Toolbox talk template

What is on the record sheet

The sheet is one side of A4. It is a record of a talk, not a script for one, so it works for any subject. Each part is there for a reason.

If you are new to toolbox talks, our guide to what a toolbox talk is covers how long they should be, how often to hold them and who should give them.

How to plan a talk using the sheet

Fill in the top half before the talk. Ten minutes the day before is enough.

1. Write the topic. Tie it to the work coming up. If you are short of ideas, there are forty in our list of toolbox talk topics.
2. Write the key points. Three or four, in your own words, each one something you want people to do. If you cannot get it down to four, you have two talks.
3. Decide where you will stand. Next to the thing you are talking about. Write it in the location box.
4. Decide what you will show. The ladder, the damaged sling, the photo of the near miss.
5. Think of two questions to ask. Ones that need an answer, such as "what would stop you using the trolley?".
6. List who should be there. Write the names in the attendance rows in advance if you know them. Anyone who does not turn up is then obvious.

If you would sooner read from a prepared talk, we have a manual handling toolbox talk and a working at height toolbox talk written to be read out. Copy their key points on to the sheet.

Filling it in on the day

1. Write the date and the start time before you begin.
2. Give the talk from your key points. Add any point that came up and was not planned.
3. Ask your questions. Write what people raise in the questions box while they are saying it, with the name of whoever will follow it up.
4. Pass the sheet round for names and signatures before anyone leaves. Sheets signed later tend not to get signed.
5. Write the names of the people who were not there in the last box.
6. Note how long the talk took, and sign the foot of the sheet.

A few practical points come up often.

• More than sixteen people. Use a second sheet and mark them "1 of 2" and "2 of 2". Better still, split the group, because a talk to thirty people is a speech.
• Subcontractors and agency workers. Include them, and write their employer beside their name.
• Two shifts. One sheet for each session, with its own date and time.
• Nobody signs for anybody else. A signature added for an absent colleague makes the whole sheet worthless.
• Someone who struggles with English or with reading. HSE's guidance is to allow more time and use pictures. Check they have understood before they sign.

People who missed the talk

The last box is what separates a record from a formality. Whoever was on holiday, off sick or on another job still does the work the talk was about.

Give them the talk when they are back, in person, from the same key points. Then record it: either add their name, signature and the new date to the original sheet, or fill in a short second sheet and staple the two together. Until that is done, the talk has not reached everyone it was meant for, and the sheet should say so.

What to do with the sheets afterwards

• Act on the questions box first. If someone said the trolley has a flat tyre, fix the tyre. People stop speaking up in talks when nothing happens to what they say.
• File the sheet the same day. One folder, in date order, kept where the person who looks after health and safety can find it.
• Keep a running list. Date, topic, how many attended, anyone outstanding. One line for each talk shows the year at a glance.
• Take a photo or a scan. Paper kept in a site cabin gets wet, lost or thrown out at the end of the job.
• Look back every few months. Which subjects have not come up? Who is on the "missed it" list more than once?

The training duties in law set no period for keeping these sheets. Most firms keep them with their other training records. Our guide to health and safety documents covers how long to keep records in general.

Whether a signed record is a legal requirement

It is not. The law requires the training. Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 requires employers to provide information, instruction, training and supervision, and regulation 13 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires training to be repeated periodically where appropriate. Neither says how training must be recorded, and neither mentions signatures.

HSE's advice is that keeping training records will help you decide if refresher training is needed. Clients and principal contractors often go further and require signed toolbox talk sheets under the contract.

A signature shows that someone was present. It does not show that they understood, so do not let the sheet replace asking questions and watching the work afterwards.

When paper sheets stop working

Paper is fine for one team on one site. It gets harder when:

• talks happen on several sites and the sheets come back late, or not at all
• you need to know who has not had a particular talk, and the answer is spread over twenty sheets
• the questions raised stay on the sheet and never reach the person who could fix them
• a client asks for the last six months of talks and it takes a day to gather them

At that point the answer is a single list of talks and attendance, in a spreadsheet or in software, with the paper kept only where a signature is asked for.

Recording toolbox talks in SafetyPro360

In SafetyPro360 a toolbox talk is recorded with its title, topic, date, duration and key points. You choose who was required to attend and mark who did attend. Anyone required who was not there appears on an outstanding list until they have had the talk. A problem raised in a talk can be entered as an action, with a person and a due date. It runs in a web browser on a phone, so the record can be made on site. The product does not collect signatures. Where a client wants signed paper, use this sheet as well.

Questions people ask