CITB SMSTS

It is the Site Management Safety Training Scheme, a construction health, safety and environmental management course delivered within CITB's Site Safety Plus (SSP) courses. It is aimed at people who manage or supervise site work and need to understand both their legal duties and the practical controls a site manager is expected to apply.

Site managers, agents, supervisors, project and contract staff, and anyone whose role includes planning, organising or supervising construction work and the people carrying it out. If you set work methods, sign off risk assessments and method statements, or induct and control subcontractors on site, the content is written for you.

Preparation here is organised into five areas: the legal and management framework including CDM duties and roles; site management responsibilities for health, safety and welfare; risk assessment, method statements and safe systems of work; occupational health, hazardous substances and accident reporting; and the control of high-risk construction activities.

The exam uses multiple-choice questions. The practice sets on this page mirror that format, so you rehearse recognising the best answer among plausible distractors rather than writing long explanations. Work through full sets under timed conditions once your underlying knowledge is secure, not before.

Those figures are set by CITB and were not stated on the pages reviewed for this page, so no number is quoted here. Check the current course listing or ask your approved training provider before you book, and treat any figure you see elsewhere as needing verification against CITB's own published details.

The pass mark is set by CITB and is not published on the source pages reviewed, so it is not stated here. Rather than aiming at a bare threshold, target consistent scores well above 80 per cent across mixed practice sets - that margin is what protects you when an unfamiliar scenario question appears.

Retake rules and certificate validity periods are set by CITB and were not given on the pages reviewed, so confirm both with CITB or your provider. Because validity periods are finite, diarise your renewal date as soon as you are certificated rather than discovering it has lapsed when a card check is made.

Fees vary by provider and are not published on the source pages reviewed, so no price is quoted here. Compare total cost rather than headline price: check whether the fee includes exam entry, study materials, a resit and certificate issue, since these are commonly charged separately by different providers.

Start with the legal and management framework, because duties and roles underpin every later decision. Then work through risk assessment and safe systems of work, which give you the method for answering scenario questions. Only then move to high-risk activities, occupational health and incident reporting, finishing with full mixed timed sets.

Three patterns recur: knowing a hazard but not the manager's specific duty or the correct order of actions; confusing what must be recorded and reported with what is merely good practice; and misreading scenario stems that ask for the best next step rather than the ideal outcome. Practise justifying one answer against each distractor.