Risk Assessment Policy and Procedures

1. Introduction And Objectives

1.1 The purpose of this policy is to enable the School to meet its duty of care to pupils and staff (and others) by
creating a culture of undertaking risk assessments to reduce the risks of all School business operations, as far as
is reasonably practical. The aim is to protect the health, safety and wellbeing of pupils, staff, visitors and others
affected by our operations.
1.2 This policy and associated procedures provides a framework for staff to follow in the completion of risk
assessments. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 dictate that the School has an
absolute duty to carry out risk assessments and record significant findings in writing. Risk assessments must be
‘suitable and sufficient’. The Independent School Regulatory requirements demand that the School ensures the
welfare of pupils is safeguarded and promoted by the drawing up and effective implementation of a written risk
assessment policy; and that appropriate action is taken to reduce risks identified.
1.3 The School must take a proactive approach to managing risk, and thereby reduce the likelihood that pupils and
others will be harmed through negligence and lack of foresight or proper planning.

2. The purpose of risk assessment

2.1 Risk assessments focus on prevention, as opposed to reacting when things go wrong, it is therefore possible to
prevent accidents and injuries that could ruin lives, damage reputations and cost money. Once a risk
assessment has been completed the significant risks must be communicated to staff and others, to enable their
co-operation and informed decisions. Such communication can be done verbally, for example through a
Toolbox Talk or where appropriate more formally by providing a copy of the risk assessment and discussing the
findings during a team or department meeting.
2.2 The range of risk assessments used across the school will create a risk profile; covering the nature and level of
the risks faced, the likelihood of adverse effects occurring, associated costs and effectiveness of current
controls. High level strategic business risks will be captured by the school Risk Register, owned and reviewed by
the Risk Management Committee meeting every half term.

3. What is a risk assessment?

3.1 A risk assessment is a tool for conducting a formal examination of the hazards or potential harm to people,
particularly in the School’s case to staff and pupils that could result from a business activity or situation and to
identify action needed to reduce the level of risk.

• A hazard is anything with the potential to cause harm e.g. chemicals, electricity, working from ladders.
• The risk is the chance, high or low, that somebody could be harmed by these and other hazards, together with
an indication of how serious the harm could be.

3.2 A risk assessment is the resulting assessment of the severity of the outcome (e.g. loss of life, destruction of
property) and what action needs to be taken to reduce the risks as low as is reasonably practicable.
3.3 Risk control measures are the measures, actions, and procedures that are put in place in order to minimise the
consequences of unfettered risk (e.g. substituting harmful chemicals, staff training, appropriate supervision,
clear work procedures, preliminary visits, warning signs and barriers).
3.4 Risk assessments are used to identify the potential hazards to people from the School’s activities, which will
include (e.g. safeguarding related, site security, slipping, falling, poor health, equipment, sports, boarding,
recreation), property (fire), strategic (reputation, loss of pupils, impact on development), financial (falling pupil
rolls), compliance (data protection) and environmental (hazardous waste) risks.
4. Responsibilities For Risk Assessments

4.1 The School’s responsibility

• It is the School’s responsibility, through its management, to ensure risk assessments are completed and
implemented. The work involved to meet this responsibility is delegated to key roles within the school; namely
Heads of Departments or Managers, their direct line managers (e.g. Deputy Head (Academic) or Estates Bursar)
and the Health and Safety Manager. This responsibility includes recognition of the particular nature of the
School as a boarding school and the associated risks e.g. security of pupils. The Health and Safety Manager
monitors and evaluates risk assessments, and reports on risk assessment to SLT and the Council.
• Haileybury will utilise risk assessments at all levels to manage risk , from the Risk Register to risk assessments
for individuals.
• Haileybury will provide suitable and sufficient training for staff required to complete risk assessments to ensure
staff have the knowledge and understanding to fulfil this responsibility and undertake effective risk
assessments, as a minimum all teaching staff will undertake online training in risk assessment. Key staff in
support departments with a responsibility for completing risk assessments will also undertake the online
training or obtain the required knowledge and skills via other training methods.

