Guide
SMSTS: what the Site Management Safety Training Scheme is and who needs it
Updated
SMSTS, the Site Management Safety Training Scheme, is CITB's course for site managers, project managers and contractors' owners who plan and run construction work. It is five days, ends with an exam, and providers say the certificate lasts five years.
Who is asked for it
Principal contractors commonly ask site managers to hold SMSTS before they run a site. It is a CITB Site Safety Plus course, taught by CITB-approved providers, online or in a classroom.
The duty behind it
The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, regulation 15, say a contractor must not employ or appoint a person to work on a construction site unless that person has, or is in the process of obtaining, the necessary skills, knowledge, training and experience (legislation.gov.uk). Regulation 8 asks the same of anyone appointed as a designer or contractor (legislation.gov.uk). SMSTS is one common way a contractor shows a site manager meets that duty.
Funding
CITB's short course grant page, read on 28 October 2026, lists set grant rates for plant, scaffolding and a few other standards, and tells employers with a course not on that list to look at Employer Networks or ask their local CITB adviser (CITB short course grants). Ask the provider whether your booking qualifies before you assume it does.