The kids are back at school after a long summer break and as the warm weather fades to make way for cold winds, the important role that safety plays in schools and colleges will become ever more apparent.
Months before the autumn leaves fall, many schools will have devised a winter safety plan in order to safeguard the young people in their care. After all, ensuring students, and staff, safety has been part of the ethical framework for decades and schools also have legal responsibilities for safety as an integral part of the Ofsted framework.
In order to keep children safe during the winter months, schools need to be prepared for adverse weather conditions, such as heavy rain, flooding and cold temperatures.
School winter safety arrangements need to be implemented now. These arrangements should be designed to protect everyone on school property from injury, and help to prevent potentially unsafe situations being allowed to occur on and off site.
So, how do schools ensure their pupils are safe during the cold snap? Well, first of all they need to have a functional plan of what is needed to make the school safe.
RISK ASSESSMENTS
As you may know, schools have a legal duty to carry out ‘suitable and sufficient’ risk assessments. The risk assessment should detail the foreseeable risks that are significant and that are associated with the schools facilities or activities. The main element of the assessment is to make provision for the precautions needed to minimise the risks identified. There is no need to document each and every hazard that exists, but you should think about the likelihood and effects of, ice, snow, excessive water and high winds, and the effect of these, e.g. tree and branch falls, excessive leaf fall in walkways and damage to buildings. More unusual hazards can exist, such as ice and snow sliding from pitched roofs that are poorly insulated, or roof collapses on poorly constructed or maintained structures. Only local knowledge and a keen eye can decide if this is a real issue for you.
With every winter comes the chance of snow and ice, therefore headteachers need to be sensitive to the dangers winter weather can pose to children and most importantly they need to be prepared to prevent significant problems arising and to have arrangements to deal with periods of extreme weather, when it is unacceptable for normal activities to continue.
That’s why it is essential for weather procedures and practices to be established before the winter season arrives – usually during the first term of each school year – and that they take into account all the situations that may arise during this period, such as slippery ice on the school grounds, for example. They need to think about slips and trips inside from items of clothing and wet floors, and slips on ice and snow, falling and decaying leaves, and of course, rainfall. They need to ensure that the external lighting is suitable, and find out if it has been checked recently. They need to consider if vehicle transport standards are checked, in house and contract. And they need to ensure increased risk of traffic/ parking congestion and traffic accidents during bad weather, as well as make sure safety/ snow clearance arrangements are in place for other places – e.g. local sport centres.
CONTINGENCY PLANS
A school needs to think about what, if any, situations will require closure of the school?
What, if any, situations will require partial closure of the school? Is a system in place for quickly notifying parents and carers in good time of any school closures? What, if any, amendments for first aiders and equipment need to be made? What, if any, additional supervision arrangements are required for lessons, breaks and lunchtimes in bad weather. School also need to think about supervising crossing and drop-off areas. What’s more, teachers/carers and students must be reminded in good time about expected weather conditions, and clothing to be worn, especially for sports and off-site visits.
Among the most common health and safety risks during the winter months are slips and trips on ice or wet ground, be they on the playground or other routes on the school grounds. Unfortunately, thousands of people have been admitted to hospital with serious injuries after falls during wintry weather. Figures from the Hospital Episode Statistics for England show that there were 7,031 admissions to hospital in 2012/13 as a result of people falling over on snow or ice.
We encourage school leaders and assessors to consider the real risks, is it appropriate for a school to close due to 75mm of snow on the playground, when all teaching staff and parents know full well that 80 per cent of the pupils will take the free day to go sledging and snowballing while carers will have to take an enforced days leave of work, or other planned activities (and hopefully go sledging and snowballing with the kids). While everyone may enjoy the seasonal, unplanned break, fear of litigation or prosecution shouldn’t be used as the cause without very good reasons.
PREVENTION
So, to prevent accidents from happening during icy conditions, it is essential that schools stock up on salt or grit and arrange for preventative gritting and clearance prior to prevent ice and snow settling, rather than relying on post ‘fall’ gritting and clearance, which is much less effective (and much harder physical work). There is no absolute duty to clear paths or routes and liability is not increased unless an unsafe situation is actually created or made worse.
Preventative work needs to be a priority when frost, ice and snow are forecast, when walkways are likely to be damp or wet, or the ground temperatures are at or below freezing.
RoSPA encourages children to get outside and to enjoy the wintry weather, wrapping up well to keep warm and dry. Therefore, if conditions are not too dangerous, there is nothing to stop children from playing outside, so long as there is plenty of supervision. But we do advise that a consistent approach is taken to deciding when it is appropriate not to allow play externally and when out of school activities should be rearranged or curtailed. Reminding children and carers that additional cold weather sports equipment is required is always useful to ensure that exercise can be conducted as planned.
This is because it is important for schools to help pupils become more “risk aware” as opposed to “risk averse” and equip them with the skills and knowledge they need to keep themselves and others safe. Nevertheless perhaps a short assembly session on not playing on ice might be prudent.
As an employer, schools should treat risk assessment and risk management as important tools to enable children to undertake activities safely but health and safety should not be used as an excuse to cancel activities that can be conducted perfectly safely with a bit of pre planning.
A DIFFICULT DECISION
All of these things can leave headteachers with a difficult decision on their hands – whether or not to close due to the weather. Headteachers should arrange for consultation about potentially contentious issues with those affected e.g. teachers, student representatives, the PTA, sports teachers and the maintenance staff. This will give all parties confidence that the right approach is being taken.
All in all, schools have a statutory duty to take all reasonably practicable steps to ensure the safety of pupils and staff on school premises. However, it is also vital to share with pupils the skills of recognising hazards, assessing risks and taking steps to control risks. Otherwise we all run the risk of promoting a culture where fear of litigation and criticism restricts learning, growth and enjoyment. This has fundamental issues for individuals, schools and society at large. Schools play a crucial role in preparing children and young people to recognise and manage risk and should have a strong commitment to the aims of keeping pupils safe and helping them to learn how to adopt safe practices.
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 teaching safety – preparing children for adult life by teaching them to understand and manage risk.
These are all issues that are within the scope of scrutiny by other partners such as Ofsted, insurers, professional bodies, and of course parents.
FURTHER INFORMATION
www.rospa.com/schoolandcollegesafety
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