Risk Assessment

The Management of Health and Safety Regulations 1999 require employers to assess the risks of injury and ill health to employees and to other persons who they do not employ but who may be affected by their work activities.

Risk assessment involves:

• Deciding what are the significant risks.
• Deciding who might be harmed, and how.
• Evaluating the risks and deciding whether existing precautions are adequate or whether more should be done.
• Recording the significant findings of the assessment and drawing them to the attention of the appropriate people.
• Reviewing the assessment from time to time and revising it if necessary.

Risk assessments influence the development of health and safety policies and the organisational arrangements for carrying them out. They also help identify health and safety priorities.

HSE Managing risks and risk assessment at work provides further information on a practical approach to risk assessment.

Headteachers need to manage health and safety in the same way that they manage other issues. It should be an integral part of the management process.

They must implement the health and safety policies agreed and monitored by the employer. Health and safety documentation provided by the Buckinghamshire Council must be read and be implemented in practice in the establishment.

The following should be available in all schools:

• Schools Model Health and Safety Policy
• The Premises Asbestos Log
• The Legionella Report
• Fire Risk Assessment
• Specific Risk Assessments

Staff at all levels in the school must be clear about their health and safety responsibilities and these should be outlined within the schools health and safety policy.