Identify hazards that a design decision can remove before construction, maintenance or demolition begins.
Occupational Health & Safety
Prevention Through Design for Architects, Engineers and Project Clients
Give architects, engineers and project clients a structured method for removing hazards at the design stage, from review workshops to a design risk register and safety file.
🗓️Duration5 training days
📚Content4 modules · 8 sessions
🎓On completionAccredited attendance certificate
About the programme
Course Overview
By the time a contractor is on site, the cheapest and most effective opportunities to remove a hazard have usually already been designed away, or designed in. This course is built for architects, engineers and project clients who influence a project before construction starts, and who carry duties for the health and safety consequences of their design decisions. Participants work through structured design review methods that surface access, maintenance, demolition and construction hazards while a design can still change cheaply, and learn to record residual risk in a design risk register and a health and safety file that a contractor can actually use. Sessions cover eliminating fall and manual handling hazards through layout and specification choices, using building information modelling to spot clashes and access problems before they reach site, and running a structured design review workshop with contractors and end users in the room. The course closes with client-side duties for appointing competent designers and contractors and checking that prevention through design was genuinely applied rather than documented after the fact.
Expected Learning Outcomes
Run a structured design review workshop that brings contractor and end-user input into early design stages.
Record residual risk in a design risk register that a principal contractor can act on.
Compile the health and safety information a contractor needs for the health and safety file.
Use building information modelling to identify access, clash and maintenance hazards before site works start.
Apply client duties for health and safety when appointing designers and contractors to a project.
Check that prevention through design was applied to a project rather than documented retrospectively.
Who Should Attend
Architects and building designers responsible for early-stage design decisions.
Structural, mechanical and electrical engineers specifying construction and maintenance methods.
Project clients and developers who hold statutory design and appointment duties.
Principal designers coordinating health and safety information across a design team.
Facilities managers who inherit maintenance access problems from earlier design choices.
Contractors' technical staff who feed constructability input back into a design review.
Course Modules
Select any module to see its sessions and points.
01Duties and Decisions at the Design Stage
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Legal Duties of Designers and Clients
- Distinguish designer, principal designer and client duties across the life of a project.
- Identify the point in a project programme where design decisions stop being cheap to change.
- Check that a competent designer or contractor appointment considers health and safety capability.
- Set out what a client must provide before design work starts, including pre-construction information.
Session 2Deciding What Prevention Through Design Can Remove
- Separate hazards a design can eliminate from those construction methods must manage instead.
- Prioritise design attention on high-consequence hazards such as falls, structural collapse and traffic.
- Challenge a design brief that transfers a hazard to construction or maintenance without discussion.
- Record design decisions and the reasoning behind rejected safer alternatives.
02Design Choices That Remove Hazards
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Access, Maintenance and Demolition in Mind
- Specify permanent access solutions that remove the need for future work at height.
- Design maintenance sequences into a layout so routine tasks do not require special access equipment.
- Consider demolition and deconstruction sequencing when selecting structural methods and materials.
- Locate plant and services to avoid confined spaces and awkward manual handling later.
Session 2Materials, Loads and Construction Sequencing
- Select materials and component sizes that reduce manual handling loads during construction.
- Sequence structural elements so temporary works and propping needs are minimised.
- Flag ground conditions and existing services early enough to influence foundation design choices.
- Coordinate services routing to reduce clashes that force late, unplanned rework on site.
03Reviewing Designs Before They Are Fixed
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Running a Structured Design Review Workshop
- Bring contractor, maintenance and end-user representatives into a design review at the right stage.
- Work through a structured hazard prompt list covering construction, use and end-of-life stages.
- Capture design review actions with an owner and a deadline before the meeting closes.
- Re-review a design after significant changes rather than assuming earlier sign-off still holds.
Session 2Using BIM and Visualisation to Catch Hazards Early
- Use a building information model to identify clashes that would create access or space hazards.
- Visualise construction sequencing in the model to spot temporary works and crane conflicts.
- Model maintenance access routes to confirm equipment can be safely removed and replaced.
- Share model-based hazard findings with designers in a format they can act on quickly.
04Handing Over Risk Information That Gets Used
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Building the Design Risk Register
- Record each significant hazard, the design decision made and the residual risk left for others to manage.
- Write residual risk entries specifically enough that a contractor can plan a method around them.
- Track design risk register items from identification through to close-out or hand-over.
- Update the register when late design changes introduce or remove a recorded hazard.
Session 2Compiling the Health and Safety File
- Assemble health and safety file content that a future contractor or owner can actually use.
- Check file content is specific to the completed structure rather than generic manufacturer literature.
- Confirm the file addresses maintenance, repair and eventual demolition or deconstruction.
- Hand over the file with a briefing so the client understands how to keep it current.
What the participant receives
4 course modules
A structured syllabus
8 training sessions
across 5 days
32 detailed points
Applied, detailed content
Accredited attendance certificate
On completing the programme
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