CITB Director’s Role for Health and Safety (DRHS)

Course Information

The Directors’ role for health and safety (DRHS) is a one-day interactive course that has been designed for company directors and senior managers active in a health and safety strategic role in the built environment, with the aim of recognising directors’ duties of care and the implications of non-compliance with health and safety legislation.

CITB Director’s Role for Health and Safety (DRHS) Course Overview

The course will provide a summary of how to promote a positive organisational culture for health and safety. Group exercises throughout the day will give delegates the opportunity to discuss their thoughts about health and safety and their responsibilities in an open forum. The DRHS course is endorsed by Build UK as the standard training for all senior managers (as specified above) and company directors.

DRHS Aims

The course aims to help directors to:

  • recognise the moral, economic and legal costs and implications of decisions made in the boardroom that may make their business liable
  • understand the significance of strategic management of risks
  • appreciate the range of consequences from failing to manage health and safety effectively
  • understand the importance of competent duty holders, and the significance of their cooperation, communication and coordination of health and safety on projects
  • recognise the need to appoint competent health and safety assistance, and the limitations of such an appointment, and
  • identify the basic tools to introduce a proactive health and safety culture into an organisation, and the benefits of this approach. 

Entry requirements

This course has been developed for directors and senior managers active in a health and safety strategic role in the built environment from any organisational size in construction, civil engineering or allied trades, and therefore this should be considered before enrolling delegates on to this course. Examples of relevant roles (not exhaustive) are:

  • Financial/Operations director
  • Senior quantity surveyor (QS)
  • Private QS
  • Principal designer
  • Senior/principal engineer 
  • Company secretary
  • Contracts manager
  • Senior project manager
  • Non-executive director

Delegates must be able to demonstrate the following: 

EITHER previously completed a CITB Director’s Role for Health and Safety course 

OR have a working knowledge of the following health and safety legislation with the anticipation that course content and the end of course assessment will require delegates to consider these legislations in context with a director’s role and responsibility: 

  • Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974
  • Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969
  • Construction (Design and Management) Regulations (CDM) 2015
  • Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.

To further support learners, CITB has created a DRHS eLearning, which provides the content for learning outcomes one and two. These learning outcomes may only be reflected on by the trainer in the trainer-led sessions, and learners will need to be confident to refer to this knowledge in class discussions and course exercises. 

The interactive course takes approximately 1.5 hours to complete, but you don’t have to do it all at once. You can close the eLearning at any time and, on your return, pick up where you left off. Your progress will be saved automatically. We recommend that you sit the course in 30-minute chunks. The pre-course eLearning is accessed via http://ecourses.citb.co.uk.

Training centres are highly recommended to include the above section of the appendix on any course marketing material and joining instructions, so that prospective learners (and their employers) can make an informed choice on whether they have suitable knowledge and experience to successfully complete the course. 

Delegates should hold, or be about to hold, the role of director or strategic senior role. Delegates must be competent in English at senior management level.  

Learner Numbers

The minimum number of delegates per course is 4.  The maximum number of delegates per course is 12.  These are stipulated by the awarding body and are not subject to appeal.

To book this course

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Assessment & Certification

Assessment

Assessment

Successful completion of the course requires delegates to:

  • Complete all three mandatory course exercises
  • Complete a personal review
  • Pass the trainer review and
  • Pass the two-part exam paper.

Trainer Review

The trainer review provides a pass or fail based on the delegate’s completed personal review and observations of the delegate’s performance in the course exercises and engagement in the course overall. Further details are provided in the Trainer reference. 

The trainer review must be completed before the end of course assessment. If a learner is assessed as failing the trainer review, then they are not permitted to sit the end of course assessment. 

Trainer feedback to the delegate’s personal review may be provided at the same time as the end of course assessment (i.e. within 48 hours of the end of course). Copies of the delegate personal review should be retained as per course records for audit purposes.

Exam details

The paper is in two parts, selected by CITB, which cover all aspects of the course:

Part A: Ten general questions based on the course

Part B: Ten questions associated with a case study. 

Questions in each part will be one of three formats:

Multiple choice questions worth 1 mark

Multiple response questions worth 2 marks

Short written answers worth 1 to 3 marks. 

Part marks are available for questions worth more than one mark. 

This exam paper must be taken at the end of the course. 

The examination pass mark is 80% (24 out of 30). 

The exam paper forms part of the overall assessment as to whether or not the delegate has successfully achieved the Director’s Role for Health and Safety Certificate and demonstrated knowledge of health and safety management responsibilities and liabilities. 

The examination lasts for 35 minutes and must be completed within this time under exam conditions. 

Delegates are permitted to use Book A – Legal and management: Construction site safety – The comprehensive guide (GE700As) for the last 15 minutes of the examination period.

Re-sits Procedure

Where a delegate has passed the trainer’s review and achieved at least 70% (21 out of 30 marks) in the examination, the delegate may re-sit the examination one further time. This can either be on the same day by resitting a different examination paper (that will be provided) or by resitting the exam by attending another course within a 90 day period (the delegate is not obliged to re-do the day’s course). This may be either completed remotely or in a face-to-face setting. 

The training provider must make the arrangements with the delegate and ensure that the same examination paper is not used twice. 

A charge may be made to the delegate; however, this fee is left entirely to the discretion of the training provider. The training provider may also have additional costs to be recovered from the delegate and this should be agreed in advance. 

Subsequent arrangements will be at the delegate’s own expense. 

Should a delegate fail this re-sit, they will need to complete the DRHS course in full again. 

When a delegate scores less than 67% (20 marks out of 30) in the final examination, the delegate must attend the full DRHS course again before they are allowed to re-sit the examination.

Certification

You will receive a CITB DRHS digital PDF Certificate valid for 5 years.

CITB Online Card Checker

https://www.citb.co.uk/cards-testing/online-card-checker/

CITB Site Safety Plus certificates awarded will be visible on the online card checker once the course paperwork has been processed.

CITB Site Safety Plus

More Details

Course Publication

Construction site safety – The comprehensive guide, A: Legal and management (GE700As) - Mandatory

Learning Outcomes                                                                                                          

Delegates taking the DRHS course should be able to achieve all of the learning outcomes listed below by the end of the course:

  • Leadership and worker engagement - Explain how good leadership and worker engagement can aid with protecting the workers and continually improve organisation risk management. 
  • Health and safety law - Describe the purpose of health and safety legislation and the different legislative requirements that must be followed to ensure this is achieved.
  • Plan, Do, Check, Act - Explain how to effectively plan for health and safety within an organisation.
  • Plan, Do, Check, Act - Explain how to implement a health and safety plan, including the key actions for leaders, managers and workers in an organisation.
  • Plan, Do, Check, Act - Explain how to monitor the effectiveness of health and safety arrangements and measure performance in an organisation.
  • Plan, Do, Check, Act - Explain how to review health and safety performance to ensure high standards are maintained and continually improved.