4.2 Heads of Teaching and Support Departments

• Heads of Departments or Managers should ensure that risks within their areas of responsibility or arising out of
the work of their department are identified, and, so far as is reasonably practicable, removed or adequately
reduced and controlled. Risk assessments will enable suitable controls, helping establish safe systems of work
and H&S training needs of staff.
• Assisted by the Health and Safety Manager risk assessments are the responsibility of Heads of Departments,
however, responsibilities for specific assessments are as follows:

ACTIVITY RISK ASSESSMENT RESPONSIBILITY

Trips and Visits Trip leader (overseen by EVC Deputy head (Co-Curricular)
Maintenance Activities Head of Maintenance
Grounds Maintenance Head of Grounds
Cleaning & Room/Venue set ups Domestic Services Manager
Building Work Activities Estates Bursar/Head of Maintenance
External Lets Hirer/Function & Events Manager
Fire Risk Assessment Health & Safety Manager/ Estates Bursar/ Head of
Maintenance
Pregnancy Risk Assessment Head of Department/Line Manager/ Health & Safety
Manager
Individual Classrooms Head of Department/Teacher
Swimming Pool & Sports Sports Complex Manager
Complex
Playing Fields/Pitches/Courts Director of Sport/Estates Bursar/ Head of Grounds
Machinery/Equipment Head of Department owning the equipment/Estates Bursar
Events Event Organiser
House Activities House Master/Mistress / House Matron

• Heads of Department or Managers should ensure that risk assessments are stored on the shared area for ease
of access and reference. Heads of Department or Managers should ensure department risk assessments are
reviewed regularly, after an incident/accident or at least on an annual basis.

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4.3 Responsibilities of all staff

• All staff are responsible for taking reasonable care of their own safety, together with that of pupils and visitors.
They are responsible for cooperating with the health and safety policy and arrangements (including risk
assessments) and members of the SLT in order to enable the Governors to comply with their health and safety
duties.
• All staff are expected to participate in the completion of risk assessments when requested to do, follow safety
related instructions and safe systems of work identified in risk assessments. Finally, all members of staff are
responsible for reporting any risks/defects or concerns to their line manager, in order assist with reducing risks.

5. General Arrangements

5.1 Each department is responsible for ensuring risk assessments are in place for all work activities, the Health and
Safety Manager will work with all departments to provide advice and support.
5.2 Risk assessments should consider the following general hazards/situations:

• Safeguarding of pupils
• Supervision arrangements
• Manual handling
• Working at height
• Slips and trips
• Hazards from equipment/machinery used
• Lone working
• Substances hazardous to health (COSHH)
• Noise
• Access and egress
• Preventing unauthorised access to high risk areas
• New and expectant mothers.

5.3 Risk assessments should be undertaken using the school risk assessment template to enable a consistent
judgement of risk and easy identification of the high priority risks, see appendix 2.
5.4 Completed risk assessment should be made available on the shared drive and the Health and Safety Manager
notified.
5.5 A variety of generic risk assessments have been created covering some of the above generic risks, (available on
the intranet). However generic risk assessments should be treated with caution, whilst these can be a useful
starting point for departments, assessments need to be specific to the actual situation and it is important that
we are able to operate all the control measures listed.
5.6 A number of site wide risk assessments have been completed and are available, with associated procedures,
from the Estates Department and/or Health and Safety manager, these include:

• Fire
• Legionella
• Asbestos
• Traffic onsite

6. Dynamic Risk Assessment

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6.1 Although many risk assessments have been completed, it is possible that some tasks still need assessing or
reassessing, therefore if any member of staff has a role which they think has uncontrolled risks, they must
inform their line manager or the Health and Safety Manager.
6.2 Levels of risk can change from day to day, and tasks that have been assess and suitably controlled may have a
higher level of risk on some occasions (e.g. due to weather conditions or poor housekeeping), and it is essential
that every member of staff takes a moment to assessment risk from every job before they start it. This is known
as a ‘dynamic risk assessment’ and is simply taking moment to think before acting. It’s the same principle as
looking both ways before crossing the road – you have to do it every time before you cross the road. Staff must
still take the time to assess the risks before undertaking a task, even if there is an up to date risk assessment.
6.3 Staff must never undertake a task where they have identified a risk that means they cannot do the task safely
at that point in time, or that creates uncontrolled risk to others, especially pupils at the school.

7. Training

7.1 All new members of staff are given an induction into the School's arrangements for risk assessments and health
and safety. Specialist training is given to those whose work requires it.
7.2 All staff responsible for completing risk assessments will be provided with training to provide them with the
knowledge and understanding of the risk assessment process and the skills required to undertake a suitable and
sufficient risk assessment.
7.3 Haileybury provides professional training courses for both teachers and technicians who work in Science, Art
and Design and Technology. All teaching staff and technicians receive regular induction and refresher training
in risk assessments tailored to their specific areas.
7.4 Line Managers and Heads of Departments are responsible for ensuring their staff are briefed on risks specific to
their department and the control measures to be used to protect the health and safety of pupils and staff.
7.5 Risk assessments should be used to identify further staff training needs to enable them to work safely.

