Posted By Kieran J Duignan Sean Yes, a 'competent' person can provide training in manual handling. At the same time, a 'competent' person would be very unlikely to ask the questions you've raised other than for rhetorical reasons. A practical benchmark in cases like this is to remember that claims of personal injury arising from manual handling easily result in court hearings and to ask: how well would this 'competent' person respond under cross-examination by a hostile barrister intent on winning damages for an injured employee.

Posted By Phil Davies I have been wondering the same thing. I sat the 4 day train the trainer course and have the certificate etc. Now a friend has asked me to conduct some basic training in their place of work, something I'm looking forward to, but am I now qualified to train outsiders, and if so, would it be appropriate to draw up some form of certificate for their records? (or is there somewhere you can purchase certificate formats)? Regards

Posted By Kieran J Duignan Harry You assert: 'Most questioners, if armed with the right questions and years of practice, can destroy the credibility of witnesses - been there, and been destroyed.' Maybe you're right.....I wonder what evidence other than television supports this observation. In courts, by and large the Civil Procedure Rules of the Department for Constitutional Affairs ensure that any 'destruction' is effectively self-destruction, as a 'competent' witness is entitled to indicate whenever an issue is outside their remit and/or knowledge. While I've faced some extremely aggressive barristers, I certainly haven't felt much threat that they would succeed in 'destroying my credibility': after all, I was much better educated in the fields they were examining me about (musculo-skeletal and stress disorders) and have found that a court recognises how triple chartership supports my assertions more than hectoring by barristers (which panels are faced with almost every day of the week). The issue of this thread is 'competence', which at present is fuzzy enough for the IOSH to formally press the HSE to define it more precisely. As things stand, you can either rely on the approach set out in the ACOP associated with the Management of Health and Safety Regs as a basis for assessing yourself; or study the HR and occupational psychology literature on the subject.

Posted By Kieran J Duignan Perhaps there's an important personality issue about confidence in relation to different tasks. For some, including me, delivering training can be more daunting than a court appearance. To relate this to Sean's concern: a great way to develop competence as a trainer about manual handling is to invite another experienced trainer to observe you (without comment during the trainer) and to discuss his/her observations with you afterwards. If you feel anxious, you might also agree in advance that he/she might let you know at 'half-time' if you have scored any 'own goals'.