All schools have a duty to comply with the legal requirements outlined in the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and its associated regulations. Education employers have duties to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare of teachers, education staff, pupils – both in school and during off-site visits – visitors, volunteers and contractors.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is the national watchdog and regulator for work-related health, safety and illness. They acknowledge that health and safety can be unnecessarily bureaucratic and they are seeking to restore a simpler and more proportionate approach to health and safety regulation. Compliance Education can achieve this on your behalf.
The government is also seeking to put common sense back into health and safety and ease the burden imposed on organisations and business.
Compliance Education can cover your statutory health and safety management and compliance in schools responsibilities for a monthly fee of approximately £200 plus VAT.
The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and related regulations require every employee to take reasonable care for the health and safety of themselves and of other persons – pupils and visitors – who may be affected by their acts or omissions whilst at work.
Legal responsibility and accountability for health and safety lie with the employer but who this varies between types of schools:
Employers must take all reasonable measures to ensure that school premises and equipment on the premises are safe to use. They are responsible for determining and approving the health and safety policy, ensuring that resources are directed to implementing the policy and for complying with any directions given by the local council or other relevant authority concerning the health and safety of persons in school, or on school activities elsewhere. This will be through a risk assessment process. We can do all of this for you!
Senior school managers involved in the day-to-day running of the school also have responsibility for the health and safety of staff and students. Head teachers have overall responsibility within the school, including day-to-day health and safety management and the implementation of the health and safety policy. Where schools choose to become more autonomous, they should appoint a school health and safety lead officer, a school governor to champion this area and a health and safety committee. You can appoint us!
While employers may delegate specific health and safety tasks to individuals or schools, they ultimately retain overall accountability and responsibility no matter who carries out the day-to-day tasks.
The terms Responsible Person and Duty Holder are commonly used in regulations. The former is the person – a named person at each school – or organisation that has clear responsibility for the maintenance or repair of the premises, usually through an explicit agreement such as a lease or contract, or the person who has control of the premises. The Duty Holder means the employer and those in control of workplaces, who have duties under health and safety law. You must get help from a Competent Person to enable you to comply with the requirements of health and safety law. The HSE defines a competent person as “someone who has sufficient training and experience or knowledge and other qualities that allow them to assist you properly”. We will act as your Competent Person!
The HSE and local authorities are responsible for enforcing health and safety legislation. Together they ensure that duty holders manage the health and safety of their workforce and those affected by their work. The HSE is primarily responsible for enforcing health and safety law in schools and they operate from a network of regional offices.
Inspectors visit workplaces to check that people are sticking to the rules and they may take various types of enforcement action to deal with a breach of the law: issuing informal advice; improvement or prohibition notices, or prosecution when something is seriously wrong.
