City & Guilds 6160-08 Level 3 Award in Working as a Member of a Rescue & Recovery Team in Confined Spaces

This course covers everything you need to work safely in high-risk confined spaces. It combines both in-classroom teaching with practical exercises for a comprehensive learning experience. Key topics covered include:

• Training on the main types of confined space emergencies, including but not limited to:  atmospheric, mechanical, engulfment and entrapment scenarios.

• Your roles and responsibilities as an emergency rescue team operative.

• How to carry out a risk assessment and spot dangers before entering.

• Training on safe entry and exit procedures, including controlling access and egress.

• Locating and helping casualties, including basic first aid.

• Correct use and checks of breathing apparatus and specialist rescue equipment

• How to work safely as part of a rescue and recovery team, including methods of  communicate clearly and rescue plan execution

• Training on emergency rescue planning and rescue procedures.

• Your legal duties and the standards of the UK water industry.

• Post-rescue actions like handing over casualties and checking and cleaning equipment.

By the end of this course, delegates will have the skills and practical experience required to carry out confined space rescues safely and effectively.

Delegates take part in hands-on exercises that mirror real confined space rescue operations. Key practical exercises include:

• Breathing apparatus use and entry practice: Putting on SCBA, doing pre-use checks, and entering/exiting vertical shafts or horizontal tunnels as a team.

• Dynamic risk assessments: Involves assessing incidents on arrival, deciding if entry is safe, and preparing rescue plans.

• Rescue Planning: Setting up tripods, winches, fall arrests, and rescue lines. 

• Casualty location and extraction: Navigating confined spaces to find “casualties” (dummies), performing basic checks, and extracting them safely via vertical or horizontal routes.

• Team coordination drills: This involves practicing your team roles, which may include the use of hand signals and radios, how to raise alarms, how to make safe withdrawal decisions, and handing over casualties to medics. 

• Equipment handling and checks: Carrying out pre- and post-use checks, operating rescue gear, and decontaminating equipment where required.

By completing these exercises, delegates gain the practical experience needed to work safely and effectively as part of a confined space rescue team.

This course is delivered by our own in-house team of experienced instructors, all of whom have extensive backgrounds in high-risk confined space work. Many are active confined space rescue operatives, and so each instructor brings real-world experience of emergencies and technical rescues into every session.

The aim of this course is to equip delegates with the skills and knowledge required work safely and effectively as a member of a rescue team.

It aims to build competency in all aspects of confined space recovery, including risk assessments, use of breathing apparatus, casualty location and extraction, and communicating effectively as part of a team.

It also aims to equip candidates with a full understanding of their legal responsibilities and the standards of the UK Water Industry.