Examiners Report

NEBOSH National
Diploma in
Occupational Health
and Safety - Unit D
Examiners Report Guidance
NEBOSH NATIONAL DIPLOMA IN
OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY

NEBOSH INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMA IN

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY

Unit D and ID Assignments

CONTENTS

Introduction 2

Unit D and ID Assignments 3

2011 NEBOSH, Dominus Way, Meridian Business Park, Leicester LE19 1QW
tel: 0116 263 4700 fax: 0116 282 4000 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 Scottish Qualifications Authority
(SQA).

Where appropriate, NEBOSH follows the latest version of the GCSE, GCE, Principal Learning and
Project Code of Practice published by the regulatory authorities in relation to examination setting and
marking. 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 on the examination provides information on the performance of candidates which it is
hoped will be useful to candidates and tutors in preparation for future examinations. It is intended to
be constructive and informative and to promote better understanding of the syllabus content and the
application of assessment criteria.

NEBOSH 2012

Any enquiries about this report publication should be addressed to:

NEBOSH
Dominus Way
Meridian Business Park
Leicester
LE19 1QW

tel: 0116 263 4700

fax: 0116 282 4000
email: info@nebosh.org.uk

Unit D & ID Examiners Report Guidance 2/9

 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;

a description of the chosen workplace/organisation to set a context for the

assignment. The candidate will need to consider the legal framework within which the
workplace/organisation operates;

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;

a costed and prioritised action plan for implementation of the candidates

recommendations in each of the two areas;

an executive summary of the report.

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.

Unit D & ID Examiners Report Guidance 3/9

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 web-
site. 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.

Unit D & ID Examiners Report Guidance 4/9

What Examiners are looking for

Those candidates who perform well in Unit D and ID evidently follow the detailed guidance
mentioned above very closely. It is clear that they understand and apply the requirements of
the said guidance to structure their report, often using the guidance content to produce
section headings in their work. It is disappointing, though, that far too many candidates fail to
follow the guidance provided by NEBOSH.

The following additional information includes many of the most common (and most easily
avoided) problems being continually repeated by some candidates.

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.

Unit D & ID Examiners Report Guidance 5/9

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.

Review of the Health and Safety Management System

Candidates are required to give an overview of the current health and safety management
system in their chosen workplace/organisation. Many candidates outline or describe a
generic health and safety model (such as HSG65) without making clear reference to their
own management system, and cannot therefore be awarded maximum marks. Candidates
who do this are generally unable to produce an adequate critical review of the organisations
health and safety management system. The brief requires candidates to compare their
current system with a recognised model and provide a clear systematic description of gaps
and where no gaps exist, for all areas of the management system, identify priorities for
improvement.

Reports awarded the highest marks usually include sections which clearly demonstrate the
writers understanding of chosen models for health and safety management systems. Better
reports outline the selected model before explaining the relevance of the models elements to
existing policy, arrangements, etc. A good working knowledge of HSG65 (or a similar model)
is essential for those candidates wishing to perform well.

Unit D & ID Examiners Report Guidance 6/9

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.

Hazards and Risk Assessments

Candidates need to identify 15 different hazards or more across the areas of Physical
hazards and Health and Welfare hazards. Some candidates fail to discuss the implications
of those hazards identified. Candidates often take great care to ensure that they have clearly
differentiated between Physical and Health and Welfare hazards, using the Unit B, IB, C
and IC syllabus content as a way of correctly categorising their hazards.

Risk assessments are usually found to be satisfactory, but some candidates fail to describe
their chosen risk assessment process or methodology. Risk quantification models are
sometimes included without adequate explanation of their meaning or the interpretation of
their relevance.

Higher scoring reports are those where candidates demonstrate a clear understanding of the
difference between the terms hazard and risk. Better submissions take a methodical
approach to breaking down and differentiating between work activities, hazards, risks and
possible outcomes. Candidates must be able to demonstrate their understanding of risk
assessment principles they should clearly explain the risk assessment process being used,
detailing how any ranking or scoring systems are used for comparison, prioritisation and
consideration of improvements required.

