Effective School Management

Liability at civil law
If a pupil, a member of staff or, indeed, any person suffers injury or loss as a
result of the act or omission of any other person or persons, the injured person
may be able to sue the person whose act or omission has caused the injury or
loss, for compensation or ‘damages’. Whether or not an action will succeed
depends on whether the defendant is deemed to have been ‘negligent’ and/
or ‘in breach of statutory duty’.
For a person to be deemed ‘negligent’ it is necessary to show that the
person being sued might reasonably have foreseen that his or her act or
omission could cause loss or injury of the kind actually caused to the sort of
person of the kind actually injured. Furthermore, people are expected to take
special account of the sometimes irresponsible behaviour of children
according to their age.
‘Breach of statutory duty’ occurs if the defendant has failed to comply with
one of the many regulations which exist and, in consequence, injury or loss is
caused to a person of the kind the regulation was intended to protect.
In either of the above cases the person causing the loss or injury will be
required to compensate the injured party to the extent required to restore as
nearly as possible the injured party to the situation and quality of life that he
or she enjoyed before the accident. In the case of physical injury, damages can
be enormous, though they may be reduced to the extent that the injured
person caused the injury by his or her own folly (‘contributory negligence’).
Score Category
Details of risk Likelihood Impact How to address
Notes
24
Health &
Arson
3
8
Install movement-
School 2 m
Safety
Sample
activated CCTV
away set
system & alarm
alight
Financial
Staff
Pupils
Inspection
Operational
Governance
Figure 12.1
Risk assessment report – by risk score

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MANAGING QUALITY, RISK, HEALTH AND SAFETY
201
The good – or rather better – news for schoolteachers is that, provided that
they are acting in the course of their employment, the injured party may,
instead of suing them personally, sue his or her employer (i.e. LEA, school
governors or school owner), and this the injured party will usually do,
because the employer will be insured and will, in any case, be more able to
pay than the teacher.