SSSTS vs SMSTS: what is the difference and which do you need?

Overview: SSSTS and SMSTS at a glance

Both courses are developed by CITB (Construction Industry Training Board) and delivered by approved training providers across the UK. They focus on health and safety management in construction, but at different levels:

• SSSTS (Site Supervisors' Safety Training Scheme): A 2-day course aimed at supervisors, foremen, chargehands, and anyone who directly supervises construction workers on site.
• SMSTS (Site Management Safety Training Scheme): A 5-day course aimed at site managers, project managers, and anyone with overall management responsibility for health and safety on a construction site.

Both certificates are valid for five years. Both are widely required by principal contractors as a condition of working in a supervisory or management role on site. Neither is a legal requirement in itself, but they are the industry standard for demonstrating competence in construction safety management.

Who needs which?

The distinction comes down to role and responsibility:

SSSTS is for:

• Site supervisors who oversee a team of workers on a specific task or area.
• Foremen and chargehands responsible for day-to-day work activities.
• Tradespeople who have been promoted to a supervisory position.
• Anyone who directs work activities on site but does not have overall site management responsibility.

SMSTS is for:

• Site managers with overall responsibility for health and safety on the project.
• Project managers overseeing construction delivery.
• Anyone fulfilling the role of principal contractor's site representative under CDM 2015.
• Construction managers, contracts managers, and construction directors who visit sites regularly.

If someone supervises workers but reports to a site manager, SSSTS is usually the right fit. If someone is the most senior person on site and carries the buck for safety, they need SMSTS. Some employers require SMSTS for all management-grade staff, even those who are not permanently based on site.

Course content differences

SSSTS covers the core knowledge that a site supervisor needs to manage safety in their area of responsibility:

• The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and key regulations.
• Risk assessment at the task level.
• Method statements and safe systems of work.
• Toolbox talks and communicating safety information to workers.
• Common site hazards: working at height, excavations, electricity, manual handling.
• Reporting accidents and near misses.

SMSTS covers everything in SSSTS plus the broader management and legal framework:

• CDM 2015 in depth: duties of the client, principal designer, principal contractor, and contractors.
• Construction phase plans and pre-construction information.
• Managing subcontractors and their safety performance.
• Accident investigation and root cause analysis.
• Environmental management on construction sites.
• Legal liability: corporate manslaughter, directors' duties, enforcement action.
• Setting up and managing a site safety management system.

The additional depth in SMSTS reflects the wider responsibility of a site manager. Where a supervisor needs to manage safety within their team, a site manager needs to set up the systems that make the whole site safe and ensure every contractor on site is meeting the required standard.

Duration and cost

SSSTS:

• Duration: 2 days (typically consecutive).
• Cost: £200 to £300, depending on the training provider and location.
• Assessment: Delegates complete a short written assessment at the end of the course.

SMSTS:

• Duration: 5 days (can be delivered as a block or split across two weeks).
• Cost: £400 to £600, depending on the training provider and location.
• Assessment: A more substantial assessment covering the full course content.

CITB levy-registered employers can claim grants towards the cost of both courses. At the time of writing, the CITB grant for SMSTS is £120 and for SSSTS is £45. The grant does not cover the full cost, but it helps offset it, particularly for employers training multiple members of staff.

Both courses are available as classroom-based training and, since the pandemic, some providers offer them in a virtual classroom format. Check with the provider that their virtual delivery is CITB-approved.

Renewal and refresher courses

Both certificates are valid for five years from the date of issue. Renewal requires completing a refresher course before the certificate expires:

• SSSTS refresher: 1 day. Covers updates to legislation and best practice since the original course.
• SMSTS refresher: 2 days. Covers legislative updates, case studies, and refreshes the management-level content.

If the certificate expires before the refresher is completed, the holder must retake the full course (2 days for SSSTS, 5 days for SMSTS). This is a significant cost in both time and money, so it is important to track expiry dates and book refreshers well in advance.

For employers, the risk is straightforward. If a site supervisor's SSSTS or a site manager's SMSTS expires, they may be turned away from sites that require valid certificates. A principal contractor who checks credentials at the gate and finds an expired SMSTS for their site manager has an immediate compliance problem. For more on how expired credentials create site access issues, see our guide to what happens when cards expire.

Tracking certificates across your team

If you employ or manage multiple supervisors and site managers, tracking SSSTS and SMSTS expiry dates is essential. The common failure is discovering that a certificate has expired only when someone is challenged at a site gate or during an audit.

A centralised system that stores certificate details, expiry dates, and sends automated alerts at 90 and 30 days before expiry gives you enough time to book the refresher course and avoid any gap in coverage.

AttendIQ stores all training certificates against each worker's profile, including SSSTS and SMSTS. Expiry alerts are sent automatically, and access rules can flag or block workers whose management-level certificates have lapsed. You can also run reports to see which members of your team hold SSSTS, which hold SMSTS, and when each certificate is due for renewal.