& 
NPORS Safe Working at Height Training (N404)
Falls from height remain the single biggest cause of death on UK sites, and most of them are short falls that nobody thought needed planning. Half a day covers the Work at Height Regulations, the hierarchy that says avoid before prevent before minimise, and how to pick and check the equipment you are actually given. Up to ten people at a time, run on request.
Why candidates choose Acadame
What makes our N404 Safe Working at Height different
About this course
The NPORS N404 Safe Working at Height category is the short, practical grounding for anyone whose job takes them off the ground. Work at height means any place where a person could fall a distance liable to cause personal injury, which includes work below ground level and does not depend on a minimum height. The point of the half day is to make that definition real: the short falls from a stepladder, off the back of a lorry or through a fragile roof light do more damage than most people expect.
The session covers the Work at Height Regulations 2005 and the duties they place on employers and on the people doing the work, then the hierarchy of control: avoid working at height where you can, prevent a fall with a guarded platform or a tower where you cannot, and only then minimise the distance and consequence with collective protection or a personal fall arrest system. It runs through selecting the right access equipment for the task and the duration, pre use inspection of ladders, stepladders, podiums, towers and harnesses, and the defects that take a piece of equipment out of service on the spot.
It also covers the parts people skip. Fragile surfaces and roof lights. Edge protection and holes. Dropped objects and the exclusion zone below. Weather. And rescue, because putting someone in a harness without a plan to get them down again is not a control measure. NPORS allow ten candidates with one instructor, so it works well as a site wide half day.
- What counts as work at height in law, why there is no minimum height, and where the duties sit under the Work at Height Regulations 2005
- The hierarchy of control in the order it is meant to be applied: avoid, prevent, then minimise the distance and consequence of a fall
- How to choose access equipment that matches the task, the duration and the ground, from a stepladder to a podium to a mobile tower
- Pre use inspection of ladders, towers, podiums, harnesses and lanyards, and the defects that take equipment out of use immediately
- Fall arrest against work restraint, anchor points, clearance distances and why a harness is the last resort rather than the first
- Fragile surfaces, unprotected edges and holes, dropped objects, exclusion zones below, weather limits and the need for a rescue plan
How completing this course helps you
- The NPORS N404 Safe Working at Height category, registered with NPORS and recognised nationally
- An NPORS card in the category, carrying the CSCS logo while your CITB Health, Safety and Environment test is in date
- The ability to challenge a bad set up rather than climb it, and to say why
- Evidence for your employer that the people working at height have been trained, which is a specific duty under the regulations
Who should attend?
Groundworkers, plant operators, fitters, maintenance staff, roofers' labourers, scaffold users, warehouse and yard staff, utilities crews and anyone who climbs a ladder, stands on a tower or works near an edge. It suits a whole gang taken together, because the value is in everybody using the same language about what is acceptable. It is a general grounding rather than an operator ticket for a particular machine: for MEWPs, mast climbers and mobile towers there are separate NPORS categories.
Entry requirements. There are no formal entry requirements and no prior experience is needed. You should be physically capable of working at height, able to follow spoken and written English for the theory test, and fit enough to climb and to wear a harness where the practical involves one, though interpreters can be arranged on request. Anyone with a medical condition that affects balance, blackouts or the ability to be rescued from height should speak to their employer first. 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.
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.
Course content
What you will cover
A classroom session on the law and the hierarchy, then hands on with the access equipment and personal protection you use, with the theory and practical assessed inside the half day.
