Agnieszka Wojcik: Importance of H&S Training in Schools

Employers are legally required to provide information, instruction, training and supervision necessary to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety at work of their employees and safeguard the pupils. Agnieszka Wojcik 

When is H&S training required? 

H&S training is required upon:

• Induction – Provided for new employees to help them to settle into the new workplace environment and activities. 
• Exposure to new or increased risks
• Existing skills may have become rusty or outdated
• When current training requires refreshing 

How will your employees and school benefit from H&S Training?

Providing health & safety information and training will help you to:

• Meet your legal duty to protect the health & safety of your employees.
• Contribute towards making your employees competent in health & safety;
• Ensure you or your employees are not injured or made ill by the work they do;
• Develop a positive health & safety culture, where safe & healthy working becomes second nature to everyone;
• Find out how you could manage health and safety better;
• Can help your school avoid the implications that accidents and ill health cause;
• Can help you avoid the financial costs of accidents & occupational ill health.

H&S training methods available 

• There are many school health and safety training options available, including:
• Classroom Offsite
• On-site at the school (school)
• Online 
• Blended Learning 

In school, the following training are examples of H&S training needed (the list is not exhaustive) 

Staff whose work involves a greater element of risk will need extra or specific training.

A record of H&S training should be kept up to date, with details of who in your school has completed which training course, which staff are trained sufficiently and whether their certificates are still current.

Steps to achieving compliance in H&S training 

• Review staff H&S training needs upon induction
• Organize necessary training 
• Keep an up-to-date record of who has completed H&S training and when
• Carry out regular reviews and monitoring of dates to book training refreshers
• Ascertain that training expectations are met by carrying out staff supervision and assessing training after delivery with staff

When to renew H&S training 

As a general guide, unless otherwise stated in the training certificate, refresher training should be undertaken every 3 years.

Our Health & Safety Team provides training that can be tailored to the school needs and delivered on site.