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Id Examiners Guidance2742012251040 PDF
Id Examiners Guidance2742012251040 PDF
Diploma Examiners
Guidance - Unit D
CONTENTS
Introduction
2011 NEBOSH, Dominus Way, Meridian Business Park, Leicester LE19 1QW
tel: 0116 263 4700
email: info@nebosh.org.uk
website: www.nebosh.org.uk
The National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health is a registered charity, number 1010444
T(s):exreps/UnitD/UnitD
EXTERNAL
JP/DA/REW
Introduction
NEBOSH (The National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health) was formed in 1979 as
an independent examining board and awarding body with charitable status. We offer a comprehensive
range of globally-recognised, vocationally-related qualifications designed to meet the health, safety,
environmental and risk management needs of all places of work in both the private and public sectors.
Courses leading to NEBOSH qualifications attract over 25,000 candidates annually and are offered by
over 400 course providers in 65 countries around the world. Our qualifications are recognised by the
relevant professional membership bodies including the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health
(IOSH) and the International Institute of Risk and Safety Management (IIRSM).
NEBOSH is an awarding body to be recognised and regulated by the UK regulatory authorities:
NEBOSH follows the latest version of GCSE, GCE, principal learning and project code of practice
published by the regulatory authorities in relation to examination setting and marking (available at the
Ofqual website www.ofqual.gov.uk). While not obliged to adhere to this code, NEBOSH regards it as
best practice to do so.
Candidates scripts are marked by a team of Examiners appointed by NEBOSH on the basis of their
qualifications and experience. The standard of the qualification is determined by NEBOSH, which is
overseen by the NEBOSH Council comprising nominees from, amongst others, the Health and Safety
Executive (HSE), the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and
the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH). Representatives of course providers, from
both the public and private sectors, are elected to the NEBOSH Council.
This report provides information on the performance of candidates which it is hoped will be useful to
candidates and tutors in preparation for future submissions. It is intended to be constructive and
informative and to promote better understanding of the syllabus content and the application of
assessment criteria.
NEBOSH 2011
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Guidance
Assignment Brief
Candidates are required to carry out a detailed review of the health and safety performance
of a workplace or organisation and to produce a justified action plan to improve performance.
The assignment will require the candidate to apply the knowledge and understanding gained
from their studies of elements of Units A, IA, B, IB, C and IC in a practical environment and to
carry out critical analysis and evaluation of information gathered during the review. The level
of work should be that expected of a competent occupational health and safety practitioner
working within any organisation.
The report should include:
an introduction that sets the scene by stating clear aims and objectives and a
description of the methodology employed to carry out the assignment;
an overview of the current health and safety management arrangements in which the
candidate should critically review the health and safety management system;
a survey of a wide range of significant hazards or activities within the workplace. The
candidate should prioritise the identified hazards or activities and, depending on the
nature and extent of identified hazards or activities, for each of two of the hazards,
one physical and one appropriate to health and welfare, carry out a risk assessment.
This should include an evaluation of the effectiveness of the organisation in
controlling the risk arising from the hazards or activities identified and proposals to
further control the hazard(s) and reduce risks;
conclusions which summarise the main issues identified in the candidates work
together with justified recommendations for improvement;
It is important that a suitable workplace upon which the assignment research will be based is
chosen.
The workplace should be large enough to provide both an opportunity for the review of the
health and safety management system and a sufficiently large range of significant hazards in
the areas covered by Units B, IB, C and IC to provide an adequate range for identification
and prioritisation. Candidates who have difficulty identifying a suitable workplace should ask
their tutor for advice.
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If the organisation is very large, in order that the assignment is manageable the candidate
should limit the area considered. In such circumstances it might be more appropriate to
consider a department or division of the organisation rather than the organisation as a whole,
although obviously, the health and safety management system will probably be that adopted
by the whole organisation.
Candidates should ensure that they understand fully the requirements of the brief and are
recommended to prepare an outline plan of their approach that can be discussed with a tutor.
While it would not be appropriate for tutors to give specific information on content, their role is
to ensure that the candidate is heading in the right direction for example, they may
comment on whether the candidate has chosen a suitable workplace or situation that
satisfies the brief and will give sufficient scope to achieve the necessary breadth and depth of
content required at Diploma level.
Before attempting the Unit D and ID assignment it is necessary for candidates to be fully
conversant with key elements of the syllabus for Units A, IA, B, IB, C and IC. To facilitate this
learning process it is essential that candidates hold regular discussions with their tutor(s)
throughout the period of their studies, and complete the Assignment Log provided in the
NEBOSH Unit D and ID Candidate Guidance, which are available from the NEBOSH website. There is strong evidence to suggest that candidates who perform better in Unit D and
ID use the Assignment Log from the very beginning of their studies, and at appropriate points
on their learning journey. Candidates who complete their Assignment Log retrospectively at
the end of their studies will obtain little or no benefit, and may well struggle to perform well in
Unit D and ID. Course providers are requested to ensure that candidates use their
Assignment Logs accordingly.