The law, the hierarchy and the risk
- Work at Height Regulations 2005 and the duties on employers and on individuals
- What counts as work at height, and why there is no minimum height in the definition
- The hierarchy of control: avoid, prevent, minimise
- Risk assessment and method statements for work at height, and who writes them
- Access equipment types and where each is appropriate: ladders, stepladders, podiums, towers, MEWPs and scaffolds
- Collective protection against personal protection, and fall restraint against fall arrest
- Fragile surfaces, edges, holes, dropped objects and exclusion zones below
- Emergency and rescue planning, and why suspension in a harness is time limited
Choosing, checking and using the equipment
- Selecting the right equipment for a given task and duration
- Pre use inspection of ladders, stepladders and podium steps
- Setting up, footing and securing a ladder, and the three points of contact rule
- Inspecting a harness and lanyard, fitting it correctly and choosing an anchor point
- Checking clearance distances so a fall arrest system has room to work
- Setting the exclusion zone below and securing tools against dropping
Method of assessment
How the N404 safe working at height test works
NPORS assess the category by theory test and a practical check. Both sit inside the half day, and up to ten candidates can be trained and tested together.
1. Enquiry and group
Tell us how many people, where, and what they work off: ladders, towers, roofs, back of vehicle, or a mixture. Up to ten sit it at once. We quote per group.
2. Pre course check
We confirm who is a novice and who is on a refresher, check whether the CITB Health, Safety and Environment test is in date for the CSCS logo version of the card, and take the details NPORS need.
3. Training
A classroom session on the regulations and the hierarchy of control, using real incidents rather than slides full of law, then straight to the equipment.
4. Theory test
The NPORS theory test covering the regulations, the hierarchy, equipment selection, inspection and rescue.
5. Practical check
You select equipment for a task, inspect it, set it up and use it correctly, including fitting a harness and choosing an anchor point where the practical involves one.
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 carries the CSCS logo.
After the course
Where the half day stops and a machine ticket starts
The N404 is a grounding, not an operator ticket. It teaches people to choose, check and use access equipment sensibly and to challenge a bad set up. It does not qualify anybody to operate a specific machine. If your people are going up in a boom or a scissor lift, they need the MEWP categories. If they are working from a mobile tower they need the tower category, and if they are relying on a harness as their main protection, the harness and fall arrest category goes much deeper into anchors, clearance and rescue than half a day allows.
Where the training is tied to a card, 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, which we book for you. Outside construction, in manufacturing, utilities, waste and ports, the traditional NPORS card without the logo is usually the sensible choice and we will say so.
- N723 Harness and Fall Arrest where a harness is the main protection
- N711 Safe Use of Stepladders and Ladders for crews mainly working off ladders
- N108 MEWP Boom and N109 MEWP Scissor where people go up in a machine
- CITB Health, Safety and Environment test booked with us for the CSCS logo version of the card
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.
N404 Safe Working at Height FAQs
Half a day, for the novice route and the refresher alike. NPORS allow up to ten candidates with one instructor, so a full gang can be covered in a morning or an afternoon.
No. The NPORS test sheet shows no experienced worker route for this category. There is the half day course and a half day refresher, and that is it.
No. Work at height means any place where a person could fall a distance liable to cause personal injury, and that includes work at or below ground level. Short falls cause a great many serious injuries, which is exactly why the definition is written that way.
No. It is a general grounding in working at height safely. Operating a boom or a scissor lift needs the MEWP categories, a mobile tower needs the mobile scaffold category, and a mast climbing work platform needs the N119. We will tell you which one your work actually needs.
Yes, at the level a half day allows: fall restraint against fall arrest, fitting a harness, choosing an anchor point, clearance distance and why there must be a rescue plan. If a harness is the main thing standing between your people and a fall, book the harness and fall arrest category instead, which goes much further.
An NPORS card in the N404 Safe Working at Height category. It carries the CSCS logo where you also hold a CITB Health, Safety and Environment test pass taken within the last two years. Outside construction a traditional NPORS card without the logo is often the better fit.
Yes, and for this one it is worth it. People learn to inspect the ladders, towers and harnesses that are already in your van and on your site, and to spot the ones that should have been binned. There are no scheduled dates: we run it when it suits you.
Most sites work on a refresher when the card comes up for renewal, and sooner if the work changes or something goes wrong. The refresher is another half day.
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.
From the blog
Course guides and news
The latest plain-English guides to choosing the right course, card or qualification.
Training for a team?
One contact for all your workforce training
Book this course for a group at your site or ours, roll it into a managed training plan and let us handle the scheduling, certificates and renewals.