NEBOSH
MANAGEMENT OF HEALTH AND SAFETY
UNIT IG1:
For: NEBOSH International General Certificate in Occupational Health and Safety
Open Book Examination
Available for 24 hours
Guidance to learners
This is an open book examination. It is not invigilated, and you are free to use any learning
resources to which you have access, eg your course notes, or a website, etc.
By submitting this completed assessment for marking, you are declaring it is entirely your own work.
Knowingly claiming work to be your own when it is someone else’s work is malpractice, which carries
severe penalties. This means that you must not collaborate with or copy work from others. Neither
should you ‘cut and paste’ blocks of text from the Internet or other sources.
The examination begins with a scenario to set the scene. You will then need to complete a series of
tasks based on this scenario. Each task will consist of one or more questions.
Your responses to most of these tasks should wholly, or partly, draw on relevant information from the
scenario. The task will clearly state the extent to which this is required.
The marks available are shown in brackets to the right of each question, or part of each question.
This will help guide you to the amount of information required in your response. In general, one mark
is given for each correct technical point that is clearly demonstrated. Avoid writing too little as this
will make it difficult for the Examiner to award marks. Single word answers or lists are unlikely to
gain marks as this would not normally be enough to show understanding or a connection with the
scenario.
You are not expected to write more than 3 000 words in total.
Try to distribute your time and word count proportionately across all tasks.
It is recommended that you use the answer template.
Please attempt ALL tasks.
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SCENARIO
Feathers and Wings (F&W) is a tropical bird centre located in the small village of Driford. F&W has
18 species of birds kept in purpose-built aviaries (bird houses). Each aviary has an indoor and
outdoor area. There are also nesting boxes in the trees surrounding the centre, which the native bird
species use.
F&W has had financial difficulties for the last 18 months, which has forced the owner to sell the
centre to Animal World. This will not affect the jobs of the current workers, or the previous owner
who has kept their position as the managing director (MD). However, when on site, the MD spends
most of their time in the office on the telephone. It is hoped that the sale will lead to investment in the
centre and increase the number of visitors each year. As part of this sale, a health and safety
consultant (HSC) will soon be auditing F&W’s current health and safety arrangements.
Other than the aviaries, the site has a small office and a small rest area. Next to the rest area, there
is a food preparation area, where the food for the birds is prepared. Outside is a shipping container,
containing all the equipment for cleaning out the aviaries and maintaining the centre. The equipment
includes brushes, spades, buckets, hammers, screwdrivers and ladders. An old training matrix is
attached to one of the shipping container doors. There is also a large open-topped waste container
for general waste, located next to the shipping container. At the entrance to the centre is a small
entrance booth where payment is taken from visitors.
Recently, four school leavers under the age of 18 years have joined the centre as part-time bird
keepers. In addition, there are 6 full-time bird keepers. Worker A has been working at the centre the
longest and considers themselves to be more superior to the rest of the workers. Worker A thinks
that the younger workers are lazy and frequently orders them around. The younger workers have
tried to talk to the MD about worker A’s attitude, but whenever they do, the MD always tells them to
come and talk to them when they are not as busy.
As part of the recent sale of F&W, Animal World has agreed to a new, larger, owl aviary to be built.
The MD has allocated an area for this at the far end of the centre. Before building the new owl
aviary, the area needs to be cleared of undergrowth. In addition, 5 nesting boxes, attached to trees
in this area, need to be relocated. To keep the costs down, the MD has agreed with Animal World
that the F&W bird keepers will do all of this work.
HSC visit
The next morning, the HSC from Animal World is due at the centre at 10:30. Workers B and C have
started to clear the undergrowth and are placing this in the open-topped waste container. The MD is
in the office collating the health and safety information for the HSC. As workers arrive, they sign in
on the clipboard just inside the office.