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Executive Summary
The executive summary should provide a clear and concise overview of the important points
arising from the work contained within the main body of the report and summarise the main
conclusions and recommendations arising. It is important that the executive summary is
written in a style and format which will allow it to be read quickly and easily by the intended
audience senior managers and executives.
Some candidates provide half page executive summaries which fail to cover the content
required. At least one full page is required to do justice to the summary. In contrast some
candidates try to include more content by reducing the font size, which will lead to maximum
marks not being awarded for this section of the report. Candidates should stick to the allowed
one side of A4 paper, using a single-spaced Arial 11 font size (or similar) and 2cm print
margins.
There is a particular need for candidates to demonstrate their ability to write in a concise and
persuasive manner when composing their executive summaries. This section should grab
the attention of the reader and provide them with a clear sense of what is happening in terms
of health and safety management, what more needs to be done and why it is so important to
take action.
Executive summaries are often well done, and the highest marks are given to candidates
who clearly and concisely gave an overview of the report and its conclusions and
recommendations. Exemplary reports often include a well structured executive summary.
Introduction
The introduction provides a foundation for the report and enables the reader to place the
following information and judgements in context. Most candidates provide a good or
satisfactory introductory section, however, some omit clearly stated aims and objectives and
provide limited information on methodology. Properly written aims, objectives and
methodology sections are the key to producing a good assignment. Valuable marks can
easily be obtained in this section by candidates properly outlining what they intend to do and
how they are going to do it. The aims and objectives should also be checked on completion
of writing the report to ensure that the candidate has done what they intended to do at the
outset.
Better submissions show evidence of candidates putting a lot of thought into developing a
clear and concise aim explaining and justifying the purpose of the report. They also
developed a set of meaningful objectives for the report, which could be used throughout the
writing / preparation of the report to sense check their own progress.
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Those candidates who then go on to explain their chosen methods, explaining and justifying
basic principles as they did so, achieve good marks in this area. Clear statements of what
research has been carried out, which models have been chosen and why, are most useful
and are usually evident in better reports.
In this section Examiners are looking for a description of the chosen workplace/organisation
and an outline of the essential features of the legal environment within which the
workplace/organisation operates. There is no need for candidates to spend vast amounts of
effort on describing their chosen workplace in minute detail, and there is definitely no need
for copious amounts of information on the chosen workplace, its history or its management
systems to be included in the appendices. Better submissions keep the general description of
the chosen workplace relatively short and concise and relevant to the assignment brief. It is
important that working arrangements, work environment, shift patterns and peripatetic worker
activities are covered in this section.
For Unit D submissions an outline of the principal legal (statute, common, civil and criminal)
and other requirements within which the organisation operates should be included. Some
candidates produce a list of the various laws and regulations, but only the better submissions
attempt to apply these legislative requirements to their workplace as required. Candidates
are required to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of relevant statutes,
regulations, ACoPs, standards and guidance and outline these in the context of the
development of an effective health and safety management programme. An exhaustive list of
statutes, regulations and case law is not expected.
Many candidates outline criminal law issues in the introduction, with the better submissions
explaining the organisational context and the relevance of such acts and regulations to the
chosen organisations activities. Those candidates who score particularly well in this section
ensure that they give time and effort to identifying and explaining the relevant civil cases,
giving clear and accurate references to carefully selected case law. Better submissions paint
a balanced picture of the criminal and civil organisational context.
Candidates submitting Unit ID assignments are required to outline the legal framework
(governmental and non-governmental) requirements within which the organisation operates.
Candidates are required to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the relevant
legal framework and most importantly the ability to put these in the context of the
development of an effective health and safety management programme.
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The gap analysis section requires candidates to assess their chosen organisations health
and safety management systems against a recognised model such as HSG65. Better
submissions clearly identify shortcomings in the chosen health and safety management
systems against such a standard, carrying forward these identified gaps into the
recommendations and action plans required later in the report. Better submissions often
summarise the gaps identified in tabular format, which is a useful technique and allows
candidates to display the gaps, required improvements and priorities in a clear and concise
manner.
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Candidates should avoid using their companys risk assessment templates, without checking
them for completeness and adequacy beforehand. Inclusion of risk assessments completed
many months prior to the relevant submission date is not acceptable, particularly if there is
evidence that such templates were not completed by the candidate themselves. Risk
assessments submitted for this assignment should be the candidates own original work.
Good submissions ensure that gaps and areas for improvement from the main body of the
report are carried forward into the final part of the report. The conclusions should refer to
things identified in the main body, and recommendations should be similarly rooted in things
discussed earlier in the report. Recommendations should then be carried forward into the
respective action plans, where consideration should also be given to priorities, costs, time
scale and how and when progress against the plans will be reviewed.
Conclusions
Some candidates do not refer back to aims and objectives when writing their conclusions.
Many do not include their findings and fail to summarise them, whilst many others include
recommendations and other suggestions for improvements in their conclusions. Candidates
should carry out Quality checks on the work done, and refer back to their aims and
objectives, critically assessing in their conclusion whether they have met their own aims and
objectives.
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Concluding Comments
The information above should give some clear pointers to candidates and course providers
regarding the successful completion of Unit D and ID assignments. This information
complements other published guidance from NEBOSH. The main points to remember are:
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