1. Health, Safety and Biosecurity
Keeping a Balance
Risk Management Systems and Risk Assessments
Risk management is an integral part of any educational experience. This section should cover all the practical aspects of risk management, definitions of terms, as well as the ‘paperwork’ and planning aspects. Course participants should be aware of the non-statutory aspects of the National Curriculum that cover risk management for pupils, and how to involve pupils in the risk management process. This shouldn’t be covered all in a powerpoint! (involving pupils)
Learning Objectives for the Risk Management Section.
Explain the purpose of a Risk Assessment and Management system. For example the triangle model of risk management: found at
Clearly define ‘hazard’ , ‘risk’ ‘suitable and sufficient’ and ‘control measure’
Identify hazards in a variety of out of classroom environments and understand how certain influences will affect perceptions of the hazards.
Explain the differences between the three types of Risk Assessment – generic, site specific and dynamic
Apply the five step process of Risk Assessment.
Be aware of the main psychological factors that contribute to accidents.
Construct a risk assessment with in an appropriate template and control measures.
Understand why and how to involve pupils in risk management.
Distinguish which aspects of LOtC need to be risk assessed e.g. travel.
Sue Townsend
Biodiversity Learning Manager, Field Studies Council.

2. What do you need to know ?
Objectives for the session
To describe the broad legal framework supporting health and safety for group leaders
To recognise the main responsibilities to be considered when leading groups in the field or in a workroom situation

3. What is the Legal Framework ?
Over the years there has been a change in legislation – with a shift to protecting people and recognising negative impacts on environment
Overriding elements are:
Health & Safety at Work Etc Act 1974
Management of Health & Safety at Work Act Regs 1999
Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981
You don’t need to know the all the legal detail
You do need to be able to identify where responsibilities lie:
Yours
Others
Best practice in protecting the environment
This is the link to the hierarchy in slide 3 so act to regs from regs comes guidance such as COSHH, 5 steps to RA and HASPEV are relevant to this topic

4. Sensible risk management IS about:
“Providing overall benefit to society by balancing risks and benefits AND enabling innovation and learning.”
This slide introduces the national perspective on risk management. The framework that we should be working within.
Bill Callaghan, Chair of the Health and Safety Commission in August 2006 launched the Principles of sensible risk management
Sensible risk management is about:
Ensuring that workers and the public are properly protected
Providing overall benefit to society by balancing benefits and risks, with a focus on reducing real risks – both those which arise more often and those with serious consequences
Enabling innovation and learning not stifling them
Ensuring that those who create risks manage them responsibly and understand that failure to manage real risks responsibly is likely to lead to robust action
Enabling individuals to understand that as well as the right to protection, they also have to exercise responsibility
Sensible risk management is not about:
Creating a totally risk free society
Generating useless paperwork mountains
Scaring people by exaggerating or publicising trivial risks
Stopping important recreational and learning activities for individuals where the risks are managed
Reducing protection of people from risks that cause real harm and suffering
NOT
“Generating useless paperwork mountains” OR “Creating a totally risk free society”
Tony Bandle, Strategy Division, HSE, June 2006

5. HAZARDS – Any Thing, Living Organism or Way of Working with the potential to cause harm.
CONTROL MEASURE – a strategy used to lower the chance of the hazard causing harm, or the amount of harm caused.
RISK –the chance somebody could be harmed by a hazard, together with an indication of how serious the harm could be.

8. Six Step Process Which order?
A. Decide who might be harmed by the hazards.
B. Record – write everything down.
C. Evaluate the risks, add control measures, re-evaluate the risks.
F. Decide on an appropriate location
D. Review – at suitable intervals, e.g. different times of the year
E. Identify Hazards – things which may cause harm.
Six Step Process Which order?
Decide the order of the five steps.

9. The group leader walks back into a room and sees Fred climbing onto a workbench to open a window. Fred is asked to not worry
Is the room appropriate
Leader has already set up the room with hand-outs, turned on the projector and arranged the seating.
Hazard Identification
Group leader identifying a potential fall from a height
Person at Risk
Fred.
Evaluate Risk
Likelihood of a fall occurring is high and the potential for the fall to cause harm is also quite high.
Control Measures
Fred is asked to stop!
Review
Fred stops, sits down and a step ladder sought.
Just an example to suggest to teachers that they use the process all the time in a classroom.
The control measure is dependent on the person NOT on the hazard. If Fred was judged unlikely to be able to understand the instruction, another control measure would have to be found.
Distinction between some parts of occupational H + S and educational H+S, not talking about getting Fred a bubble chair but dealing with the environment that we find ourselves in.

