Risk Assessment Policy

Transcription

1 Risk Assessment Policy Risk assessments will be carried out by Blue River Academy to determine the risks associated with in day to day working operations at Blue River Academy, as well as infrequent school outings or special activities. The assessment is required to identify risks both to employees, pupils and to any other persons who may be affected. Risk Assessments are completed by the appropriate member of staff responsible for the activity and checked by a member of the SMT. C.O.S.H.H. regulations 1988 place a statutory duty on employees to make an assessment of the potential health risks to employees arising from work involving the use of hazardous substances. C.O.S.H.H. also requires that except in very limited circumstances a written record must be maintained. General assessments of risk are best carried out by staff in the curriculum areas concerned. Risk Assessment Procedure Introduction It is a general legal requirement of the Management of Health & Safety at Work regulations (1999) to carry out risk assessments. There are also specific requirements under other regulations to carry out specialised assessments, for example, manual handling, the use of chemicals, noise, machinery etc. 1

2 The following procedure should be adopted for general risk assessment of an area or a job/task. It is based on the HSE guidance "Five Steps to Risk Assessment". Risk assessment should be undertaken systematically so as to ensure that all significant hazards and risks are identified and, where appropriate, controls are put in place to either eliminate the risk or reduce it "as far as reasonably practicable". What are risk assessments? Information for Staff Risk assessments play a key part in maintaining the health and safety of children, staff, parents and visitors. Risk assessments help us to look at a situation, activity, experience, piece of equipment or resources and identify the risks then make suggestions on how those risks can be managed or removed Risk assessments need to be reviewed yearly unless anything changes (i.e. if you have risk assessed a visit as being suitable for children aged you would need to review this risk assessment if younger children were taking part) Risk assessments need to be carried out on any significant new experiences, activities, venues or resources. Completing a Risk Assessment: 1. Look for the hazards: A hazard is defined as anything that has the potential to cause harm. A hazard may be a substance, a piece of equipment or a work procedure. Hazards may be specific to an individual child such as a medical condition. 2. Decide who might be at risk from harm and how. Everyone or only certain people may be at risk. Some groups of people may need special consideration, as they may be more vulnerable to certain hazards. Risk assessments need to be reviewed as a new child joins school with an additional need, or if an activity is changed. 3. Evaluate the likelihood of the risk of harm Risk is defined as the chance or likelihood that harm will occur from the hazard. The likelihood is described as the expectancy of harm occurring. It can range from never to certain and depends on a number of factors. For example, the risk of someone tripping on a damaged floor surface will depend on: The extent of the damage 2

3 The number of people walking over it The number of times they walk over it Whether they are wearing sensible shoes The level of lighting. Based on the above factors, the individual carrying out the risk assessment should rate the likelihood of harm from 1 =low to 5=high. 4. Evaluate the Severity of the potential hazard The next step in the assessment is to evaluate the severity of any potential harm if the risk were to manifest. The individual should consider what the consequences of harm would be, ranging from trivial, such as a scratch, to fatal, such as a serious electric shock. The severity should then be rated from 1=trivial to 5=severe. This ensures that the most severe hazards are given higher priority. 5. Review existing Control Measures The next step is to review existing control measures that are in place to mitigate the risk. These should be listed in the relevant section of the Risk Assessment form. The individual conducting the risk assessment should also note whether these control measures are effective and sufficient to control the risk. 6. Control Measures that will be implemented in the future If the review in step 5 determines that existing precautions are not sufficient to mitigate the risk or if more effective control measures, which are not currently implemented, have been discovered, these should be entered into this section of the Risk Assessment form. In addition, new control measures will have to be implemented for risks that have both a high likelihood and a high severity in order to reduce the risk. In all cases, all possible steps should be taken to remove the risk. 7. Determine who will be responsible for implementing new control measures and when these will be implemented by. Finally, the risk assessment should record who will be responsible for implementing new control measures. The date by when the control measure will be implemented should also be recorded. Once the control measure has been implemented, this should be marked on the Risk Assessment form. 3

4 The completed risk assessments will need to be signed off by the member of staff completing the assessment and monitored by the head teacher. They will then need to be reviewed and if necessary updated, at least annually. A review will be required sooner if an incident or accident occurs, or there are significant changes to the premises, staff or procedures. Records The assessment should be recorded on the standard Risk Assessment Form and should be kept in a visible/accessible folder identified for this purpose in the work area in question. The form also acts as an improvement action plan and should be used for tracking implementation of control measures. The findings should be made known to the staff it affects and information/training must be given. Review A risk assessment must be reviewed if there is any significant change to the area/ job/task or if there is any other reason to suspect it is no longer valid. Risk assessments should be reviewed after accidents/incidents involving the task assessed. In any event, it is good practice to review assessments regularly to ensure they are still accurate and controls remain in place. New pupils or higher numbers may seriously affect risks, which were previously deemed acceptable. A copy of the Risk Assessment Form Template is on the page below. Policy Adopted: 21/11/2016 Last Reviewed: 21/11/2016 Next Review Date: 22/11/2017 Signed on behalf of the Senior Management Team Name (print) Position 4

5 Area of Building/Eve nt/activity Potential Hazard Who may harmed and how? Likelihood (1-5) and Severity (1-5) (1=low, 5=high) Likelihood Severity What are you already doing? Do you need to do anything else to control this risk? Action by whom? Action by when? Done