Effective School Management

Hazard-spotting and risk analysis
The fundamental task of anyone who is accountable for an area, an activity or
equipment is to identify actual or potential hazards associated with his or her
sphere of accountability. This ‘hazard-spotting’ can be a fun activity for
children.
Hazards can be of two kinds:
(1) Physical (electric cables, slippery floors, torn carpets).
(2) Behavioural (running in corridors, throwing objects, cutting wood
towards one’s fingers, balancing books on top of lockers).

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EFFECTIVE SCHOOL MANAGEMENT
Often hazards have both a physical and behavioural aspect, especially where
pupils are concerned.
One very important means of identifying hazards is to read the accident
book. If several minor accidents have happened for the same reason and
nothing has been done about it, you will be wide open to prosecution under
the Health and Safety at Work Act – and rightly so!
How big is the ‘risk’ associated with a particular hazard is a multiple of
two factors:
(1) The probability that an accident will occur.
(2) The potential seriousness of an accident.
The greater the risk, the more important it is that some action is taken to
eliminate or reduce it.
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1992, which
are the result of a European directive, prescribe (regulation 3) that ‘every
employer shall make a suitable and sufficient assessment’ of risks. The
employer should then try (in turn) the following means of combating the
risk:
(1) Eliminate it or find a harmless substitute (e.g. replace all spirit-based
marker pens by water-based).
(2) Where possible adapt the workplace to the individual and not vice versa.
(3) Try to reduce the risk (rounded not pointed scissors, tape down electric
cables).
(4) Prevent access to the risk (rope off newly washed floor, lock laboratories).
(5) If all else fails, provide protective equipment (e.g. goggles) for
individuals who may be exposed.
In all events give warning of the risks!
A suggested form for carrying out risk assessments is shown in Figure
12.2, and these should be used and kept for any major hazards that are
identified.