| "A Headteacher's Safety Management Toolkit | | | | regulations and HSE will report all the breaches |
| Article" | | | | against the offence. |
| The Health and Safety Executive(HSE) as the | | | | Prosecutions |
| body responsible for enforcing safety laws in our | | | | Primary Schools - Total 16 |
| schools believes that up to 80% of accidents and | | | | Secondary Schools - Total 18 |
| incidents can be attributed to what they are calling | | | | Breaches in Primary Schools |
| now "Human Factors". An indication of how | | | | HASAW Act Sect 2 - 3 |
| Human Factors integrate with the HSE's | | | | HASAW Act Sect 3 - 6 |
| Regulatory function can be seen in the where | | | | Management of H&S Regs 4 |
| they emphasise such as contributory factors. The | | | | Electricity at Work 1 |
| list below shows where HSE have identified | | | | Construction Design & Maint Regs 1 |
| Human Factors as problems in priority areas for | | | | Construction H&S Regs 1 |
| their action.This list is extracted from the HSC's | | | | Gas Safety Inst &Use Regs |
| Strategic Plan to 2010 and beyond andappears on | | | | Workplace (H&S) regs |
| HSE's Human Factors website. | | | | Control of Asbestos Regs |
| * Prevention of musculoskeletal disorders and | | | | Breaches in Secondary Schools |
| manual handling injuries | | | | HASAW Act Sect 2 - 3 |
| * Management of work-related stress | | | | HASAW Act Sect 3 - 10 |
| * Preventing falls from height | | | | Management of H&S Regs 4 |
| * Preventing slips and trips | | | | Electricity at Work |
| * Preventing workplace transport accidents | | | | Construction Design & Maint Regs |
| * Human factors in design (e.g. alarm handling in | | | | Construction H&S Regs 1 |
| control rooms, vehicle cab design etc) | | | | Gas Safety Inst &Use Regs 1 |
| * The design and effectiveness of procedures | | | | Workplace (H&S) regs 1 |
| * Human reliability - human error and systems | | | | Control of Asbestos Regs 6 |
| failures e.g. maintenance error | | | | If you check the figures above the secondary |
| * Assessing organisational change and its | | | | figures do not add up to 18. This is because, as I |
| implications | | | | explained above, often more than one breach is |
| * Effects of organisational culture | | | | involved in an offence or a enforcement notice. |
| * Communications and their effects on health and | | | | All Enforcement Notices in Schools |
| safety | | | | Primary Schools Total 77 |
| * Staffing levels and workload | | | | Secondary Schools Total 137 |
| * Fatigue from working patterns - shiftwork and | | | | Improvement Notices |
| overtime | | | | Primary School Total 63 |
| * Training and competence | | | | Secondary School Total 102 |
| You may wonder why I've started off with | | | | Prohibition Notices |
| Human Factors but just look at this list again. | | | | Primary Schools Total 14 |
| HSE never rush into enforcement and making | | | | Secondary Schools Total 35 |
| prosecutions without informing and reinforming the | | | | Made up of Breaches(Primary Schools) |
| public. | | | | HASAW Act Sect 2 38 |
| Now add up all the functions where management | | | | HASAW Act Sect 3 41 |
| can make improvements on what HSE say is | | | | Management of H&S Regs 42 |
| 80% of accidents and where their priority areas | | | | Electricity at Work 6 |
| are. | | | | Construction Design & Maint 1 |
| Got it? | | | | COSHH 4 |
| What this tells us is where HSE will be focusing | | | | Prov&Use of Work Equipment 4 |
| over the next period of time - managing safety. | | | | Manual Handling 3 |
| This is confirmed by work which I have done on | | | | Workplace (H&S) regs 26 |
| Head teacher's Safety Management Toolkit user's | | | | Control of Asbestos Regs 7 |
| behalf by revisiting HSE's Database of | | | | This may not mean a lot to a non- safety |
| Enforcement and this and a subsequent article | | | | professional but we can look at this another way. |
| gives information and analyses the information. | | | | What breaches occur in small numbers? |
| You can see information on this Toolkit and get | | | | Well it appears to me that emphasis on CDM, |
| access to the Analysis at | | | | COSHH and Manual Handling must have been dealt |
| This article looks at the raw data and makes | | | | with fairly well by schools. |
| some comments and observations on Enforcing | | | | Alternatively relatively few accidents may have |
| School Safety.To be able to do this I have gone | | | | happened to be reported under the RIDDORs |
| through HSE databases for the last 5 years and | | | | Regulations i.e there may have been accidents or |
| extracted all the Education related Enforcement | | | | incidents but not frequent or serious enough to |
| actions. | | | | appear on the HSE radar. |
| These include : | | | | What isn't there at all? |
| Enforcement Orders | | | | There are absolutely no Display Screen Equipment |
| These are orders issued by Inspectors to: | | | | Regulations notices let alone any prosecutions. I |
| Prohibit an unsafe action or activity either | | | | think most of us would not be too surprised not |
