‘Every child deserves to be the best they can be’
Scope: EMLC Academy Trust & Academies within the TrustVersion: V2 / Filename:
EMLC Academy Trust Health and Safety Policy
Approval: 12th October 2016
This policy was ratified by the EMLC Academy Trust on:12th October 2016 / Next Review: 12th October 2017
This policy will be reviewed annually by the DSW Group and approved by the Strategic Board.
Owner:
EMLC AT Strategic Board / Union Status:
Not applicable
Policy type:
Statutory / Replaces Academy’s current policy
Guidance:
Health and safety: advice on legal duties and powers. For local authorities, school leaders, school staff and governing bodies (DfE, 2014)
School trips and outdoor learning activities: Tackling the health and safety myths (HSE, 2011)
Working with display screen equipment (DSE) (HSE, 2013)
Enforcement Policy Statement (HSE, 2009)
1
HEALTH AND SAFETY POLICY
1. Introduction
Children should be able to experience a wide range of activities. Health and safety measures should help them to do this safely, not stop them. Common sense should be used in assessing and managing the risks of any activity. Health and safety procedures should always be proportionate to the risks of an activity.
2. Purpose
EMLC Academy Trust will strive to achieve the highest standards of health, safety and welfare consistent with their responsibilities under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and other statutory and common law duties; this policy has been developed to meet these requirements and regulations. EMLC Academy Trust is responsible for health and safety, though some responsibilities may be delegated to individual academies.
This policy sets out how these duties will be conducted and includes a description
Details of how these areas of risk will be addressed are given in the arrangements section.
Staff should be given the training they need so they can keep themselves and children safe and manage risks effectively.
3. Scope
Employees have a duty to look after their own and others’ health and safety. Employers, school staff and others also have a duty under common law to take care of pupils in the same way as a prudent parent.
This policy will be brought to the attention of, and/or issued to, all members of staff and a reference copy will be kept in the academy office.
The policy should be read and applied in conjunction with other relevant policies, including Pupils on Educational Visits, Safeguarding, Safer Recruitment, Fire Safety, Emergency Academy Closure, Accident and Incident Management and other relevant policies.
4. Assessing and Managing Risks
Health and safety law requires EMLC Academy Trust to assess the risks to the health and safety of staff and others affected by their activities. The terms risk assessment and risk management are used to describe the process of thinking about the risks of any activity and the steps taken to counter them. Sensible management of risk does not mean that a separate written risk assessment is required for every activity.
A common sense and proportionate approach should always be taken, remembering that in schools risk assessment and risk management are tools to enable children to undertake activities safely, and not prevent activities from taking place. Sensible risk management cannot remove risk altogether but it should avoid needless or unhelpful paperwork.
Some activities, especially those happening away from the academy, can involve higher levels of risk. If these are annual or infrequent activities, a review of an existing assessment may be all that is needed. If it is a new activity, a specific assessment of significant risks must be carried out. Principals should ensure that the person assigned with the assessment task understands the risks and is familiar with the activity that is planned. Where a risk assessment is carried out the employer must record the significant findings of the assessment.
However, academies need not carry out a risk assessment every time they undertake an activity that usually forms part of the academy day; any risks of these routine activities should already have been considered when agreeing the academy’s general health and safety policies and procedures. A regular check to make sure the precautions remain suitable is all that is required, unless the regular check highlights the need for further action.
5. Legal Action
Criminal cases relating to accidents in academies are very rare. Academies and teachers may worry about being prosecuted if an accident occurs; the HSE’s main interest is in real risks arising from serious breaches of the law. The HSE wants to encourage all academies and Academy Trusts to remove wasteful bureaucracy – so that they focus only on real risks and not on paperwork.
Sometimes civil proceedings in negligence can be taken against an employer or an individual member of staff. However, legal action for negligence against academies is only likely to be successful if:
· the academy has not taken care of a child in a way that a prudent parent would have done;
· as a result, the child has been injured; and
· the injury was a foreseeable consequence.
Further details regarding what the HSE takes into account when deciding whether to prosecute following an accident can be found in the HSE’s Enforcement Policy Statement.
6. Organisation
As the employer, EMLC Academy Trust has overall responsibility for Health and Safety in the academy.
At a school level duties and responsibilities have been assigned to staff and governors as detailed below:
i. Responsibilities of the Local Governing Body/Academy Improvement Board
The Local Governing Body is responsible for ensuring health and safety management systems are in place and effective. A Health & Safety Governor (Appendix 1) must be appointed to receive relevant information, monitor the implementation of policies and procedures and to feedback health and safety issues and identified actions to the Local Governing Body.
The Local Governing body will receive regular reports from the Principal or other nominated member of staff in order to enable them to provide and prioritise resources for health and safety issues.
Where required, the Local Governing Body will seek specialist advice on health and safety.
ii. Responsibilities of the Principal
Overall responsibility for the day to day management of health and safety in accordance with this policy rests with the Principal.
The Principal has responsibility for:
· Co-operating with EMLC Academy Trust and the Local Governing Body to enable Health and Safety Policy and procedures to be implemented and complied with.
· Communicating the policy and other appropriate health and safety information to all relevant people including contractors.
· Ensuring effective arrangements are in place to pro-actively manage health and safety by conducting and reviewing inspections and risk assessments and implementing required actions.
· Reporting to the Local Governing Body and EMLC Academy Trust on health and safety performance and any safety concerns/issues which may need to be addressed by the allocation of funds.
· Ensuring that the premises, plant and equipment are maintained in a safe and serviceable condition.
· Reporting to the EMLC Academy Trust any significant risks which cannot be rectified within the establishment’s budget.
· Ensuring all staff are competent to carry out their roles and are provided with adequate information, instruction and training.
