What counts as lone working?
A lone worker is anyone who works without close or direct supervision. That covers many more people than the phrase suggests: home care staff between visits, cleaners on an early shift, security officers, delivery drivers, engineers on call, estate agents at a viewing, and whoever opens or locks up a site.
Working in a building with other people in it can still count if nobody would notice you were in trouble.
Is it legal to work alone?
In most cases, yes. No law prohibits lone working. The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 requires employers to protect the health and safety of their employees, and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require a suitable and sufficient risk assessment of the work.
Some higher risk activities, including entry into confined spaces, should not be carried out by one person, and the HSE guidance on lone working sets out where a second worker is needed.
Is lone worker training a legal requirement?
Training sits inside the general duty in section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, which names information, instruction, training and supervision together. Lone workers receive the least supervision of anyone, so the other three have to carry more weight.
What should a lone worker risk assessment cover?
Whether the task can be done safely by one person, the risk of violence or aggression, the worker’s health and experience, how they raise an alarm, what happens if a check-in is missed, and access to first aid and welfare facilities.
It needs reviewing when the job, the site, the hours or the individual change. A round that was fine at 2pm is a different assessment at 11pm.
How should lone workers check in?
Agree the schedule before the shift starts, name the person who is receiving the check-ins, and set the point at which no contact triggers a search rather than another text message. Scheduled calls, a lone worker app with a panic button, or a supervisor sign-off all work.
The method matters far less than someone noticing inside an agreed window.
Who needs lone working training?
Anyone who works alone, and the managers who plan their shifts. The one to two hour course covers the legal position, risk assessment, check-in procedures, personal safety and conflict avoidance, emergency procedures, and the employer’s side of a safe system of work, ending with a CPD accredited certificate.
Staff who face the public alone often take conflict management for difficult customers alongside it.
