Is your school safe?

  • 28th June 2024

Andrew Maiden sets out a general health and safety checklist for potential hazards around your school

 

Health and safety is such a key part of managing a school effectively and safely that it is important that an assessment of potential hazards on the school campus should be carried out on a regular basis. It is most effective when it is led by the bursar along with a couple of governors to provide those extra pairs of eyes. We have compiled a checklist below to assist in this process.

■ How do you demonstrate membership of your health and safety committee?

hse.gov.uk/involvement/membership-cont.htm

■ What have you done to ensure your school, at all levels including the board, receives competent health and safety advice?

■ How are you ensuring all staff – including the board – are sufficiently trained and competent in their health and safety responsibilities?

hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg345.htm

■ How confident are you that your staff are consulted properly on health and safety matters, and that their concerns reach the appropriate level including, as necessary, the board?

hse.gov.uk/involvement

■ What systems are in place to ensure your school’s risks are assessed, and that sensible control measures are established and maintained?

hse.gov.uk/simple-health-safety/risk/index.htm

■ How well do you know what’s happening on the ground, and what audits or assessments are undertaken to inform you about what your school and contractors actually do?

■ What information does the board receive regularly about health and safety, for example, performance data and reports on injuries and work-related ill-health?

hse.gov.uk/leadership/auditing.htm

■ Do you compare your performance with others in the sector or beyond?

■ How are changes in working arrangements that have significant implications for health and safety brought to the attention of the board?

■ What do you do to ensure appropriate board-level review of health and safety?

hse.gov.uk/pubns/books/HSG65.htm

 

Andrew Maiden is editor of Independent School Management.

Andrew Maiden

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