Effective School Management

Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992
These regulations, which were created to protect habitual computer users,
combined with other 1992 regulations to determine the running of offices.
Though few dramatic accidents occur in offices, hazards often include trailing
wires, guillotines, innumerable boxes over which people can trip, typist chairs
which are unstable or cause back injury over time, loose carpet, precariously
poised kettles and solvents.
The Display Screen Equipment regulations call for a risk analysis of
‘workstations’  – i.e. not just the computer but also desks, chairs, space,
lighting, heat, reflection and glare and humidity. Things that should be
checked include the trunking of wires, whether typists’ swivel chairs have
five feet and not four.
Furthermore, it is a requirement that the employer should provide
eyesight tests at the request of any habitual user of display-screen equipment
and provide corrective appliances for display-screen use where ‘normal
corrective appliances cannot be used’ and the test finds special appliances to
be necessary (e.g. persons wearing bifocal spectacles often need a special pair
for computer use and these the employer must pay for).
Finally there is a requirement that people using display-screen equipment
should have ‘periodic breaks or changes in activity’.
PERSONAL APPLICATION
(1)
Define what you understand to be your accountability for safety in terms of
(a)
areas of school premises;
(b)
equipment; and
(c)
activities.
(2)
List any ‘grey’ areas where responsibility is unclear.
(3)
For either ‘a’ or ‘b’ or ‘c’ above make lists of
(a)
behavioural hazards; and
(b)
physical hazards.
(4)
Carry out a risk analysis for one or more of these hazards.

---

MANAGING QUALITY, RISK, HEALTH AND SAFETY
207