Facilities: managing contractors and permits to work (Great Britain)
For facilities coordinators, office and operations managers, and supervisors who arrange, host or oversee contractors on premises they control. No prerequisites; 'Facilities requests, contractor visits and key control' covers the front-desk side of visits. You'll identify the health and safety side of a job, check a contractor's competence in proportion to the risk, coordinate risk assessments and site information, decide when a permit-to-work is needed and check what a permit contains, manage permits through suspension, shift handover and hand-back, and supervise and review the work, including when CDM 2015 client duties apply. Jurisdiction: Great Britain, based on HSE guidance and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999; if you work elsewhere, check the rules that apply where you are. This course is awareness and coordination training. It doesn't make you an issuing authority, competent person or principal designer, and it isn't legal advice: your organization's procedures and its competent advisers decide.
- Level
- Intermediate
- Length
- About 105 minutes
- Contents
- 5 lessons · final exam
- Status
- Published · updated 10 Oct 2026
Skills you'll practise
- Identify the health and safety implications of a contracted job and check the contractor's competence in proportion to the risk
- Coordinate risk assessments with a contractor and give them your site's risks, rules and emergency procedures
- Decide when a permit-to-work is needed and check a permit contains the essential elements HSE lists
- Manage permits during the work: display, suspension, shift handover and hand-back
- Supervise contractor work in proportion to the risk, stop it when needed, review it afterwards, and recognise when CDM 2015 client duties apply
Course outline
- 1.Identify the job's health and safety implications and check the contractor's competenceLesson · 20 min
- 2.Coordinate risk assessments and give the contractor your site's risks, rules and emergency proceduresLesson · 18 min
- 3.Decide when a permit-to-work is needed and check what a permit containsLesson · 20 min
- 4.Manage permits during the work: display, suspension, shift handover and hand-backLesson · 17 min
- 5.Supervise in proportion to the risk, stop work when needed, review afterwards, and recognise CDM 2015 dutiesLesson · 20 min
- 6.Facilities: managing contractors and permits to work (Great Britain): knowledge checkKnowledge check · 13 questions
- 7.Facilities: managing contractors and permits to work (Great Britain): practical exerciseKnowledge check · 1 question
- 8.Final exam10 questions · passing it completes the course, so people who already know the material can test out
Sources it draws on
The lessons and questions are written from these references, so learners can go back to the original.
- HSE INDG368(rev1): Using contractors: A brief guide
- HSE publication page: Using contractors: A brief guide (INDG368)
- HSE HSG250: Guidance on permit-to-work systems (2005)
- HSE publication page: Guidance on permit-to-work systems (HSG250)
- HSE COMAH technical measures: Permit to work systems
- The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, regulation 11 (legislation.gov.uk)
- HSE INDG411(rev1): Need building work done? A short guide for clients on CDM 2015
- HSE: The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015
- HSE L153: Managing health and safety in construction (CDM 2015 guidance), publication page
- HSE: Managing risks and risk assessment at work
See it with your own jobs and topics
Tell us about your team and we'll walk you through setup, from choosing jobs to your first skills check.