TecHKnow walked into this post with his Official Occupational Health and Safety Hat on and said.....
The main and important point in all of this is outlined here in Cookerty's Post.
Prior to becoming an academy the local authority conducted regular safety surveys of our school but now an outside contractor does so.
The Basics
The fundamental cornerstone of any health and safety management system is Risk Assessment. This involves the identification of potential hazards associated with a process, activity or area, estimating and evaluating the associated risks and then introducing appropriate workplace precautions to control the identified risks. (Regulation 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999)
Previously, this risk assessment was carried out by the local authority. Now it is carried out by an outside contractor. The contractor should follow the prescribed procedure for carrying out a risk assessment and at the end of this process provide a quantified risk rating (will be allocated to each hazard) which can then be used by your employer to prioritise action plan(s) that will help to control the risk and manage resources effectively.
In the event of any risks due to fire, accidents, theft of radioactive isotopes etc.,, the Health and Safety Executive will look towards
who provided the "
expert opinion, and ultimately safety information and instruction" to the academy. So in this instance it would be the Consultant.
If your employer was shown to deviate from what the consultant has suggested, then your employer would be clearly at fault. If the Consultant carried out the risk assessment incorrectly and/or provide insufficient or the wrong advice to your academy, then the consultant would be held legally liable.
With this in mind, I suggest, through your Trade union that you ask for a copy of the consultants Risk assessment and see what they have suggested.
If your employer is
not following the recommendations of the consultant, then this should be brought to their attention in writing.
Through your Trade union, you can arrange for an independent Risk assessment to be carried out. Indeed in the old days when I served on Health and Safety Committees, we regularly carried out termly Risk assessments of the various areas of my workplace and brought our findings in writing to the attention of our employer.
In many instance, they were unaware of the safety issues and were grateful for the “expertise” help and/or reminded them of what else they needed to do to comply with their legal obligations.
