Health and Safety Training for School Business Professionals

The principal legislation in the UK is The Health and safety at Work etc Act 1974, that applies to all employers, including schools and Multi Academy Trusts. This requires employers to provide an appropriate level of information, instruction, training and supervision as necessary to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of their employees.

This requirement is then expanded in the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, which identifies situations where health and safety training is particularly important.

The day to day management of health and safety in the workplace is one of those situations, and those responsible need to have a level of competence. The above regulations require employers to appoint one or more competent people to help them implement the school’s health and safety management procedures.

School Business Managers, Bursars and Site Managers are usually named people within the school’s health and safety policy who have responsibility for the implementation and monitoring of the policy and attached safety procedures. Therefore, an appropriate health and safety training qualification is required.

The above legislation does not state that health and safety training has to be a formal classroom based course and accredited by a specific organisation. School Business Managers, Bursars and Site Managers could scour the internet and read everything they can on health and safety. But, does this prove competency? Not exactly. For most individuals, where time and inclination may be poor, this wouldn’t be appropriate because there would be no consistency and would not be completed.

The advantage of using a formal course accredited by an appropriate examining body such as IOSH, CIEH or NEBOSH is that the course syllabus has been developed by competent professionals and meets the requirements of Ofqual to prove standardisation and depth of content.

What level of Training would be Appropriate for School Business Professionals?

The majority of School Business Professionals would be “middle” management with a high level of practical health and safety management responsibilities to be managed daily.

Example responsibilities being:

1. Conducting and Reviewing risk assessments
2. Investigating accidents to pupils and staff and determining what to do next.
3. Managing Contractors whilst on site.
4. Identifying training needs of staff.

Therefore, School Business Managers, Bursars etc, will need a course that has appropriate breadth and depth of knowledge.

SafetyMARK would suggest a course that is the equivalent to a Level 3 or 4 Ofqual course, such as IOSH accredited Health and Safety for School Business Professionals or IOSH Managing Safely.

Both courses are of a similar level when it comes to depth of knowledge and content but there are some significant differences. The Managing Safely General Course is a standard IOSH product. It is either 3 day or 4 day duration (depending on how it is delivered). It is very generic in nature and it is great if you want to learn about forklift trucks, diggers, excavators or garden centres but bears no relation at all upon the education environment, the massive impact and duty of care associated with pupils, nor how H&S management can be integrated into the school environment, curriculums etc.

To address these shortcomings, SafetyMARK developed the Health and Safety for School Business Professionals Course and had it assessed, reviewed and accredited by IOSH. Our course is only 2 days in length to allow school business professionals to leave their organisations for a shorter period of time. The course has been compressed to cover the main elements required in school safety management (as we know that time away for training is often a challenge for busy school business leaders) and it has been tailored to fit exactly the education school environment. It’s also delivered by a Chartered Safety Practitioner who can talk “diggers, buildings and lift trucks” etc if relevant (eg if a school has a refurb or building project) but also specialises in delivering services to a wide range of schools.

The simple answer is “Yes” as it is still education and the school environment, regardless of its set up. We can also deliver to further education establishments as the challenges are similar in many respects, special schools and include boarding schools as the duty of care has a higher element of loco parentis.

Any formal training course should have some form of assessment to assess the level of knowledge imparted. The IOSH courses are no different and are assessed by a multiple-choice examination paper. On successful completion, the candidate will receive a nationally recognised qualification that goes some way to show health and safety competence.

Due to the ongoing difficult times caused by the pandemic, SafetyMARK has recognised that it is not possible to bring together a number of people from different schools for a course. The course is now provided by online virtual training using the Zoom platform. This has proved popular by schools because not only do they stay safe they also save time from not having to travel and money by not having to book a hotel.

We are currently providing our public course approximately every month. Click here for the full list of course dates.

If none of the dates are suitable or you are part of a Multi Academy Trust of Federation of other School Business Professionals then we can provide a course to suit your dates dependent on Trainer availability. Contact us here to discuss your needs.

For a free training matrix to help you manage the training needs of your school staff just register here.

If you would like any further information on how SafetyMARK can assist you with your health and safety training needs then do not hesitate to make contact.