WATER HYGIENE AND SAFETY
Importance of ‘competence’ cannot be under-estimated
Matt Morse, who has worked in Legionella control and water treatment for over 20 years, both for service-providers and as an independent consultant, and works part-time as the Manager of the Legionella Control Association, discusses the subject of ‘competence’, with a particular focus on Legionella control. He focuses on what the term signifies, how it can be measured, and why it is so important into such a patient safety-critical field.
This article is about competence, specifically for Legionella control and management, but the principles could be applied to any area where a third party holds a duty to take reasonable steps to ensure that individuals are competent. Failings that lead to breaches in health and safety law, life-changing illness, and death, almost always have the thread of lack of competence running through them. Duty- holders can be prosecuted if these failings happen on their watch, regardless of the specialist advisor, Authorising Engineer (AE), or the contractor they have hired, and this sometimes comes as a surprise. So first, what is competence, and why is it important? Competence is often confused with training by duty-holders, AEs, Responsible Person(s) (RPs), et al, and while training is often a component of competence, they are certainly not the same thing. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) states: ‘Competence can be described as the combination of training, skills, experience, and knowledge that a person has, and their ability to apply them to perform a task safely. Other factors, such as attitude and physical ability, can also affect someone’s competence.’ Training is the passing on of knowledge in some way, and includes classroom training, practical training, online training, on-the-job training, and pretty much any other ‘input’ of knowledge into an individual.
A fundamental building block This underpinning knowledge is a fundamental building block of competence, but the individual needs to develop skills in the use of this knowledge to accomplish tasks safely, effectively, and efficiently. Building skill is normally achieved by watching others, performing tasks under supervision, being mentored, and with practice. This is unlikely to be possible purely in a classroom, so looking at training records may not give you the assurance you need. What about certificates of competence?
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Building skill is normally achieved by watching others, performing tasks under supervision, being mentored, and with practice
There are some organisations that will issue a ‘certificate of competence’ after a training course. This may or may not be based on an assessment of the competence of an individual. To judge competence, this assessment would need to include an evaluation of the individual’s underpinning knowledge, understanding, and skills. The LCA has rejected applications for membership where the
‘certificate of competence’ was obtained following a one-day course in Legionella risk assessment. Clearly this cannot be sufficient to either absorb the knowledge required, or to assess the competence of the individual in question. These claims do not stand up to scrutiny, and should be challenged. On the other end of the spectrum there are competence-based Qualifications (with a capital ‘Q’) based on the National Occupational Standards,1 and regulated by OFQUAL. These have learning and assessment hours in three figures, and are assessed by Qualified and Approved occupationally competent industry professionals. Sadly, due to the expense and the commitment required, these are not widespread, and many AEs and RPs have not heard of them. In the middle ground lies everything else, with a wide spectrum of quality. Some accreditation bodies will look at the training centre, but not the trainer or the
Competence lies where understanding, skills, attitude, and knowledge come together. August 2022 Health Estate Journal 57
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