A methodical approach to school safety

Educational establishments need to consider how they are meeting the standards set in The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. This ground-breaking legislation has saved thousands of lives over the years. Four decades ago there were 651 deaths recorded in workplaces covered by legislation (education was not one of the sectors). This has been reduced to 148 for all workplaces in 2012/13 and a provisional figure of 132 has been given for 2013/14.
    
This legislation has also been fundamental in the reduction of over 75 per cent of non-fatal injuries. It is an enabling piece of legislation that allows the government to bring out regulations to cover specific hazards. For example, the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations first written in 1988 with the most up to date being the amended 2002 version.   
    
So, as an educational establishment what do you need to consider? The cornerstone of all health and safety management is to assess the foreseeable significant hazards and put in place adequate controls to mitigate the risk so far as is reasonably practicable. That simple sentence contains key words and phrases that require further explanation.

Anticipating risk
‘Foreseeable’ means more than something the common man could expect to know, e.g. it is not safe to have an unguarded large hole in the ground on a busy high street. It includes what the qualified person in their role should know, e.g. a teacher would know standing on a chair to pin up students’ work is liable to fall off and hurt themselves. It also covers what specialists would be expected to be aware of. For example, an education visits adviser would know about the risk of flash flooding in a gorge when arranging a ravine walk. The importance of this word is to know your limits and ask for help if you do not know the answer.  
    
Identification of foreseeable hazards by stopping to think before you act would significantly reduce the number of accidents and injuries. Whilst considering when something is reasonably foreseeable, you should be allowing for the potential consequences; what action can be taken, regardless of cost, as this is covered under ‘so far as is reasonably practicable’, which is explained below.  
    
The Court of Appeal (Civil Division) has provided some recent case law on reasonable foreseeability in Hadlow v Peterborough City Council (2011), where it was found against the council. Staff were not following the agreed policy and an accident occurred. The council agreed the guidelines were not being followed but argued the accident was unforeseeable. The court decided the risk of having an accident, by not following the procedure, was reasonably foreseeable, and found in favour of the plaintiff.

Identifying hazards
‘Significant hazards’ are things a person could interact with where the potential outcome would be death, serious injury or long term ill health. Examples include allowing incompetent contractors to maintain your gas boiler, as they could leave it leaking carbon monoxide gas into a classroom, potentially killing the occupants in the room. The playing of contact sports is also significantly risky.             
However, schools manage this by employing qualified and competent teachers and coaches, checking the playing field and maintaining the equipment. It will not stop all accidents from happening, but it will control the risks, so far as is reasonably practicable whilst giving young people the chance to exercise and learn about how to be part of a team. In this latter example the benefits far outweigh the risks.

So far as is reasonably practicable (SFARP) is another important phrase that is well understood by British courts. When considering if something is SFARP you need to consider the benefit of putting the risk control in place against the time, inconvenience, money and effort required to make it happen. Where the benefit is high and the cost is low, then it is described as being reasonably practicable and the employer must put that control in place to comply with the law.
    
You also need to take into consideration any technical advances when deciding if something is reasonably practicable. If the Health and Safety Executive decide to take on a prosecution of a school, once they have shown there is a case to answer, the burden of proof then falls to the defendant to show what they did was reasonably practicable. So there is a presumption of guilt unless the defendant can prove otherwise, this is known as the ‘reverse burden of proof’ and is detailed in Section 40 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

Risk assessment
You also need to ensure your risk assessments are suitable and sufficient to meet the requirement of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1998. The Trade Union Congress provides the following advice for its health and safety trade union representatives: to be suitable and sufficient, a risk assessment has to identify all the potential causes of harm in the workplace. This includes not only dangerous substances and equipment, but also work processes and organisation. It must cover not only the chance of immediate injury but also the long-term hazards to health.
    
The risk assessment must be systematic, comprehensive and address what actually happens in the workplace, not what the employer says should happen. It should also cover non-routine activities such as spillages and cleaning, what happens during breakdowns, loading, unloading and maintenance operations. The assessment must cover everyone in the workplace, including groups such as maintenance staff, security staff, cleaners, and visitors (this includes students). And it should take account of preventative or precautionary measures that have already been introduced and check that these are effective in reducing risk.
    
Having suitable and sufficient risk assessments will help you to develop policies and procedures to make staff and students safe and healthy. You should also ensure all staff have adequate training to be competent to understand the risks and follow the agreed controls.

In addition to this is the need to adequately supervise staff to ensure they know what the safety procedures are – and are following them. 

The role of teachers
Teachers need to reinforce health and safety controls as often as necessary, and this will depend on the maturity of the students and the level of risk. For example, when putting away a trampoline it is necessary to demonstrate safe practice and also have close supervision of students when they are trying. This will enable the teacher to pull the student out of danger if they get it wrong. In accident reporting there are many more injuries for pupils putting a trampoline away than for when they are using the equipment.  

Schools must not be risk averse and only let adults put away the trampoline, as students need to be made risk aware. The schools’ job is to provide the necessary support to minimise the risk.
    
The Health and Safety Executive has now been running its Fee for Intervention protocol. Where it visits an education establishment and finds a material breach of the legislation, a charge of £124 plus VAT will be charged for all time related to the breach until it is satisfied necessary action is being taken to address the issue. Over the last two years the average cost to a school has been £1500. Where the standard reached is poor this can result in an employer being issued with an improvement or prohibition notice. The common reasons for schools recently have been poor asbestos management and inadequate working at height controls. Other areas of concern include separation of vehicles and pedestrians, especially at entrances and safe outdoor education.

Getting up to date
So, as the new term starts have a look at your health and safety policy. Make sure your risk assessments are up to date and record how you have consulted staff about the significant hazards. Ensure you have a health and safety training programme to help with the continual improvement of health and safety at your education establishment.
    
Make certain you have access to competent advice to help confirm the standards you have achieved meet legislative requirements and have a successful educational year where you can demonstrate sensible risk management.

Further information
www.iosh.co.uk