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NPORS Confined Spaces, High Risk Training (N702)
High risk means the hazards cannot be eliminated or controlled to the point where the atmosphere can be trusted. Working breathing apparatus is worn throughout, the entry is often non standard and hard to reverse, and a rescue capability has to be there before anybody goes in. This is the deep end and the training reflects it.
Why candidates choose Acadame
What makes our N702 Confined Spaces High Risk different
About this course
This is the high risk tier of the NPORS N702 Confined Spaces category. A high risk space is one where the hazards cannot be eliminated or controlled to the point of making the atmosphere safe, so respiratory protection is required throughout the entry and formal rescue provision must be in place. Entries are often non standard: restricted openings, traverses, long horizontal runs, multiple levels or geometry that makes getting a casualty out difficult and slow.
The legal framework is the same as at the other tiers and the pressure on it is much greater. The Confined Spaces Regulations 1997 concern substantially enclosed spaces where a specified risk is reasonably foreseeable: fire or explosion, loss of consciousness from increased body temperature, loss of consciousness or asphyxiation from gas, fume, vapour or lack of oxygen, drowning from a rising level of liquid, or asphyxiation from a free flowing solid or from entrapment. HSE's hierarchy still applies, and at this tier the first duty deserves the most attention: avoid entry where the work can reasonably be done another way, because a high risk entry is expensive, slow and genuinely dangerous, and a remote or external method is often available if somebody asks the question early enough.
Where entry is unavoidable, the training covers what that actually requires. Gas detection and continuous monitoring with the atmosphere understood rather than sampled. Isolation, purging and ventilation and confirming they have worked. Self contained working breathing apparatus: checks, donning, air management, duration, working in a mask and leaving with a margin. Harnesses, lines, tripods, davits, winches and traverse arrangements. The entry controller and the permit. And the rescue capability: who, with what, how quickly, rehearsed against the specific space rather than described in general terms.
- The Confined Spaces Regulations 1997, the definition of a confined space and the specified risks the Regulations are concerned with
- Why avoiding entry deserves most of the planning effort at this tier, and the remote and external methods that can replace it
- Safe systems of work: risk assessment, method statement, permit to work, isolation, purging and forced ventilation, and confirming they have achieved what the plan assumed
- Atmospheric hazards and gas detection: oxygen deficiency and enrichment, flammable and toxic gas, instrument checks, bump testing, pre entry testing at depth and continuous monitoring
- Self contained working breathing apparatus, air management and duration, working with restricted vision, and non standard entries through restricted openings, traverses, long runs and multiple levels
- Emergency arrangements and rescue provision: the team, the equipment, the method and the time, rehearsed against the actual space, and the entry controller's permit and authority to refuse or stop an entry
How completing this course helps you
- The NPORS N702 Confined Spaces category recorded at the high risk tier, registered with NPORS and recognised nationally
- An NPORS card recording the category and tier, carrying the CSCS logo while the holder's CITB Health, Safety and Environment test is in date
- Entrants who manage their air and leave with a margin, and controllers who will not authorise an entry without a workable rescue
- A realistic picture of what a high risk entry costs, which is often the argument for not making one
Who should attend?
Water and wastewater operations, chemical and process plant, energy generation and waste to energy, oil, gas and fuel storage, tank and vessel cleaning specialists, marine and shipyard work, deep tunnelling and shaft work, and the supervisors, entry controllers and safety staff who plan and authorise those entries. It is a specialist tier and it is not the right answer for a crew whose spaces are chambers and pits.
Entry requirements. You should be at least eighteen, medically fit for work in breathing apparatus and confined spaces, clean shaven where a tight fitting facepiece is used and face fit tested for the apparatus you will wear, and able to follow spoken and written English well enough for the theory test. Medical fitness is a real requirement at this tier and your organisation should have arrangements for assessing it. Experience at the lower tiers is normally expected before somebody comes to this one. For the version of the card that carries the CSCS logo, the holder needs a CITB Health, Safety and Environment test pass at the level their role requires, which we book for you.
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Course content
What you will cover
Classroom on the Regulations, the hierarchy, the atmosphere and the rescue requirement, then extended practical work in breathing apparatus, on non standard entries and on rescue and retrieval.
The Regulations, the hazards and the rescue requirement
- The Confined Spaces Regulations 1997, the definition of a confined space and the specified risks the Regulations are concerned with
- The duty to avoid entry where the work can reasonably be done another way, and what that means in practice
- Safe systems of work: risk assessment, method statement, permit to work, isolation, purging and ventilation
- Emergency arrangements that must be in place before entry, and why calling the fire service is not by itself a rescue plan
- Atmospheric hazards: oxygen deficiency and enrichment, flammable gas, toxic gas, and how they accumulate and stratify
- Gas detection: instrument checks, bump testing, pre entry testing, continuous monitoring and alarm response
- What places a space in the high risk tier, and the alternatives to entering it at all
- Working breathing apparatus, air management, non standard entry and the rescue capability required before entry
Breathing apparatus, entry and rescue
- Instrument checks, pre entry testing at depth and continuous monitoring of the atmosphere
- Confirming isolation, purging and ventilation before committing to the entry
- Pre use checks, donning and functional testing of self contained working breathing apparatus
- Working in apparatus with restricted vision, managing air and leaving with a margin
- Making a non standard entry, including a restricted opening or a traverse
- Acting as entry controller, running the permit, the log and communications
- Carrying out a rescue and retrieval from the space, including with a casualty in apparatus
Method of assessment
How the N702 confined spaces, high risk test works
NPORS assess the category by theory test and practical test at the tier being trained. The practical involves extended work in breathing apparatus and a rescue, which is why the group sizes and the duration are agreed carefully.