| immediately or within a specified time | | | | to see any references to the Personal Protective |
| frame,(Prohibition Notice) | | | | Equipment Regulations or those covering Noise. |
| Or, | | | | However, since there has been so much emphasis |
| Improve an unsafe activity or condition again | | | | on DSE Regs and schools are now crammed with |
| within a time frame.(Improvement Notice) | | | | PCs and ICT it seems that DSE Regs are not high |
| These orders are the major part of HSE's | | | | on HSE's priorities. |
| enforcement activity;for example there were 214 | | | | NB this does not mean there will never be |
| Orders made against schools and employers over | | | | enforcement and there is a requirement for a |
| the time period of the Database,(approx. 5 years) | | | | Risk Assessment to be carried out against these |
| whilst there were only 34 prosecutions. | | | | Regulations even if the RA says minimal or no |
| Enforcement Notices are Orders and need to be | | | | significant risk and Action: No action! |
| taken very seriously by anyone who gets one as | | | | What is there a lot of notices issued for? |
| HSE will prosecute if a Notice is ignored. | | | | Health and Safety at Work Act Sections 2 & 3 |
| Ignoring an Enforcement Notice is actually given | | | | are "catch all" breaches and essentially Section 2 |
| as a criterion for prosecution in their Enforcement | | | | says "not ensuring employees safety" and Section |
| Policy document. | | | | 3 "not ensuring the safety of others(non |
| Let us just look at what the situation actually is in | | | | employeesi.e pupils and visitors/contractors)". |
| schools as regards numbers of prosecutions and | | | | The largest number of notices arise around the |
| notices. | | | | Management of Health and Safety at Work |
| Prosecutions | | | | Regulations. This is relatively new and the focus is |
| In 2004/5 there were 712 prosecutions in total | | | | to make sure that dutyholders manage |
| made by HSE in which they secured about 95% | | | | safety.This is where there is likely to be increasing |
| success of conviction. | | | | emphasis for the future. |
| The total number of prosecutions over the time | | | | There are also 26 notices around breaches of the |
| frame for the HSE Database is just over 4000, | | | | Workplace(H&S) Regulations. This can be partly |
| which shows that schools and education with 34 | | | | explained by a HSE initiative started in Kent to |
| prosecutions account for less than 1% of all | | | | ensure regulation of site traffic and that |
| prosecutions. | | | | pedestrians were separated from it. |
| However, some extremely high profile cases | | | | So, quite a few of these Workplace Regs |
| from the education sector do not appear on | | | | breaches are about site traffic, school buses |
| HSE's database. | | | | whilst others are about unsafe structures in the |
| This is always the case for any work related | | | | school. |
| death which would be prosecuted by the Crown | | | | Comments on Enforcement |
| Prosecution(England and Wales) or the Procurator | | | | As I indicated above we can get inside the mind |
| Fiscal(Scotland). | | | | of HSE by looking at their Plans and Policies. |
| Thus, a teacher prosecuted for a death occurring | | | | They quite openly tell us that:a) Enforcement will |
| on a school trip falls outside HSE's database. | | | | be used to drive Plans and Policy.b) Enforcement |
| However,they have reported two prosecutions | | | | will be targeted at the most serious risks.c) |
| where children have been injured on trips and HSE | | | | Enforcement will be targeted to improve |
| has followed the incident up with a prosecution. | | | | standards.d) Their evidence shows and confirms |
| One of these was a prosecution of both the | | | | that enforcement is an effective motivator and |
| Employer(Council) and the Head teacher. | | | | deterrent.e) They believe that enforcement plays |
| Looking at the actual figures of breaches involved | | | | an important role in securing compliance.f) That |
| in prosecutions gives us some indication of where | | | | enforcement in the form of prosecutions comes |
| actions are occurring now and later we shall look | | | | about mainly from investigations into reports |
| at the breaches involved in enforcement orders | | | | received on serious incidents.(about 90 -95%) |
| which may give us a clue to future actions. | | | | We'll look at actual examples of all these in |
| HSE reports Breaches against each prosecution or | | | | another article and see what specific offences are |
| notice. A Breach indicates the specific law(s) or | | | | most and least common and what other lessons |
| regulation(s) which is cited in relation to the | | | | we can learned to maintain schools as safe |
| offence. | | | | learning environments and to ensure the health |
| I have indicated the singular and plural above | | | | and safety of our children and staff. |
| because one offence can breach several laws and | | | | |