Manual Handling Course

The Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (SHWW) Act 2005 places a duty on every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the safety, health and welfare at work of all his employees. This includes provision of the appropriate information, instruction and training. Most work requires some form of manual handling and the SHWW (General Application) Regulations 2007, Part 2, Chapter 4, Manual Handling of Loads describe the specific legal re-quirements relating to this. These include the requirement for every employer to take appropriate measures to avoid manual handling and where manual handling cannot be avoided:

• Take appropriate measures to reduce the risk,
• Re-organise workstations, and
• Ensure that employees who are involved in manual handling receive information, instruction and training on safe manual handling.

Course objectives

The principal objective of the course is to ensure delegates carry out manual handling in a safe manner. To ensure this, the course will impart an understanding of:

• The economic and health benefits of safe manual handling,
• How to assess manual handling tasks,
• How to implement the correct method of lifting ensuring minimal risk to self and co-workers,
• How to safely execute all relevant workplace manual handling tasks.

Course programme

The programme covers the following elements:

• Legislative requirements
• Anatomy and the causes of Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs)
• Prevention of MSDs
• Types and principles of safe manual handling
• Manual handling practicals and risk assessment
• Assessing manual handling performance
• Good posture and ergonomics,
• Current back care concepts
• Strength and flexibility training

The practicals cover all site- and task-specific manual handling work as per FETAC requirements.

Who should attend

Under the Manual Handling Regulations, any employee carrying out any form of manual handling must receive instruction in manual handling theory and correct manual handling technique in order to perform this safely.

In-House courses

All courses are available in-house. Biologiq can run in-house courses either at business premises or at a location of choice. We also customise courses according to organisation’s requirements.