Health and safety law requires employers to appoint someone competent to help them meet their health and safety duties. A competent person is someone with the necessary skills, knowledge and experience to give sensible advice about managing the health and safety risks at the school. This could include one or a combination of sources:
- Direct from the school employer e.g a local authority or Academy Trust
- One or more of the staff at the school e.g bursar; head of department, staff members with specialist curriculum knowledge.
- By arranging support from outside the school
In many schools, most risks can be managed by the senior leadership team with the help of staff and the school employer.
GET A COMPETENT ADVICE
As an employer, you must appoint someone competent to help you meet your health and safety duties. A competent person is someone with the necessary skills, knowledge and experience to manage health and safety.
School management can appoint one or combination of :
head of school
your skilled workers
someone from outside for the consultancy
The owner or head can manage most aspects with the help of team. But if you are confident of your ability and skills to manage the health and safety in school, you may relay on some external consultant help or advice.
there are number of different sources of advice . These includes:
- Trade associations
- Safety groups
- Consultants registered on the Occupational Safety and Health Consultants
- Health and safety training providers
- Health and safety equipment suppliers
Deciding what help you need is very important. Unless you are clear about what you want, you probably won’t get the help you need.
Things to consider when using external help
- Make sure you clearly explain what you need and check that they understand you. Ask them to explain what they understand the work to be and what they will do, when they will do it and what they will charge you.
- Check for evidence of relevant training/knowledge, such as formal qualifications or practical experience of providing advice in your industry/area of work. Can they explain why they are competent to advise you on your particular problem?
- Shop around to find the right help at the right price. If you were buying equipment or another service for your business, you wouldn’t always accept the first offer, so do the same with health and safety advice.
- Check that the person you choose is adequately insured.
- Consider whether you have received the help you needed. Do you have a practical, sensible solution to your problem? Or have you ended up with something completely ‘over the top’ or a mountain of useless paperwork? If you are not happy with the solution, ask for an explanation and whether there may be a simpler alternative.
The legal responsibility and accountability for health and safety lies with the employer . While this seems straightforward, who the employer is depends on the type of school.
On the basis this HSE Guidelines for school we can easily identifies the answer for
" WHO IS ACCOUNTABLE FOR HEALTH AND SAFETY AT SCHOOL IN GENERAL ?"
| WHO IS ACCOUNTABLE FOR HEALTH AND SAFETY AT SCHOOL | |
|---|---|
| School type | Employer |
| Community schools | The local authority |
| Community special schools | |
| Voluntary controlled schools | |
| Maintained nursery schools | |
| Pupil referral units | |
| Foundation schools | The governing body |
| Foundation special schools | |
| Voluntary aided schools | |
| Independent schools | The governing body or proprietor |
| TRUST BASED SCHOOL | |
| Academies and free schools | The Academy Trust |
| STATE SCHOOL, PRIVATE AND GOVT FUNDED | |
| State schools funded through local authorities | The local authority |
| Independent private or fee-paying schools | The proprietor, board of trustees or equivalent |
| Grant aided schools | The governing body, or equivalent, |
The study and practices revealed , overall accountability lies with the school employer, school managers involved in the day to day running of the school also have some responsibilities for the health and safety of staff pupils and children.
Some schools operate as part of a Public Private Partnership (PPP), Private Finance Initiative (PFI) or Non-Profit Distribution (NPD) arrangement. In these cases teachers, class room assistants and administrative staff are typically employed by the local authority. However some staff in ancillary services, for example catering or cleaning staff, may be employed by the organisation contracted to provide these ancillary services.
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