8. Educational Areas

8.1 There are number of higher risk pupil focused activities which take place at Haileybury, each of which requires
risk assessment:

• safeguarding, child protection, and Prevent

• outdoor adventurous training and overnight trips
• science experiments
• design and technology equipment and tasks
• each sport and PE activity
• Duke of Edinburgh award and Adventure Skills scheme activities
• art activities and equipment (including the clay and print studios)
• CCF activities
• music activities (including minimising the risk of hearing loss to staff)
• drama activities and sets (including the set build and break down, back stage, stage/performance, props
room and lighting box)

8.2 Schemes of work and lesson plans for the above educational areas should include details of the hazards and
risks associated with the activity, to ensure pupils are aware of the risks involved and general health and safety
arrangements.
8.3 Haileybury subscribes to the CLEAPSS Advisory Service (www.cleapss.org.uk ) that provides model risk
assessments for activities in Science, Art and Design and Technology.

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8.4 Those organising CCF and Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme activities, and those leading trips, are responsible
for the completion of detailed risk assessments, with support from the Educational Visits Co-ordinator (EVC),
the School’s professional Trips Health and Safety Adviser, and the Health and Safety Manager.

9. Classroom and Office Risks

9.1 In recognition of the limited risks involved in classroom teaching, the School will use a Health and Safety
Checklist for classrooms, such as English, History and Geography classes. The Health and Safety checklist will
be provided to teachers annually, each teacher should complete the checklist and return it to the Health and
Safety Manager. All responses will be collated and an action plan created with risk levels and priorities
identified, this plan will be given to the Maintenance department to implement the necessary remedial
measures.
9.2 All teaching subjects will be asked to complete the H&S checklist to assist with providing a safe environment
for teaching and learning to take place.
9.3 Office staff will also be requested to complete a simple health and safety checklist, although these are low risk
work environments it’s important to ensure safe access/egress, suitable lighting and ventilation for example.

10. Boarding House risk assessments

10.1 A risk assessment is compiled by the Health and Safety Manager, to cover items such as storage of chemicals,
floor surfaces, electrical items, window openings. House Masters/Mistresses should ensure there are suitable
risk assessments in place for in house pupil activities e.g. dining in evenings using a fondue set or a house BBQ.

11. Educational Visits

11.1 Haileybury have a separate policy for educational trip involving pupils, this is overseen by the Deputy Head (Co-
Curricular), and who also fulfils the role of Educational Visits Co-ordinator (EVC), by approving all trips. For full
details please see the “Educational Visits Policy” which covers routine trips, major trips and arrangements for
dealing with external organisations. The following is drawn from this policy:

11.2 Routine Trips: On induction to the Haileybury staff, all teachers are briefed on the “Do’s and Don’ts” and
“Actions On” regarding routine school trips, such as away matches and theatre trips. Every teacher reads and
signs a copy of a generic risk assessment devised for this purpose. The originals are stored by the EVC and
copies retained by teachers for reference. This standard risk assessment document covers key aspects of
supervision and responses to incidents. A copy is displayed on the school’s shared drive and intranet.

11.3 Major Trips: Overseas trips, overnight trips, trips involving adventure training and any trip involving swimming
in open water or boating must have specific risk assessments completed and submitted to the EVC for approval
and storage. The School’s professional Trips Health and Safety Adviser will be consulted, as appropriate,
including with the completion of the trip Risk Assessment. The EVC must also ensure the correct licences are in
place for adventures activities. Before a major trip departs, key information, together with the trip Risk
Assessment, must be deposited with the EVC. This information will be stored on the school’s shared drive,
accessible to staff who may need to access it.

12. Access by pupils to risky areas

12.1 Risk assessments of all areas of the school reinforce the policy of ensuring that our pupils do not have
unsupervised access to potentially hazardous areas, such as cleaners’ cupboards or boiler rooms in boarding
houses, the swimming pool, the Science Laboratories, the Design Technology centre, the Ayckbourn Theatre,

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 the CCF store. Doors to these areas are kept locked when not in use. Pupils are only allowed access if risks are
suitably controlled or accompanied by a member of staff.
12.2 Pupils do not have access to the operational areas of the school, such as Grounds, Maintenance, and Catering
Departments. Further details are available in the Policy “Pupil Access to Risky Areas”.
12.3 A campus wide risk assessment captures the above risks and others such as transport arrangements. The
purpose of this campus wide risk assessment is to consider generic campus related risks which are unlikely to
picked up by teaching and support departments activity/operational risk assessments, in order to protect the
safety and health of all those using the Haileybury campus. The Health and Safety Committee reviews the
campus wide risk assessment.

