When it comes to health and safety management in schools, RoSPA recommends a whole school approach to teaching safely – ensuring that facilities and activities are suitably safe, and preparing children for adult life by teaching them to understand and manage risk.
The Health and Safety at Work Act of 1974 imposes a duty on all employers to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of employees and others (such as school visitors and pupils). It is also important for the school to help pupils become more risk aware as opposed to risk averse and equip the citizens of tomorrow with the skills and knowledge they need to keep themselves (and others) safe.
The growth of free schools, in particular academies, means that employer responsibilities are being transferred from local education authorities to the governors and heads of individual schools. In many cases, there is a lack of health and safety expertise in these smaller organisations.
Managing health & safety
School life is made up of many activities which take place in a wide range of settings both inside and outside the classroom. Weighing up the risks and benefits of learning outside the classroom continues to be of concern to school staff: on the one hand they wish for the children to experience challenging and exciting activities, but on the other they do not want to put children at risk or expose them to danger. So where do we go from here?
As an employer, schools should treat risk assessment and risk management as important tools to enable children to undertake activities safely – and not to prevent activities from taking place. Schools have a legal duty to carry out appropriate risk assessments in accordance with Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 for their buildings and activities. A risk assessment will record any significant hazards and will identify those who could be affected, as well as exploring what can be done to control the risks (our Workplace Safety Blog’s “The Five Step Guide to Risk Assessment” is a useful starting point). For example, when planning school visits, it is important to involve the children in the risk assessment process. Not only might they be able to identify hazards which staff may not have initially thought of, but once the hazards have been highlighted, the children can make a contribution towards controlling the risks, both before and during the activity.
Getting the balance right
It is worth noting, that under the recently revised Ofsted Inspection Framework, inspectors will examine a ‘pupil’s ability to assess and manage risk appropriately and keep themselves safe.’ In summary, it is about striking the right balance by keeping risksunder control and judging the risk of doing something against the cost of not doing it.
As the UK’s oldest safety charity, with a mission to save lives and reduce injuries, RoSPA advocates that schools take an approach which ensures that children and staff are ‘as safe as necessary, not as safe as possible.’ Injuries from leisure activities show that children are far more likely to get hurt playing football or rugby at school than going on a school hiking trip, for instance. Statistics also show that accidental deaths are very rare on school trips – with one child dying each year, on average, in the UK. These figures are set against the seven to 10 million days of activity that the Government estimates take place outside UK classrooms annually. Meanwhile, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has brought only two prosecutions involving school visits in the five-year period between 2005/6 and 2009/10.
The curriculum
Incorporating safety and risk education into the curriculum as part of school policy can pay dividends. Risk education is not about isolating pupils from all potential hazards. It is about equipping them to deal with situations safely (see www.lasersafety.org.uk for information about interactive safety education schemes that operate across the country).
Sharing good practice with your counterparts in other schools is a good way to go, as is making effective use of local and national safety organisations.
Operationally, a systematic approach to managing safety risks helps avoid costly accidents, disruption losses and damage to the school’s morale and reputation. Good health and safety management pays dividends, by preventing injuries and lost staff time by averting serious preventable injuries; work‑related illnesses such as stress and back pain; lost work days due to work-related illness and workplace injury; and the cost and disruption of damage only accidents.
Remember, accident and ill-health costs can quickly mount up and while some are recoverable, others such as uninsured costs of tens of thousands of pounds can be hidden. This is why it makes good business sense to save money by avoiding accidents and ill-health related absence, especially when revenue is on the decline.
Conclusion
When developing a health and safety policy, try to focus on encouraging a school ethos that positively promotes safety and health. It should be a continuous planned process; find out what the children know and understand about safety (for example, you could involve them in safety audits, surveys and research projects), consult the school council, and remember to seek the ideas and views of non-teaching members of staff. Look for opportunities to link your policy to other initiatives, such as a local Healthy Schools programme and the development of a School Travel Plan.
The main elements of a school’s health and safety policy should include a statement of intent, setting out the general aims of the policy, and details of communication and lines of responsibility – think about who is going to do what, make sure everyone understands their responsibilities and devise a communications strategy that shows that safety is a priority. The policy should also have codes of practice, rules, procedures, including how risks are assessed and controlled, and how injuries are dealt with and recorded, as well as details of how the policy will be implemented, including any necessary training.
What’s more, there should be arrangements for how the policy is to be monitored and reviewed. It will take time before a review can be made into the effectiveness of health and safety plans, and it is important that any lessons learned are fed back into future improvement plans and policies.
Further information
www.rospa.com/school
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