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NEWS


health & safety

A common-sense approach to health and safety

The publication on 15 October of Lord Young’s report on health and safety and the compensation culture, Common Sense, Common Safety, gives the first indication of the Coalition Government’s view on the future of health and safety. But what will the review mean for schools, pupils and the workforce?

Every year, thousands of workers, children and members of the public are killed or seriously injured as a result of poor health and safety practices. Indeed, a little known fact is that more people are killed as a result of accidents at work each year than are killed in armed conflicts. Improving health and safety practice is a pressing issue. Indeed, recent research by the NASUWT, Safe to Teach?, found that the flouting of health and safety legislation remains a major problem within schools and colleges and that more action is needed to ensure that schools and colleges comply with the law.

However, the Prime Minister’s decision to appoint Lord Young to lead a major review of health and safety sparked widespread concern following comments by Lord Young in an interview with The Times newspaper where he condemned the existence of a so-called ‘cotton wool’ culture in schools and the rest of society and argued that ‘people occasionally get killed; it’s unfortunate but it’s part of life.’

Commenting in his final review report, Lord Young said that ‘a nationwide compensation culture’ had developed that was having a disproportionately ‘negative impact on education’, leading to fewer opportunities for pupils ‘to experience risk…through school trips and competitive sport.’

Amongst the report’s 36 main recommendations, Lord Young proposes action to:

• simplify the risk assessment procedures for use in low hazard workplaces (including schools);
• create interactive online risk assessment tools and health and safety compliance checklists for schools and other bodies on the Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE’s) website;
• simplify the process that schools undertake before taking pupils on educational visits; and
• introduce a single parental consent form that covers all activities an individual pupil may undertake during his or her time at school.

Other recommendations seek to amend the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) 1995 which would reduce the number of workplace accidents that employers would have to report to the HSE. However, the report says little about how the Government should tackle the failure of health and safety statutory compliance by employers.

Commenting on the report, Chris Keates, NASUWT General Secretary, said: “Regrettably, Lord Young’s report is likely to prove to be a fatal missed opportunity to tackle those employers who routinely flout the law on health and safety.

“There is no justification for rolling back health and safety protections for the convenience of employers. More not less regulation is needed to protect workers and the general public from dangerous and reckless practices by employers.”

A key recommendation affecting schools is the proposal to abolish the Adventure Activities Licensing Authority (AALA). The AALA was created following the Lyme Bay canoeing tragedy in 1993 when four teenagers died during an activity at an outdoor centre. The subsequent trial resulted in the prosecution of the parent company and the manager of the outdoor centre.

“This recommendation is likely to cost lives,” Chris Keates said. “The AALA was set up in the wake of events in which children have died. The decision to abolish the AALA seems to be driven more by political ideology than common sense. A voluntary code of practice for activity providers is simply not good enough and could endanger lives and leave schools and colleges more vulnerable to costly litigation.”

Ms Keates also raised concerns that Lord Young’s review had failed to grasp the particular health, safety and welfare issues and challenges facing schools and colleges. She said: “The report’s assessment of schools and colleges as ‘low hazard’ or ‘low risk’ environments ignores all the evidence on the high incidence of occupational ill health and stress-related illness in the education sector and the effect this has on the lives of teachers and school leaders.”

The Coalition Government has accepted in full all of Lord Young’s recommendations. The NASUWT will be continuing to press the Government to strengthen health and safety protections in schools and colleges.

The NASUWT Safe to Teach? research report can be found at www.nasuwt.org.uk/SafeToTeach