New online courses for occupational health practitioners

Published 29 Feb 2024
Written by
Oscar Kilo
National Police Wellbeing Service
Reading time
5 mins

We have just launched four new online courses on College Learn, primarily aimed at individuals working within occupational health.

Alongside the College of Policing we have developed these digital learning courses to support occupational health practitioners working within policing. 

These courses are open to all police officers and staff; however, they are primarily intended for personnel working in occupational health or associated departments. Links to these courses will also be added to the occupational health practitioner member page.

The courses

Occupational health: Profession of policing, regulations, and legal aspects

This module is an introduction for personnel new to occupational health in the police. The differences between police personnel and other employment sectors, in the context of employee rights and employer responsibilities is covered

Occupational health: Health risks in policing

This module focuses on why managing health and safety risks within the Police service are different to other organisations, including general and dynamic risk assessments. It will outline responsibilities of stakeholders relating to health surveillance and the differences between health surveillance and fitness for work.

Occupational health: Assessing fitness for duty 

This module is in two parts: 

  • Part one: Carrying out OH assessments - This section primarily focusses on the principles of carrying out an OH assessment following a management referral. Physical, social health and perceptions as well psychological health assessment is discussed with templates provided as guides.
  • Part two: Principles of report writing - This section focuses on OH reports following management referrals. Information is provided with templates on how to construct an OH report to management.

The pass mark on each module for the assessment is 80%, if you fail to achieve this you should retake the assessment

Blue Light Wellbeing Framework: Guidance for forces

This course assists forces with the completion of the occupational health (OH) section of the Blue Light Wellbeing Framework (BLWF). It helps managers, officers, and staff to understand how OH can help and enable them to be more prepared for their Force’s HMICFRS Peel Inspection.

Occupational Health: Stakeholder Engagement, consent and information sharing

This course is aimed at Occupational Health (OH) professionals to develop and enhance good practice in OH in Policing. At the conclusion of this module the participant should be able to:
• describe the principles of stakeholder engagement at all levels in a policing context
• describe and differentiate between the main representative bodies in policing.
• understand the principles of confidentiality in OH in a policing context
• describe consent process

Occupational Health - Managers Guide to Occupational Health 

This module provides guidance to first and second-line managers as to the role of occupational health (OH) in policing. This module is designed for police officers and police staff who have direct line management responsibility.

Access the training

To access any of these courses you must have a College Learn account, available to anyone with a .police.uk email, they can be created on the College of Policing website. Once you are logged in just search the name of the course you wish to take.

If you have difficulties accessing College Learn please contact the College Customer Contact Centre at contactcentre@college.police.uk