13. Pupil Welfare and Supervision

13.1 When completing risk assessments, staff, particularly teaching staff should ensure safeguarding risks to pupils
are considered and documented. One of the controls used to protect pupils will be adequate competent
supervision. The ‘Supervision of Pupils and Missing Pupil Procedure’ details the expectations of how pupils are
supervision during various activities and times of the day. Staff ratios and availability play a key part of ensuring
appropriate supervision of pupils.

14. Requirements for contractors engaged on behalf of Haileybury.

14.1 Contractors are responsible for undertaking their own risk assessment, in order to protect the ehal and safety of
their staff, Haileybury pupils and staff (and others). The contractor “owns” the risk involved with their work
activities. However, Haileybury has an obligation to ensure competent contractors are used, sufficient time for
planning is allowed and risk assessment forms part of the planning and work processes.
14.2 If a contractor is employed to undertake work on behalf of Haileybury the person engaging the contractor
(contracting manager) must ensure suitable and sufficient risk assessments are in place to cover the work, prior
to work starting. The contracting manager will need to review and discuss the contractor’s risk assessments and
provide supervision of the contractor to ensure risk assessments are being adhered to.

15. Events at Haileybury

15.1 Planning for events at Haileybury will also involve risk assessments at different levels depending on the scale of
the event. The event organiser should use the Event Planning Toolkit to plan the event, this include a basic risk
assessment for smaller events and a more detailed risk assessment and dedicated support from the Health and
Safety Manager for large scale events. The toolkit is available on the shared area, click HERE.

16. First Aid risk assessment

16.1 The Health and Safety Manager has undertaken a risk assessment to establish the level of first aid provision
required, using a template from St John Ambulance. This risk assessment concludes that 40 qualified first aiders
were required, in addition specific first aid skills would be required for outdoor adventure activities e.g. Duke of
Edinburgh Award expeditions.
16.2 Staff responsible for organising first aid provision for sports activities and fixtures (home and away) should
ensure there is an appropriate risk assessment in place to establish the levels of provision required and the types
of first aid kits required.

17. Display Screen Assessments

17.1 The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 require the School to protect employees
from any risks associated with Display Screen Equipment (DSE) (i.e. computers and laptops). These Regulations

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 only apply to employees who regularly use DSE as a significant part of their normal work (daily, for continuous
periods of 2 hours or more). The Regulations do not apply to workers who use DSE infrequently or for short
periods of time.
17.2 The above requirements will be achieved by requiring all DSE users to complete an online training and
assessment programme. The assessment will identify any additional controls needed e.g. document holders or a
foot rest, with the results being shared with the individual’s line manager.
17.3 Once the assessment has been completed and the individual confirmed as a DSE user; Haileybury will pay up to
£30 for an eye test and contribute £50 towards the cost of spectacles required for use with the DSE. The costs
should be reclaimed by the individual via an expenses claim form, with a copy of receipts attached and
submitted to the Health and Safety Manager for approval.

18. Young Workers

18.1 When employing a young person under the age of 18, whether for work or work experience, under the
Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, Haileybury has the same responsibilities for their
health, safety and welfare as they do for other employees.
18.2 While there is no requirement for a separate risk assessment specifically for a young person, if a department has
not previously employed a young person they should review their risk assessment and take into account the
specific factors for young people, before a young person starts with them. It is important to take into account a
young person’s lack of maturity, lack of risk awareness, insufficient attention to safety and lack of experience or
training.
18.3 A young person should not be asked to do work which involves a risk to health from extreme cold or heat;
noise; or vibration. There are also specific restrictions within the Approved Code of Practice, relating to young
people using lifting machinery, power presses, woodworking machinery, and fork lift trucks. If a department in
Haileybury wishes to employ a young person directly or via a work experience/apprenticeship scheme, the
Head of Department must contact the Health and Safety Manager for further advice.

19. New and Expectant Mothers

19.1 New or expectant mother, means an employee who is pregnant; who has given birth within the previous six
months; or who is breastfeeding. Haileybury should take account of women of child-bearing age when carrying
out all risk assessments and identify the preventive and protective measures that are required.
19.2 Heads of Departments or Managers should ensure that departmental risk assessments adequately cover risks to
new and expectant mothers. If this has not be covered or is felt to be insufficient a specific risk assessment
should be completed by the line manager, using the template provided in the Expectant and Nursing Mothers
at Work Policy, available on the shared drive and intranet.
19.3 Where the risk assessment identifies risks to new and expectant mothers and these risks cannot be avoided by
the preventive and protective measures taken, Haileybury will need to do one of the following:
a. Alter her working conditions or hours of work if it is reasonable to do so and would avoid the risks or, if
these conditions cannot be met.
b. Identify and offer her suitable alternative work that is available
c. Suspend her from work. The Employment Rights Act 1996 (which is the responsibility of the Department of
Trade and Industry) requires that this suspension should be on full pay. Employment rights are enforced
through the employment tribunals.

