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NVQ Level 6 Occupational Health and Safety
The degree level competence qualification for the person who owns health and safety in an organisation: the policy, the risk, the monitoring, the culture, the review. Assessed on the management system you already run. No classroom and no exam. Register any week and go at your own pace.
Why candidates choose Acadame
What makes our Level 6 Occupational Health and Safety Practice different
About this qualification
The Level 6 Diploma in Occupational Health and Safety Practice is the degree level competence qualification for the person responsible for health and safety in an organisation: health and safety managers and advisers, HSQE managers, consultants with their own clients, and site or operations managers who carry the role alongside the day job. It is not taught. It records the management you already do: the legal framework you work to, the culture you build, the communication and competence systems you run, the risks you manage, the proactive and reactive monitoring you design, the emergency arrangements, the reviews, and how you keep current.
It is awarded by GQA Qualifications under qualification number 610/7376/3, at 110 credits, 643 guided learning hours and 1,100 hours total qualification time. Ten mandatory units plus one of two policy units: you either design and introduce an organisational health and safety policy, or you review and update one. You cannot do both, and which one you take depends on what your organisation actually needs from you. It replaced the older Level 6 NVQ Diploma, and most people still search for it as the Level 6 NVQ in health and safety.
Assessment is a portfolio of evidence from your own organisation, internally assessed by us and externally quality assured by GQA, with an observation of you at work and a professional discussion, most of it live and online by Zoom or Teams. There is no exam and no fixed duration: you register any week and finish as quickly as your work produces the evidence. It is the competence counterpart to a NEBOSH Diploma: the NEBOSH proves you know it, this proves you run it.
- Nothing new, if you already run the health and safety management system. The qualification records what you do rather than teaching it
- How to evidence practice at Level 6: what a policy revision, an audit programme, an investigation system and a board report each prove
- Where your system is thin, because ten units across policy, risk, monitoring, emergency, competence, communication, culture and review show up the gaps quickly
- Where the Level 7 sits, and whether you are already setting strategy across a business rather than running the system for one
How completing this qualification helps you
- The Level 6 NVQ Diploma in Occupational Health and Safety Practice, certificated by GQA
- Eligibility for the Black CSCS Manager card as a Senior Construction Health and Safety Manager, once you have passed the CITB Managers and Professionals test
- A Level 6 health and safety qualification, which is what IOSH ask for alongside two years of experience for Certified membership (CertIOSH), with Chartered membership following from there
- A portfolio that stands as evidence of degree level health and safety competence for employers, clients, tenders and insurers
Who is it for?
Health and safety managers, advisers and coordinators, HSQE and SHEQ managers, consultants, and site, operations or facilities managers who hold the health and safety role for an organisation or a business unit and have no formal qualification at this level. Also anyone with a NEBOSH Diploma or Certificate who wants the competence qualification to match it, and anyone working towards Certified or Chartered membership of IOSH.
Entry requirements. You must be 18 or over, with access to an organisation that lets you generate real evidence across every unit. GQA also require an initial assessment before you register, to confirm the role suits the qualification and that you can actually reach the standard; the check on this page is that assessment. There is no prior qualification requirement. If you apply the system in your own area rather than own it, the Level 3 is the honest fit.
Ready to find out if you qualify?
The initial assessment takes a couple of minutes and nothing is typed: you click through what you do and what you can evidence, and it tells you the pathway, the level and what to gather. Or ask MB and get an answer straight away.
Initial assessment
Check you qualify, in a couple of minutes
Nothing to type. Click through what you do and what you can evidence, and it shows you which of the two policy units fits and the evidence your assessor will ask for across the other ten. It is about what you can evidence, not a test. GQA require an initial assessment before you register, so this is it, and you can email yourself a PDF of it.
The online check needs JavaScript. Without it, tell us what you do and we will run the initial assessment with you over the phone.
What you evidence
The units behind the qualification
Ten mandatory units plus one of the two policy pathway units, worth 110 credits in total, with 643 guided learning hours and 1,100 hours total qualification time. Nothing is taught: each unit is evidenced from the management system you run.
The ten units everyone completes (99 credits)
- L/652/1035 Principles of health and safety legislation and regulatory frameworks (13 credits, 50 GLH)
- M/652/1036 Promote a positive health and safety culture in your organisation (9, 90)
- Y/652/1039 Introduce and coordinate effective communication channels for health and safety information (11, 45)
- F/652/1040 Monitor and maintain individual and organisational competence in health and safety matters (9, 45)
- J/652/1042 Identify, evaluate and manage health and safety risks (9, 52)
- K/652/1043 Design and introduce proactive monitoring systems for organisational health and safety (9, 60)
- L/652/1044 Design and introduce reactive monitoring systems for organisational health and safety (9, 90)
- M/652/1045 Design and maintain response systems and procedures for dealing with health and safety emergencies (10, 53)
- R/652/1046 Review systems for organisational health and safety management (10, 36)
- T/652/1047 Research, evaluate and maintain current health and safety best practice (10, 60)
Then one policy unit, not both (11 credits)
- R/652/1037 Design and introduce an organisational health and safety policy (11 credits, 62 GLH). For the person writing the policy from scratch, or replacing one that no longer fits
- T/652/1038 Review and update an organisational health and safety policy (11, 62). For the person keeping an existing policy current, after an incident, a restructure or a change in the law
- GQA are explicit that you take one or the other. The initial assessment above works out which one your week evidences
Method of assessment
Assessment journey
Competence based, which means no exam and no written test. You build a portfolio of evidence from the management system you run, your assessor observes you working and you talk the knowledge through in a professional discussion, most of it live by Zoom or Teams. The online check above is your initial assessment; there is no separate skills scan.