When the HSC arrives, they cannot find any workers. The worker manning the entrance booth had
decided to go and make a hot drink as there have only been 4 visitors so far today. After wandering
around for ten minutes, the HSC eventually finds the MD in the office. After an initial discussion, the
HSC asks about the health and safety arrangements that the centre has in place. The MD hands the
HSC a thin folder. The HSC has a quick look in the folder and sees a health and safety policy
statement, and a generic risk assessment for working at the centre. Both are dated 2018. The HSC
asks if the policy statement is displayed anywhere and to see any accident records. The MD replies
that the policy is not displayed anywhere and that they have not had any accidents. The HSC
suspects that this is not the case, but asks if they can talk to the workers.
Relocation of nesting boxes
Workers B and C have cleared enough undergrowth to access some of the trees that have nesting
boxes attached to them. Worker B tells worker C that they are going to start removing the nesting
boxes, and they go to collect a ladder from the shipping container.
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When worker B gets to the shipping container, the HSC is looking at the training matrix on the door.
Worker B points out to the HSC that the training matrix is out-of-date so they should not waste their
time reviewing it. The HSC then asks worker B about the training and if it is correct that the last
training was carried out three years ago. Worker B confirms this. The HSC asks if there is any
reason why there has not been any training more recently. Worker B replies that the MD believes
that once a worker has been trained, they do not need training again. Worker B continues that the
MD also considers that “the money is better spent elsewhere, especially as we do not have any
accidents”. Worker B adds that they do not think any of those workers listed in the training matrix still
work here, not many people stay for long. Then worker B goes into the shipping container. There
are two ladders available, one is shorter than the other. Worker B thinks that the shorter of the two
ladders would require them to stretch their arms out fully to reach the fixings on the nesting boxes.
Worker B decides to pick up the longer ladder and goes back to their task.
As worker B extends the ladder and positions it against the tree, the mechanism that locks the sliding
portion of the ladder fails, and the ladder slides shut making a loud noise. Worker B assumes that
they have not secured the ladder properly, so they extend it again and lean it against the tree. As
worker B is now confident that the ladder is secure, they go to collect a screwdriver and a drill. When
they return 5 minutes later, the ladder has slid shut again and is lying on the floor. Worker C tells
worker B that it came down with a loud noise and made them jump. Worker B explains that the
locking mechanism must be faulty, so they pick up the ladder and take it to put inside the opentopped waste container. The waste container is nearly full, so worker B leans the ladder up against
the open-topped waste container and returns to the shipping container. Here, they collect the shorter
ladder, although they are unsure if it will be suitable for the job.
At the end of the day, workers B and C have cleared three-quarters of the area but have only
relocated one of the nesting boxes. After returning all the equipment to the shipping container they
collect their personal items, sign out and leave for the day.
An hour and a half later, the MD finishes in the office and starts their daily walk around the centre to
check that everything has been secured for the night. All of the other workers have left for the day.
When the MD has completed their checks, they return to the office. As they walk past the opentopped waste container, they notice the ladder leaning against it. They assume it has been left out,
so they return it to the shipping container and lock the doors. They leave once they are happy that
everything is secured.
The following morning, worker C is busy cleaning out an aviary. Worker B telephoned the office to
say that they were feeling ill and would not be attending work today. The MD is keen to get the area
for the new owl aviary cleared as soon as possible, even though construction is not expected to start
for another month. There are not enough workers available to allocate two workers to this task. The
MD asks worker A if they can continue with the work started by workers B and C. Worker A is happy
to do this. They comment that they do not know what has taken workers B and C so long and that
they will be able to get it all finished by the end of the day. The MD is pleased to hear this and
returns to the office.
The accident
Worker A decides that they will start by relocating the nesting boxes. They go to collect the
equipment that they need, including the longer ladder. At the first tree, they extend the ladder, lean it
against the tree, and immediately start to climb it. Worker A gets halfway up the extended portion of
the ladder when the locking mechanism fails. The extended portion slides downwards, and worker A
falls from a height of 2-metres onto the ground and is knocked unconscious.
Worker D has finished their task and searches for the MD to see what they want them to do next.
