A Guide to the School Duty of Care in the UK

There is a school duty of care in the UK that education providers are bound to, ensuring high standards of care for children as they go through their school years.

A vital part of any school set-up, ensuring the health and safety of youngsters should be of paramount importance to those in charge.

A failure in those high expectations can lead to consequences unimaginable to any parent.

But what should you do in the aftermath of a non-fault accident involving your child in school? Who can you turn to?

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School duty of care in the UK

There is a stringent set of rules that schools must, by law, abide by to ensure those in the education setting can learn in a safe environment.

The government website identifies the following responsibilities for education providers:

• Those in charge are accountable for the health and safety of school staff and pupils
• Schools must appoint a competent person to ensure they meet their health and safety duties
• Risk management should be proportionate to the nature of the activities.

Schools must have a health and safety policy in place. This should play a prominent role in the school’s values and standards.

It should identify risks, how the school intend to manage them, and the measures that are implemented to mitigate the potential hazards.

Very professional and informative. Brilliant communication and very helpful in a massively stressful period.

Ed

Risk assessment and its value

A rigorous risk assessment should be enacted to identify potential hazards to anyone who uses the site – employees, pupils, visitors, volunteers, and any other variety of person on school premises for a range of different purposes.

By demonstrating methodical mitigation processes, a school that utilises an effective health and safety policy will reduce risks and be diligent in their approach to this.

Who needs to take responsibility?

The school leadership team is usually the driving force behind implementation and maintenance of health and safety initiatives in schools.

Based on thorough risk assessments, these should be revisited regularly to identify new risks that may emerge; these assessments must cover risks to the health and safety of employees and pupils.

Sara was so lovely and super helpful throughout my hard time and made the process much better and easier to deal with under such circumstances. Thank you!

Katie

What happens if this duty of care is breached?

If someone is injured because an action wasn’t taken or a risk was not sufficiently mitigated, liability could lie with the school.

If you or your child has had an accident in an educational setting and you feel it was a non-fault accident, give the team at Winns a call.

Our dedicated legal team can assess your circumstances quickly and identify if you are eligible to make a claim for personal injury compensation.

If you’ve got any further questions about school duty of care in the UK, click on the link to be taken to our information page.

We’re ready to help.

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