1. Initial assessment, online
The questions you click through above are your initial assessment. They tell us whether you own the policy and the system or apply it, whether you have enough live work to evidence all ten units, and whether your role already points at the Level 7 instead.
2. Register with GQA
We register you with GQA Qualifications under qualification number 610/7376/3, on the policy pathway that fits. That registration can also release a temporary CSCS card in case you need one, once we have your health and safety test result report, a passport style photograph and the right postal address.
3. Evidence from your own organisation
The policy and the arrangements behind it, risk assessments and safe systems of work you control, inspection and audit programmes, accident and near miss investigation systems and statistics, emergency plans and drill records, training needs analyses and competence records, safety committee minutes, communications you issued, management review reports. Your assessor tells you exactly what each unit needs.
4. Workplace observation
Your assessor watches you work, by video call or on site where it needs it: a workplace inspection, a management review, an investigation, a briefing to managers, and records what they see against the standard.
5. Professional discussion
A recorded conversation about why you manage the way you do. It covers the knowledge criteria a document cannot show: the legislation behind the policy, why the monitoring is designed as it is, how you weighed cost against control, what a review changed.
6. Certificate, then the card
Internal quality assurance, then external quality assurance by GQA, then the certificate, which does not expire. Pass the CITB Managers and Professionals test and apply for the Black CSCS Manager card. If you want Certified membership of IOSH, the certificate and two years of professional experience are what IOSH ask to see.
After the qualification
The Black card, and IOSH membership
This qualification carries the Black CSCS Manager card. CSCS list it in their own Card Finder against the occupation Senior Construction Health and Safety Manager, so the route is not a matter of opinion: the certificate plus a pass in the CITB Health, Safety and Environment test for Managers and Professionals, taken within the last two years, and the card is yours for five years. It is the Managers and Professionals test, not the Operatives test and not the Specialist Supervisory test. We book the right one for you.
IOSH ask for a Level 6 health and safety qualification and at least two years of professional experience for Certified membership (CertIOSH), and say most Certified Members go on to Chartered (CMIOSH) within two to four years through their professional development assessment. This is a Level 6 health and safety qualification. IOSH assess each application on its own certificate and experience, so the application is yours to make; we give you the certificate and the portfolio that shows the practice behind it.
- CITB Health, Safety and Environment test, Managers and Professionals level, booked with us
- Black CSCS Manager card application, valid five years
- IOSH Certified membership (CertIOSH): this qualification plus two years of experience, applied for by you
- Level 7 Diploma in Strategic Health and Safety Leadership and Management as the step up
Level 6 Occupational Health and Safety Practice FAQs
Yes. Level 6 on the Regulated Qualifications Framework is the same level as a bachelor's degree. It is a competence qualification rather than an academic one, so it proves you can run the health and safety system rather than that you have studied it, which is what employers, clients and IOSH want from a practitioner.
Same level, different kind. The NEBOSH National Diploma is a knowledge qualification with exams. The NVQ is a competence qualification assessed on the management system you run. IOSH ask for a Level 6 health and safety qualification for Certified membership and count both kinds. If you already hold a NEBOSH Diploma the NVQ adds proof of practice; if you do not, the NVQ gets you to Level 6 without an exam.
No college and no exam. Everything is assessed on the system you already run, through a portfolio of your own documents, an observation and a professional discussion, most of it by Zoom or Teams. There is no fixed duration: you register any week and the qualification is led by you. Most practitioners finish inside a year alongside the job, and someone with a mature system and a full audit file can be much quicker.
Yes. CSCS list this qualification in their own Card Finder against the occupation Senior Construction Health and Safety Manager, and it returns the Black Manager card. You need the certificate and a pass in the CITB Health, Safety and Environment test for Managers and Professionals within the last two years. Some providers are vague about this, so check it yourself on the CSCS Card Finder before you believe anyone, including us.
IOSH ask for a Level 6 health and safety qualification and at least two years of professional experience for Certified membership (CertIOSH), and Chartered (CMIOSH) follows through their professional development assessment. This is a Level 6 health and safety qualification. IOSH assess each application on the certificate and the experience together, so check with their membership team if your case is unusual.
The Level 3 is assessed on applying the system in your own area: risk assessments, procedures, monitoring, investigations. The Level 6 is assessed on owning it: the policy, the monitoring and review systems, competence across the organisation, emergency arrangements. The Level 7 is assessed on setting strategy across a business at board level: risk based management systems, culture, sustainability, business risk. The initial assessment on this page tells you which before you pay.
Documents you already produce: the policy and its arrangements, risk assessments and safe systems you control, audit and inspection programmes, investigation systems and accident statistics, emergency plans and drill records, training needs analyses, safety committee minutes, management review reports. Consultants evidence it from their clients' systems, with the client's agreement, and evidence can come from more than one organisation. Your assessor maps each item to a unit and tells you what is missing.
Yes. Employers can be invoiced and interest free instalments are available on every qualification. CITB grant may be available to CITB registered employers, and ELCAS funding if you are a service leaver or veteran. We check what applies to you before you commit.
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