The MD is in the office, as usual, with the door shut. Worker D decides that they will not disturb them
as they have been known to get angry if they consider the interruption is not important. Instead,
worker D decides to help other workers, remembering that worker A is working on the new owl
aviary. Worker D goes to see how they are progressing, but as they get nearer, they hear moaning
noises. Alarmed, worker D runs to locate the source of the noise. They find worker A on the floor,
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with blood on their head. They look around and see the ladder lying on the ground nearby. Worker
D is traumatised by the sight of worker A and immediately runs back to the office to get help.
Worker D swings open the office door, shouting that worker A is hurt and that someone needs to call
an ambulance. Worker D starts looking for something. The MD, a little shocked by worker D's
sudden arrival, asks what they are doing. Worker D says they are looking for the first-aid kit. “It is
not in here!”, the MD shouts, “look in the rest area!”. In the rest area, worker C is having a break
when worker D runs in. They detect some urgency in worker D’s behaviour. “What has happened?”
worker C asks. Worker D explains, as they finally open a cupboard that contains the first-aid kit.
They then run back to the accident scene. Worker C follows them.
When they arrive, worker C screams at the sight of the blood. Worker D explains what they think has
happened. Worker C realises that the faulty ladder has been used. Worker D stays with worker A
until the ambulance arrives. Worker C wants to find out how long the ambulance will be, so they
return to the office.
In the office, the MD is speaking to the emergency services on the telephone. Worker C is obviously
upset, but manages to explain that they think worker A has fallen. The MD relays this information to
the emergency services. When the MD finishes the call, they ask worker C what happened. Worker
C explains about the ladder and how they thought that worker B had put it in the open-topped waste
container. They cannot understand why, or how, worker A was using it. The MD realises what has
happened but says nothing to worker C. The ambulance sirens can be heard in the distance, so
worker C goes to direct the ambulance. As soon as worker C leaves the office the MD calls worker
B. There is no answer, so the MD leaves an angry message telling them they need to speak to them
when they are back at work.
The ambulance workers arrive at the accident scene and after their initial assessment, worker A is
lifted onto a stretcher and loaded into the ambulance. They are then taken to hospital for further
assessment and treatment.
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Task 1: Demonstrating management commitment
1
How does the Managing Director demonstrate poor management commitment
to health and safety?
(16)
Note: You should support your answer, where applicable, using relevant
information from the scenario.
Task 2: Improving communication at F&W
2
Effective communication is essential to positively influence health and safety
culture.
How could health and safety communication be improved at F&W?
(11)
Note: You should support your answer, where applicable, using relevant
information from the scenario.
Task 3: Advising on audits and inspections
3
The MD is talking to the HSC about the audit they are doing for Animal World.
The MD appears confused about audits and inspections.
Advise the MD on the differences between an audit and a workplace
inspection.
(10)
Task 4: Working within a health and safety management system
4
To help improve Feather & Wings (F&W) future health and safety performance,
the HSC recommends that a formal health and safety management system be
implemented.
How will the centre benefit from a formal health and safety management
system?
(18)
Note: You should support your answer, where applicable, using relevant
information from the scenario.
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Task 5: Obligations of employers to workers
5
Employers have obligations under Recommendation 10 (a, b, c, d and e) of the
International Labour Organisation’s R164 – Occupational Safety and Health
Recommendation, 1981 (No. 164).
Comment on how these employer obligations may not have been followed at
F&W.
(10)
Note: You should support your answer, where applicable, using relevant
information from the scenario.
Task 6: Organisational factors
6
What organisational factors might have negatively influenced health and safety
at F&W?
(14)
Note: You should support your answer, where applicable, using relevant
information from the scenario.
Task 7: Reactive monitoring measures
7
The HSC advises the MD that they should start health and safety performance
monitoring.
What are the reactive (lagging) monitoring measures that could be used by
F&W?
(10)
Note: You should support your answer, where applicable, using relevant
information from the scenario.
Task 8: Identifying induction content
8
The HSC has advised F&W that an induction is required for all new workers.
What information should be prioritised in this induction?
(11)
End of examination
Now follow the instructions on submitting your answers.
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