It is essential that candidates ensure that they select one Physical hazard and one Health
hazard for closer assessment using a recognised risk assessment approach. Some
candidates fail to score marks due to the selection of two Physical or two Health hazards
rather than one of each. Again candidates should use the Unit B, IB, C and IC syllabus
content as a way of correctly categorising their hazards and associated risk assessments.

Many candidates adopt an approach to risk assessment based on the HSEs 5 steps to risk
assessment, which may be appropriate in many circumstances, but it cannot be stressed
enough that in some situations this approach is not appropriate. The content of the diploma
syllabus outlines more detailed and technical approaches to assessing risks that should be
considered where an initial appraisal suggests risk may be significant. The classic examples
include the failure by some to use specific risk assessment tools for manual handling, noise
or hazardous substance assessments. The 5 Steps approach is not appropriate when
carrying out a CoSHH assessment. Those candidates who recognise the requirement to use
the correct risk assessment tool for the task in hand, and, as a result, demonstrate the
required level of depth, achieve good scores in this area.

When using the 5 Steps approach candidates must ensure that they place sufficient
emphasis and detail when identifying who might be harmed and how, rather than including
generic headings of groups of people or blandly stating staff, contractors and visitors.

Unit D & ID Examiners Report Guidance 7/9

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.

Recommendations and Action Plans

Recommendations sections should follow on from main conclusions in a logical manner, and
need to provide any indication of prioritisation, justification and Cost Benefit Analysis in
relation to the recommendations. The two action plans required should be separate from
each other, and must provide the information in a tabulated format with all of the relevant
headings included. Actions plans must also include some information relating to how and
when progress against the recommendations will be reviewed.

Planning and Presentation

Although the standard of presentation of many reports is generally fair, some candidates
reports are let down by some simple omissions and mistakes. Candidates should run a
spelling check on their reports and ask an independent lay person to read the report before
submission. In some instances the reports are difficult to read and use too many
unnecessary tables or images. The inclusion of scanned copies of handwritten work or flip
charts should be avoided. Reports need to be properly formatted, with pagination, headers
and footers, section headings being included.

It is important to remember that the intended audience for this type of report is senior
managers, and, as such, should be clear, concise and well structured throughout. Some
reports are far too long with unnecessary or unrelated information included.

Unit D & ID Examiners Report Guidance 8/9

References and Research

Some reference sections are poorly produced and many reports do not give any indication or
evidence of research done. Better submissions make clear reference to text books, ACoPs or
Guidance Notes used in their reports, clearly citing the details of the reference (full title, ISBN
number, date of publication, publisher, etc.) at the appropriate point in their reports.

It is not appropriate to just include a long and generic list of legislation or texts, which may
have been gleaned from course notes. There is clear advice on the use of suitable
referencing systems in the NEBOSH Guide, and candidates should ensure that they are
capable of using a tried and tested referencing convention.

Diploma Accredited Course Providers

Providers should ensure that candidates carry out the required level of planning and
preparation for the completion of their assignment reports, and that candidates complete their
assignment logs at relevant points during their studies. Providers should provide a critical
review of the work being done by their respective candidates and should ensure that
information available from NEBOSH relating to Unit D and ID reports is brought to the
attention of all candidates. Providers should also ensure that candidates who do not speak
English as their first language are given a sufficient level of additional support in the
production of their assignments.

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:

Write the reports in a clear and concise manner

Use the mark scheme to help structure reports
In the introduction state what is to be done and how
Be clear about the differences between hazards and risk
Check that at least 15 hazards are identified
Check that two highest priority hazards are identified
Ensure that two selected hazards are not both Physical or both Health and Welfare
Use the most appropriate risk assessment tool for the two chosen hazards
Include information on review periodicity and mechanisms
Include cost benefit justifications for recommendations
Support main recommendations with a persuasive argument for implementation
Check accuracy and clarity of references.

Unit D & ID Examiners Report Guidance 9/9

The National Examination
Board in Occupational
Safety and Health

Dominus Way
Meridian Business Park
Leicester LE19 1QW

telephone +44 (0)116 2634700

fax +44 (0)116 2824000
email info@nebosh.org.uk
www.nebosh.org.uk