← Home

For health & safety training providers

CPD accreditation for health and safety training

Published 26 September 2026 · 7 min read

Health and safety training is one of the largest CPD sectors in the UK and one of the most fragmented. On one side sit the statutory regime (HSE guidance, the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, RIDDOR reporting) and the awarding-body qualifications (NEBOSH, IOSH, CITB). On the other sits an enormous non-regulated market of short courses, workshops, e-learning modules, and in-house programmes that are neither statutory nor awarding-body qualifications. That's where CPD accreditation earns its place. Here's what CPD accreditation actually means for a health and safety training provider, how it fits alongside the statutory and awarding-body systems, and what AssuredCPD's assessment focuses on for H&S courses.

The three systems in UK H&S training — and where CPD accreditation fits

The H&S training market has three distinct quality systems that are often conflated. Being clear which one CPD accreditation belongs to is the first step for a provider deciding what to pursue.

1. Statutory regulation. The Health and Safety Executive is the UK statutory regulator for workplace health and safety. HSE publishes guidance, enforces the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, and prosecutes breaches. HSE does not "approve" third-party CPD training courses in the way an accrediting body does; it publishes guidance on what competent training looks like and expects employers to source appropriate training under their statutory duty of care. Providers cannot buy an "HSE-approved" label.

2. Awarding-body qualifications. Regulated qualifications in H&S are awarded by bodies like NEBOSH, City & Guilds, and Highfield, sitting within England's Regulated Qualifications Framework and overseen by Ofqual. Courses like the NEBOSH National General Certificate lead to formal, regulated qualifications with defined credit values. These are a specific track with a specific application process, not something an accreditation body issues.

3. Non-regulated CPD training. Everything else — short toolbox talks, workplace-specific safety briefings, sector-specific CPD (construction site inductions, manual handling refreshers, DSE assessor training, working-at-height modules, stress-management sessions), online compliance modules, one-day workshops on new legislation — makes up the bulk of the H&S training market. It's not a NEBOSH qualification and it's not HSE-issued. Independent CPD accreditation is the recognised quality signal for this layer. AssuredCPD works here.

The three systems don't compete — they cover different work. A course teaching supervisors to use the RIDDOR reporting portal doesn't need to be a NEBOSH qualification and can't be "HSE-approved," but it can absolutely be independently CPD-accredited — and that accreditation is what a procurement officer, an HR lead, or a duty-holder learner is actually looking for as a quality signal.

Why CPD accreditation matters more in H&S than in most sectors

Three reasons buyers of H&S training care about independent accreditation more than buyers of, say, marketing training:

1. Duty of care evidence. Under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, employers must provide "such information, instruction, training and supervision as is necessary to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety at work of their employees." When something goes wrong and an HSE inspector asks how the employer chose the training, "we picked a course that was independently CPD-accredited against a published framework" is a substantively different answer from "we wrote the training ourselves."
2. Content currency risk. H&S guidance updates constantly — new HSE-approved codes of practice, amended regulations, revised sector standards, updated PPE requirements post-COVID. A course accredited today with a defined review cycle is easier for a buyer to trust than one designed five years ago that hasn't been re-checked.
3. Procurement and tender scoring. Public-sector procurement and larger corporate tenders increasingly award points for independently-accredited training. Even where it isn't a mandatory scoring criterion, it's often a tiebreaker.

What AssuredCPD assesses on an H&S course specifically

Every course is assessed against the same six domains of the Standards Framework — aims and structure, learning outcomes, delivery and accessibility, assessment of learning, CPD-hour justification, and currency — but for H&S courses the assessor pays particular attention to three things:

• Legislative accuracy. References to legislation, HSE guidance, or sector-specific codes are checked for currency. A course citing repealed regulations, or an old version of an ACOP, will score Partially met on the Currency domain until updated.
• Demonstrable safety-relevant outcomes. Learning outcomes on H&S courses need to describe capabilities a learner can demonstrate: "correctly identify five hazard types on a construction site" is assessable; "understand safety" is not. This is where H&S courses most commonly score Partially met — we've covered the underlying issue in our learning outcomes guide.
• Currency plan proportionate to the pace of change. An H&S course claiming a "review every three years" plan will attract questions on the Currency domain given how often HSE updates guidance. Annual review, with a clear trigger process for interim updates when legislation changes, is more defensible.

Who this is for — and who it isn't

How it works, practically

1. Submit your H&S course materials via our application form: course outline, learning outcomes, a representative sample of materials (slides, script, e-learning module walkthrough), your assessment method and pass criteria, claimed CPD hours with justification, and your content review policy.
2. A named assessor reviews against the Standards Framework, with particular attention to legislative accuracy and demonstrable outcomes as noted above.
3. Decision within five working days of a complete submission, in writing, with reasons. Money-back guarantee if the deadline is missed.
4. On accreditation, you receive the AssuredCPD mark for the course, a listing in the provider directory, and certificates carry a code anyone can check on the verification page.

Pricing

The same public prices apply to H&S courses as to every other CPD topic. No sector loading. All figures in GBP:

• Single course: £350 first year, £245 renewal
• Membership (5–50 courses): £975 to £3,330 per year — useful for H&S providers with sector-specific variants of the same core content (a manual handling course tailored for construction, care, warehouse, and office contexts, for example)
• Free resubmission within 60 days of a Partially met decision
• No lock-ins, no application fees

Full pricing on our pricing page.

What we're honest about

• We are not the HSE, IOSH, NEBOSH, CITB, or any statutory or awarding body. Our mark is independent third-party quality assurance; it is not a statutory approval, an awarding-body qualification, or an exemption from any duty holder's legal obligations under UK H&S legislation.
• We do not assess the technical competence of trainers or the compliance status of a workplace. We assess a specific course, delivered by a specific provider, against a published Standards Framework.
• We are a UK-based independent accreditation body, not a government regulator. Accreditation does not make a course "HSE-approved," "government-approved," or an "official qualification."

FAQ

Is AssuredCPD accreditation the same as HSE approval for a health and safety course?

No. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is the UK statutory regulator for workplace health and safety, and it does not "approve" third-party training courses in the way an accrediting body does. AssuredCPD is an independent CPD accreditation body that assesses non-regulated H&S CPD courses against a published Standards Framework. Our mark is a credibility signal about course quality; it is not an HSE endorsement and does not exempt a provider or learner from statutory duties.

Do I need CPD accreditation to deliver health and safety training in the UK?

No. There is no single mandatory accreditation for delivering non-regulated H&S CPD training in the UK. Some specific certificates (e.g. certain awarding-body qualifications from NEBOSH, IOSH-approved courses, or CITB-recognised construction training) sit inside their own accreditation systems. CPD accreditation is a separate quality signal that most non-regulated H&S courses can pursue voluntarily, and buyers increasingly ask for it in tender and procurement processes.

How does AssuredCPD assess a health and safety training course?

A named assessor reviews the course against the six domains of our published Standards Framework: aims and structure, learning outcomes, delivery and accessibility, assessment of learning, CPD-hour justification, and currency. For H&S specifically the assessor pays close attention to whether learning outcomes describe demonstrable safety-relevant capabilities, whether hazard identification and control content is accurate to current legislation, and whether the currency plan reflects how quickly H&S guidance changes. Decision within five working days of a complete submission.

How much does CPD accreditation cost for a health and safety course?

£350 for a single course in the first year and £245 on renewal. Annual memberships covering multiple H&S courses run from £975 for up to five courses to £3,330 for up to fifty. There are no per-certificate fees and no minimum contract. Full pricing is published on our pricing page.

Apply for accreditation   See pricing