Free CSCS Test Revision Notes 2012/13 UK For The CSCS Card Exam & Information

The UK CITB Health and Safety Test is the test undertaken to achieve the CSCS card. The CSCS ( Construction Skills Certification Scheme ) test proves to prospective employers that the bearer of the card is knowledgeable in basic health and safety whilst working on building sites.

Please note: These revision notes are for the initial green CSCS card for non-specific skills such as labourers.

Workers are now required to have this CSCS certification prior to entering a building site, and may not be allowed even through the front gate without one. The notes below are concisely written for revision purposes designed to assist each person in passing the CSCS exam.

NB. After reading the cscs card information notes below, my 11 year old son was able to pass a mock CSCS examination with a score of 37 out of a possible 40.

Free Link To: Mock CSCS Exam Questions ( actual questions from the test )

Free Link To: Government Funded CSCS Tests

There are 15 core sections which the CSCS test centres on, this page covers the first three sections, follow the free links to other pages for the remainder of the sections. These notes are free and can be printed with no downloading or payments. Each cscs test may only have two or three questions from each section. These sectopns are:

General responsibilities - Accident prevention and reporting - Health welfare ( This Page )

Manual handling - Working at height - Personal protective equipment ( Page 2 )

Emergency procedures and first aid - Safe use of hazardous substances - Electrical safety ( Page 3 )

Hand held equipment and tools - Site transport safety - Noise and vibration ( Page 4 )

Excavations and confined spaces - Fire prevention and control - Safety signs and signals ( Page 5 )

Risk Assessments

A job is assessed on it's safety by a risk assessment. It is the responsibility of your supervisor to write the risk assessments. A risk is how likely that a hazard is to cause you an accident.

The health and safety act is important to you because it puts legal duties on you as an employee and it requires that your employer provides a safe place of work.

If you health and safety rules given at the site induction seem to be out of date, consult with your supervisor over your concerns.

If a job requires a permit to work, you must not start work without one, or work before or after the time indicated on the permit. The work permit allows certain jobs to be carried out under certain conditions.

Health and safety inspectors can issue an improvement notice. This means that you are not working in a safe way and it must be corrected. You may continue to work, but need to re-assess your working safety standards. If you are informed that the health and safety executive are on site, you must continue to work unless they tell you to stop.

A prohibition notice means that you may not start work unless the site or the equipment has been made safe, even if you have the highest CSCS card. A method statement will tell you how to do a job safely. If you cannot complete a job doing what the method statement says, do not start work until you have consulted your supervisor.

A hazard is anything that can cause an accident. CSCS tests will focus on this statement in the majority of the questions.

Everyone is responsible for reporting unsafe conditions on site and each person has legal duties in reading and applying the Health and Safety at Work Act. The site manager is responsible for managing the health and safety on the construction site.

Anything that may be deemed unsafe must be reported to your supervisor immediately.

A toolbox talk is a safety talk about a particular topic. If you discover children on the building site, you must ensure that they are taken to a place of safety before reporting it.

Accident Book

You or someone acting on your behalf must record accidents in the accident book and seek medical help. You will need to record the date and time of the accident, details of the injury and your home address. You do not write down your national insurance number, or CSCS card number..

Site Induction

It is imperative that you attend the site induction as you will be informed about health and safety. If there is anything which you do not understand, as the supervisor to explain it again.

You need to report an accident if you are injured in any way. Accidents must be reported so as we can learn to help prevent them from happening again, including any near misses. Report exactly what you saw.

If another contractor is working on site and anything they do affects your safety, report it to your supervisor as you do not have authority over other contractors.

If you cut your finger and it does not stop bleeding, seek a first aider or get medical treatment. A near miss is an accident where somebody could of been injured. Report any near misses to help prevent them from happening again. You can help prevent accidents by reporting any unsafe working conditions.

You must remove nails from scrap wood because someone may stand on an upright nail and injure themselves.

The most important reason for keeping your work site clean and tidy is to prevent slips, trips, and falls. Accidents are most likely to happen when you first start work on site.

Accidents from a height are the cause of most building site deaths.

Rats and cows are animals from which you can contact Weil's Disease. If your doctor tells you that you have Weil's Disease, you must inform your employer because they will have to tell the health and safety executive.

Weils Disease ( Leptospirosis )

This can be caught from rats and cows. The danger areas for contracting this disease are sewers and wet ground. Early signs of the disease are similar to the flu virus symptoms.

Clean hands with soap and water if you get a hazardous substance on them. Solvents strip the hands of natural oils and are flammable and may also cause skin diseases such as dermatitis. Wear gloves as a barrier. Barrier cream is not sufficient. CSCS tests will usually carry a question about this.

All sites should provide hot and cold running water and a place to wash your hands and a covered area with tables and chairs and somewhere to heat water. If these are not provided, speak to your supervisor.

If the sites toilets are dirty or do not work properly, report them to the supervisor. Ensure all rubbish is disposed of according to site regulations.

Medication / Alcohol

Prescribed medicines should be checked to ensure it will not make you sleepy or unfit to work in any capacity. Users of illegal drugs are a danger to everybody on site. If someone drinks alcohol at lunch time, they should not return to work for the rest of the day.

Exposure to bird droppings, asbestos and silica dust may result in lung disease and occupational asthma. If you find pigeon droppings where you are working, you must stop work and seek advice from your supervisor.

If you need to handle a hazardous substance always wear gloves to help prevent skin disease. Two ways to prevent a hazardous substance from entering the mouth are to always wash your hands before you eat and to wear protective gloves whilst you are working.

Read this page 6-7 times and that should be enough to ensure a pass on these sections. Please follow the free links in the core sections list to revise the other sections required. Each link covers the next three sections of the cscs test.

Alternatively, please send me your email address through the private comment box below for details on how to receive a printed copy of all the required CSCS revision notes.