One aspect of our business is Social Care and, following initial staff training in moving and assistance techniques (people handling), we then provide refresher training on an annual basis. In another area we provide manual handling training, which is more to do with safe lifting techniques - this is for staff working in the 'non care' side of our business (handymen, cleaners, catering etc). We have not, as yet, established what kind of timescale the refresher training for this is. Obviously there is no prescriptive timescales for refresher training but I would be interested to know the thoughts of others regarding how often refresher training should be carried out for manual handling training. Also...do you think we have set a precedent by providing annual refresher for 'moving and assistance' training? Regards FH

I would suggest it goes back to the initial risk Assessment for the tasks and you would need to consider the hazards involved and the level of risk. The other thing to consider is how often individuals are likely to be undertaking the manual handling tasks? If they are doing it regularly they should get into good practice and refresher training could be done less frequently, if they undertake the tasks rarely then it may be they are more likely to forget their training (I'm certain someone will now argue the opposite) but it's a point to consider. 3 years seems a long cycle to me as there is a lot of change that can take place in that time. The other thing to consider is whether you need to have a formal refresher training session or whether you can arrange regular toolbox talks on subjects related to manual handling that act as a refresher and can be delivered by Supervisors or Managers every couple of months. This needs only to be 10 - 15 minutes and provided it is recorded may well be enough to keep people safe and your organisation legally compliant.

Much is dependant on the risk associated with the task, changes in legislation, equipment used or methods of work. Add to this the level of reported injuries or incidents. 2 yearly = higher risk 3 yearly = medium risk 5 yearly = low risk This would be a resonable approach based upon all undertaking an initial 1 full days training.

One point I will make on this training, or any other safety training : make sure that the managers/supervisors are among the first to be trained or retrained. If they don't know the best techniques, how can they help their employees to correct errors or reinforce good practice ? And if the employee ask the boss "how do i do this ?" and the boss can only say "dont know, I haven't been trained." where are you ? Merv