment methodology or the detail of the regulations, and it is not trying to. What it does is look at the business case for health and safety leadership, the human factors that shape how people actually behave, and the specific things a leader can do differently on Monday morning.
The human factors content is the part senior people tend to find most useful: bias, habit, mental shortcuts and human failure. Once you understand why a competent person takes a shortcut, the conversation about why the procedure was not followed changes shape entirely.
Assessment is not an examination. You complete reflective statements through the day and produce a personal leadership intervention plan, which means you leave with something specific you intend to change rather than a certificate and a good feeling.
We run it at our centres and, more often, onsite for a whole leadership team. A board going through this together produces better conversations than one director going alone, which is generally how organisations use it.
- The business case for health and safety leadership, in terms a board actually responds to
- The five HSE leadership values and what each looks like in practice
- Human factors: bias, habit, mental shortcuts and human failure
- Why competent people take shortcuts, and what that says about the system rather than the person
- How leadership behaviour shapes safety culture, for better and for worse
- Worker engagement and consultation, and the difference between the two
- Recognising the gap between the safety you have written down and the safety you actually have
- Building a personal leadership intervention plan you will follow through
How completing this course helps you
- The NEBOSH HSE Certificate in Health and Safety Leadership Excellence, at SCQF Level 6
- A personal leadership intervention plan, written by you, for your own organisation
- A working understanding of why people behave as they do rather than as the procedure says
- A leadership team that has had the same conversation at the same time, when run onsite
- One day out of a senior diary
Who should attend?
Directors, senior managers, business owners and aspiring leaders who influence how health and safety is managed. It also suits operational leaders who set the tone on a site, and health and safety professionals who need to get their board engaged and want a shared language to do it with.
Entry requirements. None. No previous health and safety qualifications are required. There is no formal workplace assessment either: you reflect on your own leadership role and your own organisation during the day rather than submitting external evidence.
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
Leadership Excellence is not a technical qualification
This course changes what leaders do. It does not make anybody technically competent in health and safety, and it is not intended to. If your board needs somebody who can write a risk assessment and defend it, that is a different qualification.
The usual shape in a well run organisation is both. The senior team holds Leadership Excellence so that the tone from the top is deliberate, and the health and safety lead holds the National General Certificate or higher so there is real technical competence behind it.
Where organisations get this wrong is assuming one covers the other. A board with strong safety leadership and no competent person is exposed. A competent person with a disengaged board is ignored.
Directors and senior managers
Leadership Excellence. One day, developed with the HSE, and it ends with a plan.
Managers with operational duties
IOSH Managing Safely, three days, for the practical basics of managing risk in a team.
Your health and safety lead
The NEBOSH National General Certificate, which is the technical competence the whole arrangement rests on.
Course content
What you will cover
The qualification is structured around the management of health and safety and the practical application of risk assessment.
Health and safety leadership excellence
- The business case for health and safety leadership
- The five HSE leadership values
- Human factors: bias, habits, mental shortcuts and human failure
- How leaders shape safety culture and behaviour
- Worker engagement and consultation
- Reflective statements completed through the day
- A personal leadership intervention plan
Method of assessment
How the Leadership Excellence Certificate is assessed
No examination. Assessment happens through the day and produces something you can use.
Reflective statements
Completed as you go through the day, applying each part of the content to your own leadership role and your own organisation.
Personal leadership intervention plan
A plan for a specific change you intend to make. This is the deliverable, and it is why the course works better with a leadership team in the room than with one person.
No written exam
There is no closed book paper and no external practical submission. The assessment is the reflective work and the plan.
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 Health and Safety Leadership Excellence 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
Health and Safety Leadership Excellence FAQs
Directors, senior managers, business owners and aspiring leaders who influence how health and safety is managed across an organisation. It is written for people who set the tone rather than people who write the procedures.
Yes. NEBOSH developed it in collaboration with the Health and Safety Executive, and it is built around the five HSE leadership values. That provenance is part of why it carries weight in a boardroom.
There is no examination. You complete reflective statements through the day and produce a personal leadership intervention plan, so the output is a specific commitment rather than a mark.
One day, and it sits at SCQF Level 6 as a NEBOSH HSE Certificate.
No. There are no entry requirements and no previous qualifications are assumed. The content is about leadership and human behaviour rather than technical health and safety.
That is how it works best, and it is how most organisations book it. A board that has had the same conversation on the same day tends to act on it. One director attending alone comes back with a plan and no mandate.
If technical competence is the gap, the NEBOSH National General Certificate. If practical risk assessment quality is the gap, the NEBOSH HSE Award in Managing Risks and Risk Assessment at Work. If the gap is line management, IOSH Managing Safely across your supervisors.
Yes. Gold is the top NEBOSH learning partner tier and it is awarded by NEBOSH against their own criteria for delivery, support and learner experience. It is not a self declared badge.
A named Individual Learning Advisor and our embedded eLearning portal. The advisor plans 1:1 sessions around the assessment points, reviews your progress and prepares you for submission. The portal carries structured revision and study material you can use in your own time.
Yes. Acadame is an ELCAS approved provider and NEBOSH qualifications are eligible, so Enhanced Learning Credits can be put towards the course. Mention it when you enquire and we will handle the paperwork with you rather than sending you away to work it out.
Our centres in Stoke-on-Trent, Derby, Manchester and Liverpool, live online from the UK, and onsite at employers’ own premises nationwide. Through our partner network we can also open up local options where none of those suit.
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