Accident Investigation Training

Our 2 or 3 day consultant-led, IIRSM-approved Accident Investigation Training Course is designed to enhance delegates’ knowledge and understanding of accident investigation in a proactive safety culture.

The course is designed to support your organisation in saving money by reducing injuries.

As this course is consultant-led, not trainer-led, it is an immensely powerful experiential learning platform. This is not the course for you if you’re looking for a purely compliance-based/box-ticking approach.

OCAID Accident Investigation Training Course

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At a Glance

  • This course is designed to be delivered in-house
  • Content will be tailored to your organisation
  • We deliver the course at your work premises or at a venue you choose – throughout the UK and globally
  • Size: We recommend 6 to 12 delegates
  • Course duration: 2 or 3 days

What does it cover?

This 2 or 3 day modular course is designed to introduce delegates to accident investigation training in a proactive safety culture. The programme has an interactive style and is designed to meet the needs of organisations who want to find the real root causes why accidents and incidents are occurring in their organisation, along with gaining a deeper understanding the importance of investigation. 

This course will enhance delegates knowledge and understanding of accident investigation. The course is specifically designed to ultimately support the organisation to save money by reducing injuries. This will come about by learning from the lessons from past accidents, promoting best practice. Hence the importance of accident investigation.

The style in which accident investigations are undertaken is a key factor in developing an organisation’s Safety Culture. Investigations looking only for culpability and adding further traditional control measures will only embed any tendency for system obsession. In contrast an investigation looking at factors which might trigger sub-optimal behaviours with a view to making the safe way easy to follow will develop both the safety culture and employee engagement.

Section 1 – Introduction

This section begins by introducing and defining the concept of an “incident” and some reasons why we should investigate incidents. It also establishes for the delegates what investigations are/are not about. Key stages to the investigation process are introduced in brief detail here, to be covered by the remainder of the course in more detail.

Section 2 – Human Factors

This section introduces delegates to the broad topic of human factors, indicating the type of features that exist within companies, where the design of the system can affect human reliability for the better of worse. This is the basis of Just Culture, where understanding that sub-optimal design will inevitably encourage human errors and/or violations is important to identify which human factors influenced the incident.

Section 3 – Gathering Evidence

This section teaches delegates about the practical step necessary to ensure accurate collection of evidence from the scene of the incident. The level of detail required will vary depending on the nature of the incident, but there are key steps and concepts to follow for all incidents. The importance of keeping an open mind at this stage is emphasised and avoiding the temptation to make the evidence fit any expectations that you may have. As part of the evidence collection process, technique for conducting witness interviews is covered in considerable detail.

Section 4 – Analysis

Once the evidence has been collected, an investigator/ team must be able to objectively analyse the information to determine what happened. This section covers key techniques (e.g. task analysis; ABC analysis; 5 whys and others) which can assist in a logical and objective breakdown and organisation of the facts to understand what went wrong and therefore the best way to correct it. The techniques will teach delegates about determination of immediate and root causes. This should reveal which parts of the company systems (e.g. communications, procedures, equipment and so on) could have influenced behaviours and under the philosophy of Just Culture, the best course of corrective action.

Section 5 – Making Recommendations

This section covers how to make practical and effective recommendations in a clear and transparent manner, linking them logically to the immediate and root causes of the incident, not simply apportioning blame and administering discipline when system issues are the issue.

Section 6 – Report Writing

Once the incident has been adequately investigated and analysed, all the information must be carefully and logically recorded in a report, which finishes with recommendations which can be traced directly to the immediate and root cause(s).

Section 7 – Providing Feedback

Delegates will learn that once the investigation is complete and the report has been written and agreed, feedback should be provided to the personnel directly involved. The pros and cons of different methods and styles of feedback will be discussed here and the need to maintain confidentiality during the feedback.

Section 8 – Investigation Exercise

Once the delegates have learned the theory of conducting investigation they will work through the steps using a safe example. This practical experience throws up questions that may not have occurred during the theory and helps the delegates to gain confidence in their ability before applying their new knowledge back at base.

Who should attend our Accident Investigation Training Course?

This course is suitable for:

  • Health & Safety Professionals
  • Line managers at all levels with a responsibility for investigating accidents and incidents

What’s in it for you?

As this masterclass is consultant-led, not trainer-led, it is an immensely powerful experiential learning platform.

This is an interactive workshop where delegates are encouraged to fully participate though group exercises, individual assessments and challenging discussions.

Investigating an accident thoroughly in the right style is pertinent to the organisation because it will support the business in preventing future accidents, reduce current rate of accidents, improve employee production, and competency.  

Immediate

  • Increased understanding of requirements for compliance
  • Knowledge of how to begin planning for deployment

Intermediate

  • Reduced injuries
  • Heightened familiarity about the importance of Accident investigation
  • Additional understanding of how the style of how one conducts Accident Investigation affects people in the organisation
  • Improved theoretical knowledge and understanding of Accident Investigation

Underlying

  • Improved bottom line
  • Empowered and competent staff who strive for higher standards
  • Industry leaders via lessons learnt from investigations as well as promoting best practice to external organisations

Materials/Certification

All delegates will receive:

  • Workbook with a copy of the course slides and plain notes pages for delegates to personalise and make notes
  • A copy of Total Safety Culture by Dr. Tim Marsh
  • IIRSM-approved course certificate

The level of engagement and understanding of each candidate will be informally assessed by the lead consultant. Post course examination is available on request for an additional fee.

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