· Ensuring consultation arrangements are in place for staff and their trade union representatives (where appointed) and recognising the right of trade unions in the workplace to require a health and safety committee to be set up.
· Monitoring purchasing and contracting procedures to ensure health and safety is included in specifications & contract conditions.
Whilst overall responsibility for health and safety cannot be delegated, the Principal may choose to delegate certain tasks to other members of staff (See Appendix 1). Other staff holding posts of special responsibility are detailed in Appendix 1.
iii. Responsibilities of employees
Under the Health and Safety at Work Act etc. 1974 all employees have general health and safety responsibilities. All employees are obliged to take care of their own health and safety whilst at work along with that of others who may be affected by their actions.
All employees have responsibility to:
· Take reasonable care for the health and safety of themselves and others in undertaking their work.
· Comply with the academy’s Health and Safety Policy and procedures at all times.
· Report all accidents and incidents in line with the reporting procedure.
· Co-operate with the academy management on all matters relating to health and safety.
· Not to intentionally interfere with or misuse any equipment or fittings provided in the interests of health safety and welfare.
· Report all defects in condition of premises or equipment and any health and safety concerns immediately to their line manager.
· Ensure that they only use equipment or machinery that they are competent/have been trained to use.
· Make use of all necessary control measures and personal protective equipment provided for safety or health reasons.
iv. Arrangements
The following list of arrangements covers the key elements of the Health and Safety Policy.
a. Risk Assessments
b. Offsite visits
c. Health and Safety Monitoring and Inspections
d. Fire Evacuation and other Emergency Arrangements
e. Fire Prevention, Testing of Equipment
f. First Aid and Medication
g. Accident Reporting Procedures
h. Health and Safety Information and Training
i. Personal safety / lone Working
j. Premises Work Equipment
k. Flammable and Hazardous Substances
l. Asbestos
m. Manual Handling
n. Contractors
o. Work at Height
p. Display Screen Equipment (DSE)
q. Vehicles on Site
r. Lettings
s. Minibuses
t. Stress
u. Legionella
v. Ebola
a. RISK ASSESSMENTS
General Risk Assessments
The academy conducts and documents risk assessments for all activities presenting a significant risk. These are co-ordinated by a named staff member and are approved by the Principal.
Risk assessments are available for all staff to view and are held centrally in the academy office. These assessments will be reviewed on an annual basis or when the work activity changes, whichever is the soonest. Staff will be made aware of any changes to risk assessments relating to their work.
Individual Risk Assessments
Specific assessments relating to pupil(s) or staff member(s) are held on that individual’s file and will be undertaken by the Principal.
Such risk assessments will be reviewed on a regular basis.
It is the responsibility of all staff to inform their line manager of any medical conditions or pregnancy which may impact upon their work and these may require an individual risk assessment.
Curriculum Activities
Risk assessments for curriculum activities will be carried out by the Principal/senior leadership team using the relevant codes of practice.
Whenever a new course is adopted or developed all activities are checked against these codes of practice and significant findings incorporated into texts in daily use.
In addition, the following publications are used within the academy as sources of model risk assessments:
Be Safe! Health and Safety in primary science and technology, 4th Edition ASE
National Society for Education in Art & Design (NSEAD) http://www.nsead.org/hsg/index.aspx
Safe Practice in Physical Education and School Sport, Association for Physical Education ‘afPE’ http://www.afpe.org.uk/
b. OFF-SITE VISITS
EMLC Academy Trust has formally adopted Learning Outside the Classroom National Guidance as Academy Trust Employer Guidance and has developed a separate policy for off-site visits - Pupils on Educational Visits Policy. Employees of EMLC Academy Trust must follow the requirements of Learning Outside the Classroom National Guidance.
The member of staff planning the trip will submit all relevant paperwork and risk assessments relating to the trip to the academy’s Educational Visits Co-ordinator(s) (see Appendix 1) who will check the documentation and planning of the trip and if acceptable initially approve the visit before referring to the Principal.
c. HEALTH AND SAFETY MONITORING AND INSPECTION
A general inspection of the site will be conducted on a termly basis and be undertaken/co-ordinated by a named staff member The inspection safety checklist must be completed (Appendix 2). The areas identified in the checklist are intended to be representative of possible areas for consideration during Health and Safety inspections and should be adapted and adopted to suit each academy’s specific circumstances.
Whilst a termly inspection period is suggested this frequency may be adjusted to suit the academy’s size/level of risk, for example larger sites may decide to inspect a different area(s) or block(s) ensuring that the whole site has been inspected over the course of a 12 month cycle.
All staff should be vigilant for any health and safety issues in the academy and report any defects or concerns to their line manager immediately.
The person(s) undertaking inspection will complete a report in writing and submit this to the Principal. Responsibility for following up items detailed in the safety inspection report will rest with a named staff member
A named governor (see Appendix 1) will be involved/undertake an audit of the academy’s health and safety management systems on an annual basis and report back to both the relevant sub-committee and full governing body meetings. Advice and an inspection checklist can be found in Appendix 3.
Inspections will be conducted jointly with the establishment’s health and safety representative(s) if possible.
d. FIRE EVACUATION AND OTHER EMERGENCY ARRANGEMENTS
The Principal is responsible for ensuring the academy’s fire risk assessment is undertaken and implemented. The fire risk assessment is located in the academy’s fire log book and will be reviewed on an annual basis.
Emergency Procedures
Fire and emergency evacuation procedures are detailed in EMLC Academy Trust Fire Safety Policy and a summary posted in each classroom. These procedures will be reviewed at least annually and are made available to all staff as part of the academy’s induction process.
Evacuation procedures are also made available to all contractors / visitors.
Emergency exits, fire alarm call points, assembly points etc. are clearly identified by safety signs and notices.