Anexo VII Entrevista al profesor “C”

AUTUMN 2003

This policy is issued as a direction of CEA@Islington, acting as the Local Education Authority in Islington. As such, this policy is issued to all community and special schools, and its contents must be complied with. For voluntary aided (VA) and foundation schools, the policy is advisory, but represents best practice in dealing with this issue. We strongly advise that these schools follow the policy in full.

The purpose of the policy is to enable key health and safety managers in all educational establishments to protect the health and safety of staff, pupils, contractors and anyone else who may be affected when contractors are employed in your school.

INTRODUCTION

This guide is designed as an aid to Headteachers and Senior Managers in schools in the task of risk assessment.

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require that managers arrange a systematic general examination of all work activities and make a written assessment of significant findings. For schools, risk assessment is also a useful way of implementing the duty of care to pupils and others.

A risk assessment is nothing more than a careful examination of those things which could cause harm (hazards), in order to assess whether adequate precautions have been taken to minimise risk of injury. The process comprises 5 steps, as follows:

1. Identify significant hazards

2. Decide who may be harmed and how

3. Evaluate the risks and decide whether the existing precautions are adequate or whether more should be done

4. Identify and implement control measures 5. Monitor and review.

You will find that many hazards have already been assessed, for example the storage and use of chemicals in science and other curricular areas, cleaning materials and office supplies should already have a COSHH assessment record. There is no need to duplicate this assessment, but if there is no COSHH assessment, then make sure that it is completed during this exercise! Schools are also reminded that risk assessment is not limited to a

consideration of the built environment, but should also include the personal safety and security of staff and pupils. This will involve assessing activities, such as play time supervision and moving around the building, as well as the environment which is used.

RISK ASSESSMENT IN PRACTICE

It is important to understand that everyone has a useful role to play in risk assessment, although the responsibility for ensuring the exercise is completed rests with the Headteacher or Senior Manager and cannot be delegated.

On the following pages is a simple breakdown of the steps required to undertake an assessment of the risk(s) in an educational establishment.

STEP 1 - IDENTIFY THE HAZARDS

A hazard is anything that has the potential to cause harm.

Walk around your workplace/environment and look at what could reasonably be expected to cause harm, e.g. badly lit staircases, slippery floors. Concentrate on significant hazards, which could cause harm or injury, and especially those which would affect several people, e.g. blocked or unmarked fire escape routes or slippery floors.

Involve staff in this exercise - as assessing risk demands knowledge of activities and working practices, and this information can most effectively be obtained from staff working in areas being assessed and also from Safety Representatives. It is usually very useful in the first instance for teaching staff to be asked to do risk assessments of their individual working arrangements, whilst the premises staff consider common parts and external areas.

When beginning a risk assessment, consideration should be given to the different groups of people in the school at any time, and their ability to understand the hazards: e.g. pupils, parents, visitors, contractors, cleaners etc. Thought should be given to how they might be harmed. Existing policies and health and safety rules, accident/incident records, and manufacturers’s instructions on equipment can also highlight where hazards may exist.

Please note however that nearly all physical risks in school premises can often be managed by good planning and housekeeping, e.g. keeping the area clean and tidy; rearranging furniture; securing trailing cables etc. If there is an obvious way of eliminating or reducing the hazard altogether, then do this straight away and record that you have done it.

There are no fixed rules about how a risk assessment should be undertaken but there are a number of general principles:

• The aim is to identify the significant risks - trivial risks can be ignored.

• In most cases, the hazards must first be identified in those aspects of work (e.g. substances or equipment used, work processes or work organisation) which have the potential to cause harm. For example in schools, science departments may be assumed to present greater risks than general teaching areas, so should be looked at first.

• If there are specific Acts or Regulations with which to comply, these may help to identify the hazards - for example the COSHH Regulations (for Control of Substances Hazardous to Health).

• What actually happens in the school environment or during the work activity must be addressed; actual practice sometimes differs from the official departmental rules and this is frequently a route whereby risks

• All groups of persons and others who might be affected must be considered, e.g. maintenance staff, contractors, night workers, security staff, children, visitors, together with those who may be particularly at risk, e.g. young or inexperienced workers, those who work alone, any disabled persons.

STEP 2 – DECIDE WHO MIGHT BE HARMED AND HOW

This requires the person doing the assessment to decide who might be harmed and how this may occur. Generally it will be staff and pupils, but attention

must also be paid to:

• Parents and other visitors;

• Contractors;

• Disabled persons;

• Cleaning staff;

• Lone or out-of-hours working;

• Inexperienced staff or students.

Different groups of people will have different levels of appreciation of risk and knowledge of the school. This must be considered in setting appropriate control measures.

STEP 3 - EVALUATE THE RISKS AND DECIDE WHETHER THE EXISTING PRECAUTIONS ARE ADEQUATE OR WHETHER MORE SHOULD BE DONE

This is the most important part of the risk assessment process; the stage where we decide how serious a risk a certain hazard presents.

‘A risk is the possibility of harm arising from a hazard’

The Regulations do not lay down specific methods for risk assessment, but whatever method is used must be used consistently throughout the assessment. Islington council’s risk assessment policy has identified the following risk categories for evaluating the level of risk. They compare the frequency and severity of the potential risk, using the matrix shown below. Control measures can then be prioritised in order of the level of potential risk. Frequency:

5=Frequently: daily or weekly

4=Regularly : between weekly and once a quarter 3=Infrequently : between quarterly and annually 2=Rarely : once in 1-5 years

1=Feasible but unlikely : less than once in every five years

Severity

1=Minor injury: cuts, bruises etc unlikely to result in sick leave 2=Moderate injuries: likely to result in 1-3 days sick leave

3=Major injuries: more than 3 days sick leave – notifiable to HSE 4=Death

Action

H – High: Action immediately. M – Medium: Action within 12 months

L – Low: Action when reasonably practicable

Control measures are the measures that are put in place to remove or reduce risks. They may be repairs, new working practices or the provision of training or new equipment. It is essential that control measures are properly communicated and monitored, to make sure they are working.

STEP 4 - RECORDING THE ASSESSMENT

Written records of all risk assessments must be kept. A form for this purpose,

along with a work sheet for the evaluation of risk is provided inform EV1. Where the risk is considered to be low, either from experience or from the calculation of a risk rating, this must be stated on the form along with a

statement that no further action is then required. However, if the risk is deemed to be medium or high, the control measures must be clearly stated on the risk assessment form.

It is important that all staff are informed about hazards and understand the various control measures. This should include part time, temporary or supply staff, and is usually best done as part of induction and general health and safety briefings.

STEP 5 - MONITOR AND REVIEW

Risk assessment is not a one-off process, and there is a requirement to review assessments periodically and revise as necessary.

e.g.

• if there is high risk which is constantly changing e.g. major building works;

• if there is an accident or significant change e.g. change of use of room, new equipment, change in staff groups; or

• on an annual basis.

Risk assessments should be monitored by the School Site Safety Committee, which can also provide a forum for considering the means and priorities for controlling any risks that are beyond the control of individual departments. The outcome of the risk assessment exercise should be reported annually to the governing body.

Appendix 5.