HSE Myth Buster examples – Education
A local authority (LA) decided that the use of dirt bikes as an activity for
teenagers at a specialist school presents too high a risk.
Panel decision
The health and safety at work act does apply to [pupils in] schools but the
panel does consider that more effort by all the parties involved could be
made, to manage and control the risks to allow the activity to proceed.
A local authority has withdrawn the facility for teachers and school staff to
bring their spouses and children on organised school trips.
Panel decision
There are no regulations in place which ban schools from allowing spouses
and children to join teachers and school staff on school trips. This is a local
decision taken based on an overly cautious interpretation of guidance on
health and safety and possibly safeguarding.
A school production, contributing to students GCSE exams was not going
ahead because the lighting operator had not had attended a fixed ladder
training course.
Panel decision
This is not a proportionate or sensible decision and is an unnecessarily rigid
interpretation of working at height regulations. It's a good idea to move the
box in the longer term and in the meantime ensure that anyone who accesses
the box takes reasonable and sensible precautions. The show should go on with lights!
The complainant queried whether a risk assessment was necessary to serve
tea at a school fete
Panel decision
Health and safety is often wrongly blamed for preventing organisations from
running events and people from volunteering.
A risk assessment for running a school fete will be appropriate but it is not
about creating huge amounts of paperwork, but rather about identifying
sensible and proportionate measures to protect helpers and young children
from risks that cause real harm and suffering.
The organisers need to make a straight forward assessment of the risks.
There is no need to do a separate risk assessment for serving tea.
A Chair of Governors at a primary school received conflicting health and
safety advice about a proposal to construct a pond on school property, so
children could 'pond dip' whilst supervised as part of their studies. This
included advice that if trespassers were injured in the pond, the school would
be liable, even if warning notices were displayed.
Panel decision
There is no health and safety regulation preventing a school from constructing
a pond. It appears that issues of civil liability and health and safety have
become confused in this case.
A Perth & Kinross school occupies a building owned and administered by
private companies. They have been told that they cannot display children's
work on windows using "Blu Tack" due to Health and Safety concerns. It is
claimed that a chemical in the Blu Tack may combine with a chemical in the
glass to make it shatter. This impacts on the way they teach in their
classrooms and their children's education.
Panel decision
Whatever the reason for banning the use of Blu Tack it is not on health and
safety grounds. The manufacturer's website makes clear that the product can
be used on glass. We see no reason why the children's creative work should
not be displayed for everyone to enjoy!
A tree house designed for a Primary School has now had to be erected
outside of the school's own grounds to address concerns about risks to
children created by the structure being within the school premises. This
decision had been made by the Local Authority who employ the staff at the
school.
Panel decision
There are no health and safety regulations that specifically apply to tree
houses. There are industry standards for playground equipment but these are
not mandatory.
The tree house is in use in another location so it is very likely that any safety
concerns could have been dealt with and the tree house used in its original
planned location. This seems to be a case of risk averse behaviour possibly
on grounds of potential civil liability.
A school has banned the use of yo-yos on health and safety grounds.
Panel decision
There is no health and safety law which bans yo-yos from schools. Whilst
there will always be some risk of yo-yos being misused and causing minor
injuries, it seems to us to be a disproportionate response to ban them from the
school.
A secondary school has asked pupils not to push a fellow pupil's wheelchair
claiming the pupils have had no training. The pupil is temporarily using the
wheelchair because he has sprained his ankle.
Panel decision
There is no health and safety law preventing students from pushing
wheelchairs.
The school may have legitimate concerns about the welfare of students if they
push wheelchairs. In this case, it would be better if the school worked with the
students to address these concerns so that they could help their fellow
students.
The enquirer has heard from two different people organising school fêtes that
they are looking for polystyrene packing pieces for their school lucky dips as
apparently they are not allowed to use shredded paper or tissue paper as this
contravenes health and safety laws.
Panel decision
There are no health and safety laws which prevent the use of shredded paper
or tissue paper in lucky dips. It is hard to imagine what "risk" people might
believe is associated with using shredded paper but it seems a rather extreme
example of risk aversion.
A letter sent to the parents of children at a primary school stated that for
health and safety reasons football will no longer be allowed on the infant
playground at break and lunchtimes due to restricted space and the
unfortunate events of several pupils having been kicked in the face by a
football. Another school has also banned what they call "dangerous footballs"
– with only foam balls allowed.
Panel decision
There is no health and safety legislation which bans children playing with
footballs. All that is needed is a proportionate approach to manage these
everyday activities while the children are in the care of the school.
A small independent residential school for pupils with specific learning
difficulties is alleged to have advised parents that all electrical items brought
to school must be checked and labelled by an electrician due to health &
safety regulations, and that extension leads are not allowed for the same
reason.
Panel decision
Health and safety regulations do not ban multi-way sockets or extension leads
and neither do they require simple electrical appliance such as clocks, TVs
and computers to be tested by an electrician. A common sense
assessment/inspection to check that wires are not damaged and sockets not
overloaded could be carried out by any member of staff. HSE guidance
Maintaining portable electric equipment in low-risk environments provides
further information.
The enquirer’s 7 year old daughter took a small plastic food flask into school
with baked beans in for her lunch. She was told by the Head teacher that she
was not allowed to take it in again because of Health & Safety
Panel decision
There is no health and safety regulation which would prevent children from
taking hot food to school as part of their packed lunch. It is clearly a matter of
school policy with some schools allowing hot food and others not. The
Headteacher should be challenged to explain the real reasons for the decision
rather than giving the easy - and incorrect - health and safety answer.
A Primary School sent a letter to parents about swimming lessons. The letter
stated that the Local Education Authority (LEA) does not recommend children
wear swimming goggles for health and safety reasons.
Panel decision
This is an excellent example of why good communication is important. There
are no workplace health and safety laws that prevent children from wearing
goggles during swimming lessons. There are however, good reasons for
teaching children to swim without goggles so that they get used to eye contact
with the water to prepare them emergency situations, where they may not be
wearing goggles. If the enquirer had been given a proper explanation of why
goggle use was not encouraged the logic for this sensible policy would have
been understood.
Enquirers’ son gets sunburnt easily so they provided some sun cream to the
reception class teacher. It was returned with the explanation "we cannot put
sun cream on children for health and safety reasons".
Panel decision
Health and safety legislation does not prevent school staff from applying or
helping pupils apply sun cream. The Department for Education has already
made clear that schools are expected to take a sensible approach to this
issue. Simply using health and safety as a convenient excuse is misleading
and unhelpful.