10. ‘Duty of care’ is a key responsibility.
In law everyone has a ‘Duty of Care’
Leaders have a ‘Higher’ duty of care
There is no case law to guide us – ie no relevant prosecutions.
Take ‘reasonable care’ is the maxim
All who have a responsibility for others in an educational context have a duty of care in common law. This was known as ‘in loco parentis’ but with the recent Woolf reforms (change in civil law system to speeded up cases through courts) is now referred to as ‘Standard of Care’. This is continuous during any off-sire visit and can’t be delegated.
Some educational staff have a higher duty of care because of their training, specialised knowledge and skill. Educational staff must do all that is reasonable to prevent foreseeable harm or accidents.
The common law ‘duty of care’ is supplemented by statute law. In the Max Palmer case, Paul Ellis (teacher) was convicted of manslaughter under statute law and was found criminally negligent. This was because he didn’t carry out his delegated responsibility from statute law, as well as failing in his common law duty of a higher duty of care. As statute law takes precedence over common law he was criminally convicted.
It is worth spending some time to get this very clear, many folks still refer to ‘loco parentis’ this is no longer appropriate for the school situation –( for your info this can only be given in situations such as residential care and would tend to be with social workers who may be administering a high level of care and effectively functioning in the role of guardian) Many do not realise that we all have this duty of care to all. (Duty of care is the obligation to exercise a level of care towards an individual, as is reasonable in all the circumstances, to avoid injury to that individual or his property. Duty of care is therefore based upon the relationship of the parties ) The ‘standard of care’ is the level of competence associated with the proper discharge of professional duties. With the ‘higher duty’ of care there is an expectation of increased awareness and forseeability on behalf of the leader through increased experience and expertise.

12. Types of Risk Assessment
Generic – e.g. botanical survey
on heather
Site Specific – e.g. Old River Bed
Dynamic – what happens on the day.
Generic risk assessment - The risks inherent in the activity (written)
Site-specific risk assessment - Particular risks associated with the site e.g. water depth, ease of exit, difficulty of rescue (written)
Dynamic risk assessment - The risks at the time, taking account of, for instance, the changing conditions and the fitness of the party to undertake the activity (physical, mental and attitudinal)
Dynamic risk assessment should continue throughout the day/activity to take account of any changing circumstances
THE SIX STEP PROCESS CAN BE APPLIED TO ALL THESE TYPES OF RISK ASSESSMENT

13. B A B A
Hazard Identification. This could be used as a Hazard spotting exercise. A C D C

14. Systematic approach to Risk Evaluation
Risk = Likelihood of occurrence X Severity of outcome
Likelihood of occurrence
1 Highly unlikely to occur
2 May occur but very rarely
3 Does occur but only rarely
4 Occurs from time to time
5 Likely to occur often
Severity of outcome
1 Slightly inconvenient
2 Minor injury requiring first aid
3 Medical attention required
4 Major injury leading to hospitalisation
5 Fatal or serious injury leading to disability
From the FSC OCoP’s
Hazard – anything that can cause harm
Risk – the chance that someone will be harmed by the hazard

15. Sir Steve Redgrave's Olympic rowing partner killed by Weil's disease
Andrew Hough
17 Jun 2011
Sir Steve Redgrave's Olympic rowing partner killed by Weil's disease
An Olympic rowing champion, Andy Holmes, who twice partnered Sir Steve Redgrave to a gold medal died after contracting a rare water-borne infection, an inquest heard.
Woman killed by falling tree branch at Kew Gardens
Sarah Shaffi Monday, September 24, 2012

16. Ticks attach themselves to animals to feed
Be tick aware
You could be exposed to ticks whenever you are outdoors and enjoying the countryside, even in your garden or the local park
Ticks attach themselves to animals to feed
You can prevent tick bites by walking on clearly defined paths, using insect repellent and performing regular tick checks
Some tick bites can result in infection so it is important to remove ticks as soon as possible
Ticks can be removed safely with tweezers or a tick removal tool 
Please let your group know the risks and advise them. If anyone has been bitten or recently spent time outdoors and starts to feel unwell, contact their GP