Young Person Risk Assessment: A UK Guide and Template
Taking on an apprentice, a work experience placement or a 17 year old labourer means the law expects you to look harder at the risks than you would for an experienced adult. A young person risk assessment is how you show you have done that. This guide explains what one is, the legal duty behind it, the specific factors you have to weigh up, a clear step-by-step method, and a template section you can copy and use on your own job.
What a young person risk assessment is
A young person risk assessment is an assessment of the risks to workers under the age of 18, carried out before they start work. It is not a different kind of risk assessment with its own rulebook. It is your ordinary task and site risk assessment, done with a deliberate extra focus on the things that make a young worker more likely to be harmed: they have less experience, they may not recognise a hazard, and they are still developing physically and in judgement.
On a construction site this usually applies to apprentices, trainees, school or college work experience placements, and young people taken on as general labourers. The point of the assessment is to identify where their age and inexperience raise the risk, and to put extra controls in place so the work is safe for them specifically, not just for a seasoned tradesperson.
The legal basis
The duty comes from the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999. Two parts matter most.
Regulation 3(4) and 3(5) require an employer to assess the risks to young persons before they start work, and to take particular account of a defined list of factors. These include their inexperience, lack of awareness of existing or potential risks, and their immaturity, along with the fitting-out of the workplace, the nature and degree of exposure to hazards, the work equipment involved, and the extent of health and safety training provided.
Regulation 19 then sets out protection for young persons more broadly, including restrictions on work that is beyond their physical or psychological capacity, work involving harmful exposure to agents or processes, and work involving risks they are unlikely to recognise or avoid because of their inexperience. A young person is defined as anyone under 18. A child, meaning someone below the minimum school leaving age, carries additional protections, including a duty to give their parents or guardians information on the risks and controls before a placement begins.
This sits alongside the general duty in regulation 3(1) to assess risks to all employees, and the wider duties under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The young person assessment does not replace those, it adds to them.
Why construction sites need one
Construction is a high hazard environment, and a young worker walks into it with the least experience of anyone on site. Apprentices and placements are common in the trades, which means most contractors will at some point have someone under 18 on the job. Work at height, moving plant, power tools, manual handling, dust and noise are all everyday realities that an experienced operative manages almost without thinking, but that a 16 or 17 year old may not yet recognise as dangerous.
Doing the assessment properly protects the young worker, keeps you the right side of the law, and, in practical terms, gives you a clear record to show a principal contractor, a client or an inspector that you took the extra duty seriously.
The specific factors to assess
When you assess the risks to a young worker, the regulations point you at a particular set of factors. Work through each of these for the tasks the young person will actually be doing.
- Inexperience. They have not done the work before and may not know the safe method, the sequence, or when to stop and ask.
- Lack of awareness of risks. A hazard obvious to a tradesperson may not register with someone new to site.
- Immaturity. Younger workers may be more prone to distraction, to horseplay, or to taking a shortcut to keep up.
- Physical and psychological capacity. The work must be within what they can safely manage. Tasks beyond their capacity should be restricted.
- Exposure to hazards. The nature and degree of exposure to site hazards such as dust, fumes and moving plant, and how that exposure is limited.
- Work equipment. The tools, machinery and plant they will use, whether they are trained and competent to use them, and which equipment is off limits without direct supervision.
- Temperature, noise and vibration. Physical agents on site, including working in heat or cold, exposure to noise, and hand-arm vibration from powered tools.
- Hazardous substances. Exposure to substances covered by COSHH, such as cement, silica dust, solvents and adhesives, and whether any are unsuitable for a young worker.
- Supervision and training. The level of supervision required, and the health and safety information, instruction and training they have been given before starting.
How to complete one, step by step
- Confirm the person and the work. Note that the worker is under 18 and list the specific tasks and areas of site they will be involved in.
- Identify the hazards. Walk the tasks and the site and list the hazards, exactly as you would for any risk assessment.
- Apply the young worker factors. For each hazard, ask whether inexperience, immaturity, capacity or lack of awareness makes it more dangerous for this worker than for an adult.
- Decide who could be harmed and how. Focus on the young person, but include anyone their inexperience could put at risk.
- Set the controls. Record existing controls, then the additional controls the young worker needs. This often means closer supervision, restricting certain tasks or equipment, extra induction and clear instruction to stop and ask.
- Record and communicate it. Write it down, brief the young worker in plain terms, and for a child on work experience give their parents or guardians the key risks and controls before they start.
- Review it. Revisit the assessment as the young worker gains experience, as their tasks change, or if anything on site changes. Controls that made sense in week one may be eased as competence grows.
Young person risk assessment template
Use the structure below as a starting point. Copy it into your own form and fill each row for the actual tasks and site. The example rows show the level of detail to aim for. Delete them and replace with your own.
| Hazard | Who is at risk | Existing controls | Additional controls needed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Working near moving plant and vehicles | Young worker, other operatives, visitors | Segregated pedestrian routes, banksman, hi-vis, site rules | Young worker kept clear of plant working areas, escorted across the site until competent, briefed on exclusion zones |
| Use of power tools and equipment | Young worker | PAT tested tools, guards fitted, PPE issued | Certain tools restricted until trained, direct supervision for first use, no lone operation of high risk equipment |
| Manual handling of materials | Young worker | Mechanical aids available, team lifts for heavy loads | Load limits appropriate to physical capacity, technique instruction given, heavy or awkward lifts assigned to others |
| Dust, including silica, and hazardous substances | Young worker | On-tool extraction, water suppression, COSHH assessments, RPE | Young worker kept out of high exposure tasks, RPE fit checked, COSHH controls explained clearly |
| Noise and hand-arm vibration | Young worker | Hearing protection, low vibration tools, trigger time limits | Exposure closely monitored, tool time limited, health surveillance considered where required |
| Inexperience and lack of hazard awareness | Young worker and those around them | Site induction, supervision | Enhanced induction, named supervisor, buddy system, clear instruction to stop and ask before any unfamiliar task |
Related guides
- Risk assessment for construction: the basics, for the underlying five step method.
- How to write a risk assessment, a plain-English walkthrough.
- Toolbox talk generator, useful for briefing a young worker on the day.
- RAMS template, to sit your assessment inside a full method statement.
- AI risk assessments in construction, on producing assessments faster.
Frequently asked questions
Do I legally need a young person risk assessment?
Yes. Under regulation 3(4) and 3(5) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, an employer must assess the risks to young persons before they start work, taking particular account of their inexperience, lack of awareness of risks and immaturity. This is a specific legal duty in addition to the general duty to assess risks to all employees.
What age is a young person?
In UK health and safety law a young person is anyone under 18. Someone below the minimum school leaving age is separately defined as a child, which brings further restrictions. Once a worker reaches 18 the specific young person duties no longer apply, though the general duty to assess risk still does.
Does a young person need a separate assessment or can they be added to existing ones?
You do not always need a standalone document, but you must specifically address the additional factors that apply to young workers, such as inexperience and immaturity. In practice most sites either produce a dedicated young person risk assessment or add a clearly marked young worker section to an existing task assessment, so the extra controls are recorded and can be shown to an inspector.
Do parents need to be told about the risks?
For a child, meaning someone below the minimum school leaving age on work experience, the employer must provide the parents or guardians with information on the key risks identified and the control measures in place before the placement starts. For a young person aged 16 or 17 this specific duty to inform parents does not apply, although good practice on many sites is still to keep them informed.
The shortcut
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This article is general guidance for UK construction and is not legal advice. For requirements specific to your work, check current HSE guidance and your own obligations under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.