Risk Assessment Procedures These procedures are applicable to all Governors, staff, associates, volunteers and Student Teachers, |
Introduction Risk assessment is an important tool in ensuring health and safety at work. It means, simply, that employers set out to identify hazards to health and safety, evaluate the risk of harm resulting from those hazards and take appropriate action to protect employees and others. The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 places general duties on employers to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health,safety and welfare of employees and the health and safety of others on the premises. These duties implicitly include a duty to assess risks and take necessary precautions. Employers also, however, have specific legal duties to carry out risk assessments for all aspects of workplace health and safety due to the requirements of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 and other regulations such as the manual handling, COSHH and fire safety regulations. Risk assessment is also a useful tool for safety representatives in taking up issues of health, safety and welfare. Where a potential problem has been identified, safety representatives can pose an immediate question to the employer or manager simply by asking to see the risk assessment for the activity, process or issue in question. What constitutes risk in a school environment? In a school environment, risk refers to the potential for harm or adverse outcomes affecting pupils, staff, visitors, or property. Risks can arise from various hazards—conditions or activities with the potential to cause harm and are influenced by the likelihood of an incident occurring and the severity of its consequences. This can include;
Completing a risk assessment: Risk assessment is simply a careful examination of the hazards in a workplace and an assessment of whether particular hazards are likely to harm anyone and of the precautions that need to be taken. The definitions of `hazard' and `risk' adopted by the HSE are helpful in understanding what is involved:
The Schools risk template is linked here and guidance for completion of a risk assessment is available here. Roles and responsibilities In a school setting, the responsibility for completing a risk assessment depends on the activity, location, or context of the risk. However, the ultimate accountability lies with the Head and Senior Leadership Team to ensure assessments are conducted properly.Here is an overview of the roles and responsibilities when assessing risk:
When should a risk assessment be completed? A risk assessment should be completed whenever there is a need to identify, evaluate, and manage risks to ensure the safety and wellbeing of individuals in a school environment. Below are the key instances when a risk assessment must be completed:
By conducting risk assessments proactively, in response to specific triggers and as part of a dynamic process, we can effectively manage risks, comply with legal requirements, and ensure a safe and supportive environment. Quantification of risk As part of the risk assessment process using the 5x5 matrix grid, risk can be given a category calculated by measuring the Likelihood x Impact. Once the mitigation has been applied, the residual risk score is a useful tool in quantifying the risk, especially complex risks. Once a risk assessment has been completed, the Head of Department/line manager or supervisor should confirm they have read and understand the risks and that they agree to accept them, provided the mitigation measures reduce the risk to as low as reasonably practicable. They should also confirm that the residual risk score represents an accurate level of risk and whether the risk has been reduced to an acceptable level or if further actions are required. Escalation SLT If the residual risk score remains medium, it should be flagged to the Heads of Year or Department to ensure there is accountability and awareness. If it is High/Very High, then it should be flagged to the SLT who will then decide if it should be escalated to the Governors. Any person who receives the risk assessment, must acknowledge and annotate the action with initials and a date in the box. Escalation of risks is important as if this should occur, but does not, it would mean that the responsibility and accountability would be held at the wrong level in the school. Responsibility for the updating and regular review of this risk however, will remain with the risk assessment author. Board Oversight The SLT will take a view on the higher risks that have been elevated to them, either as standalone issues, or in conjunction with the relevant Board Committees they sit on, in conjunction with the Head and Director of Operations, as to whether to elevate a risk to the Board. While these are likely to be few, a Risk Committee is in place to maintain oversight of these risks and make recommendations as required. This Committee has broad oversight of both risk and compliance. However, the responsibility for the updating and regular review of this risk will remain with the risk assessment author. Reviewing a risk assessment Risk Assessments should be reviewed when “there is reason to suspect that it is no longer valid” or “there has been a significant change in the matters to which it relates” though it is recommended to review on a regular basis, and always following any accidents / near misses, or when someone spots a problem. If changes are made to an active risk assessment, such as through new information, lessons learned, transfer of better practice, new ideas, updates to milestones or further supervisor comments, these can be simply annotated on the risk assessment template. This must be initialled and dated. In order to enable reasonable comparison of risks, the departmental and Board Committee risks are to be based on in-year risk or specific to an activity i.e. a lone working risk assessment will need to be reassessed annually or a trip risk is only valid for that trip, or a series of identical trips within one academic year. Changing a risk assessment Dynamic risk assessment means that, in common with performing a task or monitoring a class, we make decisions and act on what we see as the environment changes in relation to the risks we have identified. When an incident occurs we should be confident that we were either acting in line with the mitigations put in place in our risk assessments or consciously doing something else because of dynamic risk management and in the best judgement of the on-site expert/supervisor. If a risk assessment needs changing in light of dynamic assessment or lessons identified then it can be changed and the lessons shared. Oversight of risk assessments Once a risk assessment has been completed or updated, a copy must be sent to the Director of Operations and will be stored in a central repository. If the risk is related to safeguarding, it should be sent to the Designated Safeguarding Lead for the safeguarding repository. If a risk is a medium risk or over 12 and has SLT or Board oversight, then this will be clearly noted in the repository to ensure that it is regularly reviewed at the relevant meetings/ Committees. On the teaching side, the responsibility for the updating and regular review of risks will remain with the risk assessment author. They must secure sign off on a regular basis and ensure that an updated copy is sent to the Director of Operations to be stored in the central repository. The Director of Operations is responsible for ensuring that the non academic risk assessments are kept up to date and is also responsible for keeping records of risk and health and safety staff training. Picturing Risk and Progress While individual risk assessments within the School, and at departmental level, are not usually converted to a standard risk matrix (see diagram below), this may be used to highlight a path to a better risk position. It will be used to inform the SLT and Board about the School’s top and cumulative risks to indicate potential for progress or to make resource and prioritisation decisions. Diagram 1: Simplified 5 x 5 risk matrix. Risk A: The circle and letter is the mitigated risk position of risk A, today (score of 16). The unmitigated (original) position (score of 25) is denoted by the solid line i.e. where it came from. The dotted line shows where we think it will go as a result of further mitigation (score of 9), which may be awaiting a resource improvement of some sort (training course, equipment, facility, new material etc). Of note, in this case, the awareness of this risk is likely to be SLT if not Board Level (see below). Risk B. Here, we are looking at, for example, a school trip, where the initial risks of the transport, location, and/or planned (or ad-hoc) activities have been assessed and mitigated such that the risk is medium to low. The bus is approved, the seatbelts are in order and ensured use, parental consent has been given for the rope swings and mountain bicycling, the safety training and equipment is excellent, the staff are qualified, the facilities meet safeguarding concerns, there really is nothing else that could reasonably be done to prevent harm while gaining this relevant experience. A line manager should look at this and ask questions adding any comments if pertinent for audit, but this may not need to go any further as it is possible to see that it is a safe, contained and suitably audited activity. Further Assistance, Induction and Training The Director of Operations, as the School’s main advisor on risk is available to advise, teach, test and/or review risk assessments with any individual or section. All new staff must be made familiar with the risk assessments applicable to their area of work, as well as their responsibilities and actions to implement the requisite mitigations.
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SLT member responsible: | Director of Operations |
Governor sub-Committee responsible: | Estate & Environment Working Group (E&EWG) to the Risk Committee |
Date of approval: | |
Primary policy: | |
Other related policies and procedures: Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy | |
To view previous versions of this document please email enquiries@chschool.co.uk | |
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