Skills for Life: Personal Safety
Personal safety is Pearson Skills for Life Unit SfL 21, in which learners recognise hazards and dangers that could affect their safety and plan actions to stay safe. It is one 20 hour unit that learners combine with others into a Pearson Skills for Life or Skills for Work Award, Certificate or Diploma, achieved once at a single level from Entry 1 to Level 2. Literacy sits in the criteria: stating, outlining and identifying risks and actions at Entry level, then writing a structured risk assessment and safety plan at Level 1 and Level 2 and explaining how it keeps learners safe. Numeracy demand is low: Pearson maps risk rating and prioritising actions, but no criterion asks for calculation.
- Awarding body
- Pearson
- Level
- Entry Level 1 to Level 2
- Guided learning hours
- 20
- First taught
- September 2027
- Amount of literacy work
- Medium
- Amount of numeracy work
- Low
- Specification
- Open the specification
How this unit is assessed
- Entry Level (Entry 1, Entry 2, Entry 3): One assessment criterion at each of Entry 1, Entry 2 and Entry 3: learners state, outline or identify reasons why their personal safety might be at risk and actions they can take to stay safe or reduce the risks. There are no mandatory evidence requirements; the centre sets its own assignment (Pearson's Authorised Assignment Brief is optional), assesses it internally, and Pearson quality assures it through standards verification. Graded Pass or Fail. 20 guided learning hours.
- Level 1 and Level 2: One assessment criterion at each level: at Level 1 learners create a simple personal safety risk assessment and basic plan for some different settings, and at Level 2 a detailed risk assessment and plan for home, the community and online, explaining how it keeps them safe. Evidence type is chosen by the centre, internally assessed by the centre and quality assured by Pearson through standards verification. Graded Pass or Fail. 20 guided learning hours.
Skills that use Connectives and syntax
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Explaining how safety steps keep you safe
Level 1 learners describe the hazards and the actions they currently take in each setting, and Level 2 learners explain the steps they take and how their plan ensures their safety across home, the community and online. This requires a reasoned explanation rather than a list and is required by the Level 1 and Level 2 essential information.
Literacy: Connectives and syntax, Planning and organising for different purposes, audiences and context
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils write three sentences explaining why wearing a seat belt or a cycle helmet keeps them safe, each using because or so that.
- Year 8
- Pupils write a paragraph explaining how two of their own safety habits, such as telling someone where they are going, reduce the risk of harm.
- Year 9
- Pupils write a short explanation of how their safety plan protects them in three settings, linking each hazard to the action that reduces it with connectives such as therefore and as a result.
Show the specification wording and the LNF statements
Where it is in the specification: Unit SfL 21, Assessment criteria, Level 2, page 99; Essential information for assessment decisions, Level 1 and Level 2, page 100
“explain the steps they currently take to keep themselves safe in their identified settings”
Progression step 3
I can use an increasing range of connectives to organise my ideas in sentences, paragraphs and whole texts.
I can write a comprehensive account of a topic, theme or viewpoint.
Progression step 4
I can use summary, discussion of issues, detailed explanations and logic when covering a topic.
I can use a range of connectives specifically when organising my ideas in whole texts for different purposes.
Good to know
- The unit is "SfL 21" with "20" guided learning hours in the unit summary table (Section 3, page 5), and "Learners can only achieve each unit once, at a single level" (Rules of Combination, page 6).
- Each level sets a minimum number of examples, from "at least three familiar hazards" at Entry 1 to "three detailed risk assessments" at Level 2 (Essential information for assessment decisions, page 100).
- Centres choose the evidence: "there are no mandatory evidence requirements and centres can select the type of evidence" (Essential information for assessment decisions, page 100), so Entry learners can show their understanding orally or visually.
- Assessments "can include both practical and written tasks" and are "independently completed as a distinct activity after the required teaching has taken place" (Assessment of units, page 9).
- Learners can be assessed "in Welsh or English" (Language of assessment, page 8).
- AI must be acknowledged and work must be in learners' own words: "If AI is used, the final submission must be in the learner's own words and reflect their own effort" (Requirements relating to permitted/prohibited resources, page 101).
Links with other qualifications
WJEC also offers a Personal safety Skills for Life unit, also 20 guided learning hours. The WJEC unit spreads its literacy across four learning outcomes, from explaining what personal safety means to analysing and evaluating safety actions at Level 2. The Pearson unit has one criterion per level and concentrates the writing in a personal safety risk assessment and plan at Level 1 and Level 2. GCSE Health and Social Care and Childcare shares writing about hazards and how to keep people safe, and GCSE English Language and Literature and GCSE Cymraeg Language and Literature share explaining and organising information for a reader. Within the Skills Suite, Basic first aid and Online safety share describing hazards and the actions that reduce them.
Source: Pearson Entry Level 1 to Level 2 Skills for Life Award, Certificate and Diploma specification, Issue 1, August 2026, Unit SfL 21: Personal safety.