Incident Reporting and Investigation Training Course

Participants can manage first-hour response activities while protecting people, evidence and reporting obligations.

• First-hour actions: rescue, medical response, scene control and notification
• Dynamic risk assessment before entering damaged, contaminated or unstable scenes
• Scene preservation controls for equipment, documents, digital records and CCTV
• Chain-of-custody records for samples, photographs, removed parts and documents
• Initial incident log capturing timeline, people, conditions and decisions
• Communications protocols for families, regulators, clients and senior leadership

Participants can collect reliable evidence and reconstruct an evidence-based account of events.

• Evidence plan linking investigation questions, sources, collection methods and owners
• Photographic evidence: scales, orientation, metadata and contemporaneous annotations
• Physical evidence handling without altering marks, settings or component positions
• Document review of permits, procedures, training records and maintenance history
• Timeline reconstruction using event sequencing, clock checks and evidence gaps
• Data quality tests for relevance, reliability, sufficiency and corroboration

Participants can prepare and conduct fair, structured witness interviews that produce reliable accounts.

• Cognitive interviewing techniques that minimise suggestion, blame and memory contamination
• PEACE interview structure: planning, engagement, account, closure and evaluation
• Open, probing and clarifying questions matched to witness accounts
• Interview preparation using role, location, chronology and evidence matrices
• Note-taking, recording consent and accurate statement verification procedures
• Managing distress, conflict, language barriers and power differences during interviews

Participants can identify immediate causes, contributing factors and underlying organisational causes using tested methods.

• Five Whys used without stopping at individual error or rule breach
• ICAM analysis of absent or failed defences and organisational factors
• Cause-and-effect diagrams separating people, plant, process and environmental contributors
• Event and causal factor charting from evidence-based timelines
• Distinguishing immediate causes, contributing factors, root causes and conditions
• Testing causal statements against contradictory evidence and alternative explanations

Participants can assess failed controls and select proportionate measures to prevent recurrence.

• Bow-tie analysis connecting threats, preventive barriers, consequences and recovery controls
• Barrier status assessment for availability, suitability, reliability and effectiveness
• Hierarchy of controls applied to investigation findings and residual risk
• Control failures traced through design, maintenance, supervision and work planning
• Human factors conditions: workload, fatigue, competence, interface and procedure usability
• ALARP reasoning when selecting proportionate additional risk controls

Participants can produce clear investigation reports supported by evidence, causal logic and actionable findings.

• Investigation report structure: scope, facts, analysis, findings and recommendations
• Separating verified facts, assumptions, opinions and untested allegations
• Clear causal language that avoids blame, speculation and legal conclusions
• Evidence references supporting each finding, diagram, photograph and timeline entry
• Executive summaries framed around harm, causes, controls and decisions
• Confidentiality, personal data and privileged material handling in reports

Participants can create corrective-action plans that address causal factors and demonstrate sustained control improvement.

• SMART corrective actions linked directly to verified causal factors
• Action quality criteria: ownership, due date, resources, measures and dependencies
• Corrective-action hierarchy favouring elimination and engineering over administrative controls
• Effectiveness verification using leading indicators, field checks and worker feedback
• Management of change controls for revised equipment, procedures and training
• Action tracking registers with overdue escalation and closure evidence

Participants can apply investigation governance, reporting duties and learning processes to improve safety performance.

• ISO 45001 incident, nonconformity and corrective-action requirements clauses
• Statutory reporting triggers distinguished from internal escalation requirements
• Governance roles for independence, authority, review and action assurance
• Investigation level selection based on consequence, potential and learning value
• Trend analysis using frequency, severity, exposure and repeat-event patterns
• Learning reviews that share findings without identifying or shaming individuals

Participants can plan practical improvements to local reporting, investigation and corrective-action processes.

• Investigation workflow from notification through closure and effectiveness review
• Role-specific reporting expectations for workers, supervisors, managers and contractors
• Escalation matrix aligned with severity, potential consequence and notification deadlines
• Personal investigation development plan with supervised casework milestones
• Local reporting barriers identified through process mapping and stakeholder feedback
• Measures for reporting quality, investigation timeliness and action completion