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NPORS Appointed Person Training (N401)
The Appointed Person is the one person BS 7121 holds responsible for planning a lifting operation and making sure it is carried out safely. Five days takes you from the law to a finished lift plan, method statement and risk assessment you have written yourself and defended. We run it on request, at your site or at a venue near you, for up to six candidates at a time.
Why candidates choose Acadame
What makes our N401 Appointed Person different
About this course
The NPORS N401 Appointed Person is the lift planning category. LOLER regulation 8 requires every lifting operation to be properly planned by a competent person, appropriately supervised and carried out in a safe manner, and BS 7121 Part 1 names the Appointed Person as the one with that responsibility. This is the course that evidences it.
Over five days you work through the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, LOLER 1998, PUWER 1998 and BS 7121, then apply them: crane types and their duties charts, ground bearing pressure and outrigger loadings, load weight and centre of gravity, sling angles and accessory selection, exclusion zones, proximity hazards, overhead lines and buried services, and the weather limits that stop a lift. The written work is the point of the course. You produce a lift plan, a method statement and a risk assessment, then talk them through and defend the decisions.
The Appointed Person plans and appoints. The Crane Lift Supervisor runs the lift on the day against that plan, the crane operator works the machine and the slinger signaller attaches the load and directs the crane. Most sites want all four roles evidenced, which is why buyers usually book the N401 alongside the N402 and the N405.
- What LOLER regulation 8 and BS 7121 Part 1 actually require of a competent person planning a lift, and where the responsibility stops and starts
- How to select the right crane for the job from duties charts, radius, height, load weight and centre of gravity, and what a rated capacity indicator is telling you
- Ground conditions, outrigger loadings, mats and spreaders, and how to work out whether the ground will take the machine
- Accessory selection and safe slinging: sling angles and the load they put on each leg, shackles, beams, eyebolts, certification and pre use inspection
- How to write a lift plan, a method statement and a risk assessment that a site will accept, including exclusion zones, communication and emergency arrangements
- How to brief the lifting team, what a standard lift is against a complex one, and when a lift needs a new plan rather than a tweak
How completing this course helps you
- The NPORS N401 Appointed Person category, registered with NPORS and yours to use nationally
- An NPORS Red Trained Operator card, or a Blue Competent Operator card where you hold the relevant NVQ, carrying the CSCS logo once your CITB Health, Safety and Environment test is in date
- A lift plan, method statement and risk assessment you wrote yourself, ready to take back to the job
- Evidence for a client or principal contractor that your lifting operations are planned by a named competent person
Who should attend?
Site managers, agents, lifting supervisors, crane co-ordinators, plant managers and experienced slingers and crane supervisors who are stepping up to planning. It also suits engineers in steelwork, precast, modular, utilities and demolition who specify lifts, and anyone whose contract names them as the Appointed Person for lifting operations. If you already hold the N402 or the N405 you will recognise a good deal of the ground, and the five days will feel like a natural progression rather than a fresh start.
Entry requirements. You should be at least eighteen, fit enough to work on an operational site and able to follow written English well enough to produce a lift plan, because the written work is assessed. There is no requirement to hold a slinger signaller or crane supervisor card first, though candidates who do find the week easier, and NPORS expect enough crane and lifting experience to make sense of duties charts and load data. For the version of the card that carries the CSCS logo you need a CITB Health, Safety and Environment test pass taken within the last two years, which we book for you. Bring your date of birth and National Insurance number for the NPORS registration.
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Course content
What you will cover
Four days of classroom and yard work on the law, the machines, the accessories and the planning, then a test day covering theory, the written lift plan and a practical assessment.
The law, the crane and the plan
- Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, LOLER 1998 and PUWER 1998 as they apply to lifting
- BS 7121 Part 1 and the other parts: mobile cranes, lorry loaders, tower cranes and overhead travelling cranes
- The roles in a lifting team and who carries which duty: appointed person, lift supervisor, crane operator, slinger signaller
- Crane types, configurations, duties charts, radius and rated capacity indicators
- Load weight, centre of gravity, lifting points, sling angles and the forces they create
- Lifting accessories, their marking, certification, pre use inspection and thorough examination
- Ground conditions, outrigger loadings, mats, spreaders and proximity hazards including overhead lines and buried services
- Writing the lift plan, method statement and risk assessment, and briefing the team
Planning and controlling a real lift
- Site visit and survey: access, egress, ground, services, exclusion zones and neighbouring works
- Selecting the crane and the accessories from the load data and the site constraints
- Producing the lift plan, method statement and risk assessment for that job
- Briefing the lifting team and confirming everybody understands their part
- Controlling and monitoring the lift, including the conditions that stop it
- Reviewing the operation afterwards and recording what changed
Method of assessment
How the N401 appointed person test works
NPORS assess the Appointed Person on paper and in practice, because planning is the skill being tested. Continual assessment runs through the week, then the test day covers a theory paper, the written planning exercise and a practical assessment.