20. Monitoring and Review of Risk Assessments

20.1 All risk assessments should be regularly reviewed:

• If there is significant change in the circumstances, e.g. new equipment/ways of working
• After an accident or incident

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 • If the original assessment is no longer valid, e.g. change in legislation or changes in
technology/science.
• In all other cases regularly (annually)

20.2 Risk assessments should also be reviewed and recorded, when major structural work is planned, if work
practices change or in the event of an accident. As each department (teaching and support), review and
develop their risk assessments it will be possible to maintain a "library" of risk assessments on our shared drive
for staff to refer to and adapt for their own use.
20.3 The Health and Safety Manager will carry out a health and safety review of all departments with a focus on risk
assessments, to ensure they are kept up to date, reviewed at least annually and of a quality to be deemed
‘suitable and sufficient’. Such reviews will take place annually but may be more frequent if there are significant
improvements required.
20.4 The Health and Safety Manager will periodically provide an overview of school wide risk assessments,
focussing on high level risks, to the Health and Safety Committee for review, to action is taken where necessary
through planned improvements to reduce risk.

21. References, Resources and Related Policies

• The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999

• The Health and Safety at Work Act etc. 1974
• HSE Publication “Risk Assessment – A brief guide to controlling risks in the workplace.” Click HERE.
• HSE publication “5 Steps to Risk Assessment”. Click HERE.
• CLEAPSS Advisory Service www.cleapss.org.uk
• Haileybury ‘Supervision of Pupils and Missing Pupil Procedure’
• Haileybury ‘Health and Safety Policy’.
• Haileybury ‘Educational Visits Policy’
• Haileybury Policy ‘Pupil Access to Risky Areas’

Appendices
1. How to complete a risk assessment
2. Haileybury Risk Assessment Template.

Reviewed & approved by H&S Committee – June 2019

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Appendix 1 - How to Conduct A Risk Assessment

Appendix 1 contains a template document and guidance on how to undertake a risk assessment. The template is
based on the HSE’s Five Steps to risk assessment. A risk assessment should be carried out by anyone who is trained
and competent to do so; someone who understands the circumstances, the potential harm and the deviations.
To do a risk assessment, consider what, in the activities, might cause harm to people and decide whether you are
doing enough to prevent that harm. Once you have decided that, you need to identify and prioritise putting in
place, appropriate and sensible control measures.

It’s crucial that the risk assessment contents, particularly the control measures actually reflect activities and
arrangements that are in place. If a control measure is identified as being required in the recorded risk assessment
this must be implemented. Staff involved in the activities/operations should be consulted and involved with the risk
assessment process and the results must be effectively communicated to staff and pupils. The written document
should help with communicating and managing the risks.

When completing a risk assessment the focus should be on significant risks associated with the activity, you do not
need to include insignificant risks. In other words, you do not need to include risks from everyday life unless
school/work activities increase the risk.

Risks should be reduced to the lowest reasonably practicable level by taking preventative measures, in order of
priority. This is what is meant by a hierarchy of control. The list below sets out the order to follow when planning
to reduce identified risks. Consider the headings in the order shown, do not simply jump to the easiest control
measure to implement.

1. Elimination - Redesign the job or substitute a substance so that the hazard is removed or eliminated.
2. Substitution - Replace the material or process with a less hazardous one.
3. Engineering controls - for example use work equipment or other measures to prevent falls where you cannot
avoid working at height, install or use additional machinery to control risks from dust or fume or separate the
hazard from operators by methods such as enclosing or guarding dangerous items of machinery/equipment.
Give priority to measures which protect collectively over individual measures.
4. Administrative Controls - These are all about identifying and implementing the procedures you need to work
safely. For example: reducing the time workers are exposed to hazards (eg by job rotation); prohibiting use of
mobile phones in hazardous areas; increasing safety signage, and performing risk assessments.
5. Personal protective clothes and equipment - Only after all the previous measures have been tried and found
ineffective in controlling risks to a reasonably practicable level, must personal protective equipment (PPE) be
used. For example, where you cannot eliminate the risk of a fall, use work equipment or other measures to
minimise the distance and consequences of a fall (should one occur). If chosen, PPE should be selected and
fitted by the person who uses it. Workers must be trained in the function and limitation of each item of PPE.

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Appendix 2 – Haileybury Risk Assessment Template
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