The Department for Eduction has (following the recommendations made in the governments Common Sense Common Safety report), revised health and safety guidance for schools, summarising how the existing health and safety law affects schools, local authorities, governing bodies, and staff, particularly in relation to school trips. This advice has been slashed from 150 pages of unduly complex information to just 8 pages. The document aims to cut through myths relating to risk assessment and encourage schools to give pupils more opportunities to learn outside of the classroom.

The package also includes a statement from the Health and Safety Executive on how health and safety is implemented. This states: "If things do go wrong during a trip, provided sensible and proportionate steps have been taken, it is highly unlikely that there would be any breach of health and safety law involved, or that it would be in the public interest for HSE to bring a prosecution." 

However more recently a Shenfield school was fined £6,500 and ordered to pay over £2000 costs following an accident to one of its caretakers. The School in Brentwood was prosecuted by the HSE for failing to implement reasonable precautions which lead the accident in which the caretaker fell from the kitchen roof. The 54-year-old was working with a colleague on an unguarded work platform when he lost his footing and fell 1.9 metres to the ground. He broke two ribs and needed a three-inch metal plate and multiple metal screws inserted into a broken arm. The investigating HSE Inspector stated "… it could have been avoided altogether if an appropriate work platform had been provided by Mr Springett's employers. The school has a duty to protect its staff and working at height brings with it risks they should be aware of, and protect against”. 

The above articles highlight that as many schools are moving from Local Education Authority control to ‘Academy’ status, it is increasingly important that the Board of Governers and Senior Management teams receive the best health and safety advice and support. This will ensure that they not only meet their legal obligations to ensure the health, safety and welfare of the staff, students, and others, but that they achieve this with a ‘reasonable’ and common sense approach. 

Safety Management Consultancy has much experience of working in the Eduction sector and we have recently produced a pragmatic and sensible package for schools to ensure they meet their obligations without being over-zealous. Please feel free to call us for more information.

In the recent case of R v Cotswold Geotechnical Holdings Limited the jury found that Cotswold Geotechnical, a small mining company, had ignored safety guidelines which led to the death of Alexander Wright, a geologist who died when a pit collapsed. The company was fined £385,000 on the company, a fine which represented 250% of the company's turnover, and would mean it could go into liquidation as a result. An appeal to the conviction was rejected in May 2011.  

The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 came into effect in 2008 and clarifies the criminal liabilities of companies (including large organisations) where serious failures in the management of health and safety result in a fatality. This landmark piece of legislation makes the company responsible for failing to ensure a duty of care to their employees and can result in the organisation being found guilty of corporate manslaughter.

The recent case, the first of its kind, highlights the fact that the courts are willing to impose substantial and unlimited fines on companies who contravene the Act, which are calculated according to the size of the company. As this is the first case, on a fairly small company, it could be argued that we have yet to see the full power of this legislation. The real test will come when one of much larger and more complex companies falls foul of it. 

All organisations both large and small must therefore ensure that they have Health and Safety Management systems that not only ensures that serious accidents are prevented but does not fall below the standards expected. Safety Management Consultancy has a range of Consultancy services and Training designed specifically to help organisations meet these obligations. Our Policies and Procedure development can assist SME's establish a formal health and safety management system whilst our independent Health and Safety Auditing can check on the efficacy of the management systems within large corporate entities. We also offer the IOSH Safety for Senior Executives course which is specifically designed for senior personnel and includes detail on the requirements on the Act.

These days Client organisations are putting tremendous pressure on small organisations to comply with health and safety requirements before they are awarded contracts or enter onto a select list. To try and reduce the bureacracy (which none of us like), a number of Contractor schemes have been introduced to which Contractors can join to show they meet specific standards of competence in Health and Safety. These schemes include the Contractors Health and safety Assessment Scheme (CHAS), ContructionLine, SafeContractor and Safe-T-Cert. However, to join these schemes takes a considerable amount of time and effort in ensuring the health and safety management system meets the scrutiny. This is where we can help. Safety Management continues to work with a number of clients on assisting them on compliance with these schemes and we have a 100% record. For more information follow this link.