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