1. Enquiry and group
Tell us how many people, where, what spaces they enter, how those spaces are classified, what apparatus and rescue equipment you hold and what experience the group already has. The length and group size are confirmed when we quote.
2. Pre course check
We check medical fitness arrangements and face fit testing, confirm the group's experience at the lower tiers, check apparatus and rescue equipment are serviceable and in date, agree the card you need, book the CITB test where it applies, and take the details NPORS need.
3. Training
The Regulations and the hierarchy, the atmosphere, apparatus and air management, non standard entry and rescue, then extended practical work.
4. Theory test
The NPORS theory test covering the Regulations, specified risks, safe systems of work, emergency arrangements, atmospheric monitoring, breathing apparatus, air management and rescue provision.
5. Practical test
You test the atmosphere, check and don working breathing apparatus, make a non standard entry under air management, control an entry and take part in a rescue and retrieval, against the NPORS criteria.
6. Registration and card
We register the pass with NPORS and apply for your card, recorded at the high risk tier, with the CSCS logo where the holder's CITB test is in date.
After the course
The best high risk entry is the one that was designed out
Nobody who has spent a day in working breathing apparatus in a restricted space comes out enthusiastic about doing it again. That is a useful result, because the first duty in the Regulations is to avoid entry where the work can reasonably be done another way, and a great many high risk entries survive only because nobody asked the question early enough. Remote inspection, robotic and camera survey, external cleaning methods, designed access on new assets and planned shutdowns that let a vessel be made safe are all cheaper than an entry, and all of them are a great deal safer.
Where entry genuinely cannot be avoided, the thing to test is the rescue. Not the document, the capability. Who is on site, what they have, how long it would take them to get a casualty in apparatus out of that specific space, and when they last did it. If nobody can answer that with confidence, the entry is not ready, whatever the permit says.
- The medium risk tier for crews whose entries are controlled and use escape apparatus rather than working apparatus
- The low risk tier for well ventilated chambers with simple access
- Level 3 NVQ in Occupational Health and Safety for the people who plan entries and write the safe system of work
- CITB Health, Safety and Environment test booked with us where the CSCS logo version of the card is needed
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.
N702 Confined Spaces High Risk FAQs
Hazards that cannot be eliminated or controlled to the point where the atmosphere can be trusted, so respiratory protection is required throughout the entry and formal rescue provision must be in place. Entries are often non standard, through restricted openings, along traverses or into geometry that makes getting a casualty out slow and difficult.
We confirm it when we quote. The NPORS test sheet we work from has no row for this category, and published durations for the high risk tier vary from around three days to considerably more depending on the provider and the content, so we ask what your spaces and apparatus are and what experience the group has, and set the length from that.
Normally yes. Working in breathing apparatus in a restricted space is not a place to learn the basics of gas testing, permits and entry discipline. We will talk through the group's experience at enquiry, and if people are not ready for this tier we will say so rather than take the booking.
Adequate and workable before the work starts, which at this tier normally means a rescue capability on site with people, equipment and a method rehearsed against the actual space. A plan that relies on the emergency services arriving is not an adequate arrangement for a casualty in a confined space, and the course is blunt about it.
Yes, and arguably it is essential for them. The people who write the safe system of work and authorise the permit need to understand what they are asking for, how long air lasts, how hard a rescue actually is and what a non standard entry means in practice. Where health and safety is somebody's actual job rather than part of it, the Level 3 NVQ in Occupational Health and Safety is the qualification that evidences that role, and it sits alongside this training rather than replacing it.
Medical fitness for work in breathing apparatus and confined spaces is a genuine requirement, and your organisation should have arrangements for assessing it. Anyone wearing a tight fitting facepiece needs to be clean shaven at the seal and face fit tested for that apparatus. We will raise both at enquiry rather than on the morning of the course.
Where suitable structures and equipment are available, yes, and using your own apparatus and rescue kit is valuable. A great deal of high risk training needs purpose built structures for traverses and restricted openings, so we will often use a venue near you and bring your equipment into the training where we can.
It follows your risk assessments. Low risk for well ventilated chambers with simple access, medium where a specified risk is controlled and escape apparatus and retrieval are used, high where the hazards cannot be eliminated and working apparatus is required. Many organisations need more than one tier for different crews, and we will say which rather than sell everybody the highest.
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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