Government safety review will ease burden of school trips

Lord Young’s recently published review into health and safety legislation in the UK will benefit schools across the country as it introduces a new simplified process for teachers to follow when organising activities involving an element of risk to pupils.

Following current guidelines, parents are required to sign a consent form and teachers are made to complete a 12-page risk assessment form for every school trip or event. The overall result has been to discourage school staff from organising activities and to avoid taking risks of any kind.

Lord Young explained: “Children are potentially missing out on vital education because schools just do not have the time and resources to carry out the process. If they do, they are too concerned about the threat of legal action should an accident happen.”

In the wake of the report, Prime Minister David Cameron has now ordered the implementation of a simpler process which will see parents being asked to sign one consent form which will give permission for their children to take part in all school activities.

Lord Young, a former lawyer, has also blasted some solicitors for encouraging people to make compensation claims by offering up-front payments. Now simplified rules are to be introduced for personal injury claims and a Good Samaritan law will be put in place to protect people from being sued for well-intentioned voluntary acts.

“The advent of no-win, no-fee claims and the all-pervasive advertising by claims management companies have significantly added to the belief that there is a nationwide compensation culture,” he said. Lord Young also spoke of the “climate of fear” that many businesses now operate in, similar to that experienced by school teachers, saying that they believed they could be sued over even the most unreasonable claims. He also blamed the media for perpetuating “one of the great misconceptions” that people can be sued for voluntary acts, such as clearing snow in front of their own property.

Commenting on the changes for schools, Perry Leeks, Managing Director at First Response Training, says: “People who work with children assume responsibilities for their health and safety and need to ensure that they do not expose the children in their care to unnecessary risks but, at the same time, it is not beneficial to a child to restrict them too much or wrap them in cotton wool, and it certainly doesn’t help to overwhelm teachers with paperwork or to scare them into complete risk aversion. Good health and safety management is about controlling and assessing risks, not avoiding them altogether.

“Our Health & Safety for Child Carers course provides clear guidance on health and safety legislation and covers risk assessments, accident prevention and hazard spotting. It is great news that Lord Young’s report has highlighted just how many misconceptions there are around health and safety legislation, and that something is now being done to redress the balance.

"Our trained health and safety consultants and knowledgeable sales account managers can talk you through your responsibilities relating to health and safety and can ensure that you and your workers undertake the appropriate training. For more information, please give us a call today on freephone 0800 310 2300.”