Effective School Management

Liability at criminal law
The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 places a duty on every employer
to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at
work of employees. It requires the employer to prepare a written policy
statement on safety and to bring it to the notice of employees, to train
employees, to provide safe equipment and a safe system of work and to meet
with safety representatives appointed by a union. In the school context, this
means that the safety of teachers must be protected.
The Act goes on to say that an employer must ‘conduct his under-
taking in such a way as to ensure, as far as is reasonably practical, that
persons not in his employment who may be affected thereby are not exposed
to risks to their health and safety’. This section (5.3) of the Act therefore
means that the school must be run so as to protect the safety of children,
parents and the general public.
In case this is not enough Section 4 of the Act says that controllers of any
non-domestic premises must ensure that they are safe.
So far the person made liable is, in a school context, the LEA. However, the
teacher is caught by Section 7 which requires an employee ‘to take reasonable
care for the health and safety of himself and others who may be affected by
his acts or omissions at work’ and to ‘co-operate’ with the employers in
carrying out his or her duties.
If the employer and/or the employee fails in these duties, whether or not
there is an accident, they may be prosecuted and fined.
The law is enforced by inspectors of the Health and Safety Executive
who have wide powers to visit and investigate. They may also issue
‘improvement’ or ‘prohibition’ notices if they find anything to be unsafe.
Until recently the Health and Safety Executive left schools in relative
peace, but there have now been several prosecutions of schools and school
staff, notably for failure to take adequate precautions in science laboratories
and use available safety equipment. There have also been prosecutions for
more general safety failures such as unsafe wiring or allowing young
children to use scissors with points.
MANAGING SCHOOL SAFETY
As we have already said, a book such as this cannot go into the detailed
regulations and guidance pertaining to the many and varied aspects of school

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EFFECTIVE SCHOOL MANAGEMENT
life. What we can do is to suggest a framework for health and safety which
involves
(1) publication of a school safety policy or policies;
(2) training of staff and pupils;
(3) consultation with safety representatives;
(4) allocation of safety responsibilities;
(5) hazard-spotting and risk analysis; and
(6) emergency procedures.
The active use of such a framework will not only make the school a safer
place but will also go a long way to satisfying the requirements of the Health
and Safety Executive and Ofsted inspectors.
Let us now look at each of the framework elements in turn.