1. Enquiry and group
Tell us how many candidates, where you want the course and what you lift. Up to six candidates sit the N401 with one instructor. We quote per group, because the length and the venue follow who is on it.
2. Pre course check
We confirm each candidate's lifting background, check whether the CITB Health, Safety and Environment test is in date for the CSCS logo version of the card, and take the date of birth and National Insurance number NPORS need.
3. Four days of training
Classroom on the law, the crane and the accessories, mixed with yard and site work. Case studies of lifts that went wrong, and load and stability exercises worked through until they are second nature.
4. The planning exercise
You write a lift plan, method statement and risk assessment for a real job, then present and defend them. This is the part most candidates find hardest and the part sites care about most.
5. Theory and practical test
The NPORS theory paper, then a practical assessment in which you survey the site, position the crane, brief the team and control the lift.
6. Registration and card
We register the pass with NPORS and apply for your card. With a valid CITB Health, Safety and Environment test it comes with the CSCS logo on it, as a Red Trained Operator card or a Blue Competent Operator card if you hold the relevant NVQ.
After the course
The rest of the lifting team, and the card that gets you on site
A lift plan is only as good as the people who carry it out. Most employers who book the N401 book the N402 Slinger Signaller at the same time, because the plan you write names a slinger and a signaller and the site will ask to see their cards. The N405 Crane Lift Supervisor is the third piece: the person who runs your plan on the day and stops the job when the ground, the wind or the load is not what you planned for. We can run all three for the same group, in a sequence that suits the work.
On the card itself, the NPORS category is the qualification and the CSCS logo is separate. The logo version needs a CITB Health, Safety and Environment test pass taken within the last two years, and we book that for you. Without an NVQ the card is a Red Trained Operator card; with the relevant NVQ it becomes a Blue Competent Operator card and runs for five years. A traditional NPORS card without the logo suits work outside construction, in ports, utilities, manufacturing and offshore.
- N402 Slinger Signaller for the people attaching and directing the load
- N405 Crane Lift Supervisor for the person running your plan on the day
- CITB Health, Safety and Environment test booked with us for the CSCS logo version of the card
- Refresher at one day when the card comes up for renewal
Build your course
Who is coming, and how many
We do not run these to a timetable. The course is built around your people: how experienced they are and how many of them there are, which is what sets the length and the cost. Pick the mix and we will come back with a date and a price.
The course builder needs JavaScript. Without it, tell us how many people and what experience they have and we will price it up.
N401 Appointed Person FAQs
Plans the lifting operation and takes responsibility for it being carried out safely. That means assessing the job, selecting the crane and the accessories, working out the ground and stability, writing the lift plan, method statement and risk assessment, appointing the lift supervisor, slinger and signaller, and briefing them. BS 7121 Part 1 names the role and LOLER regulation 8 is the legal duty behind it.
No, there is no formal prerequisite. In practice most candidates come from the lifting team already, and NPORS expect enough crane and lifting experience to read a duties chart and understand load data. If you have never been near a lift, tell us at enquiry and we will talk honestly about whether the N402 first is the better start.
Five days for a novice, with four days of training and a test day. NPORS allow up to six candidates with one instructor and one machine. The refresher is one day, also up to six.
Yes. There is an NPORS theory paper, and you also produce a lift plan, method statement and risk assessment which are assessed. There is a practical assessment on top, where you survey the site, position the crane, brief the team and control the lift.
The NPORS N401 category. Without an NVQ that is a Red Trained Operator card; with the relevant NVQ it is a Blue Competent Operator card valid five years. Either one carries the CSCS logo only while you hold a CITB Health, Safety and Environment test pass taken within the last two years. A traditional NPORS card is available for work outside construction.
The refresher is a single day and covers changes to BS 7121 and LOLER, then the theory, planning and practical tests. Book it before the card runs out rather than after, because an expired card usually means going back through the full five days.
Yes, and most groups prefer it. We come to you with the course, and you use your own cranes, your own accessories and your own jobs, so the lift plans written on the week are ones you will actually use. If you would rather not lose the plant for five days we arrange a venue near you instead.
Yes. Buyers usually need the whole lifting team, not one role. We sequence the N402 Slinger Signaller, the N405 Crane Lift Supervisor and the N403 Vehicle Marshal around the N401 so a crew is covered in one visit, and quote the group as a whole.
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.
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