SCENARIO

You are the newly appointed health and safety advisor for a large school for children aged 11 – 18.
The school has 125 teachers, administrators, and support workers (some of whom are vulnerable).
There are 1 900 students who attend the school, some travelling distances of up to 12 miles
(approximately 19 km) to access the school’s specialist sports and drama provision.

The campus has expanded over the last 10 years to meet the demand for more student places. This
involved additional temporary single-storey classrooms being built on an already crowded site. Many
of these temporary classrooms are now in a poor state of repair and are not currently being used.
They are to be demolished and replaced with a permanent extension next year.

Outside of school hours, and over the weekends, the sports and drama facilities are hired out to
local community groups. This provides an additional income for the school, however this income was
reduced following a recent pandemic.

Your role will be to support and advise the school’s Business and Finance Director (BFD). The BFD is
identified on the health and safety policy (dated December 2019) as having overall responsibility for
health and safety. The BFD has delegated the day-to-day health and safety to the Facilities Manager
(FM). They have also asked the FM to update the current risk assessment based on the current state
of disrepair of the school, as the BFD does not have the time to get involved. The BFD pressurises the
FM to reduce costs. As a result, the FM reduces their training budget, which includes health and
safety, in order to prioritise renovations.

The overstretched Facilities Team is led by the FM and has responsibility for general building
maintenance and improvement. The Team only comprises of two Facilities Supervisors (FS), three
Facilities Operatives, and four Cleaning Operatives including one young apprentice. This is not a full
Team, partially due to a high turnover of workers.

Many of the Team’s planned activities, such as clearing out old stock (books and stationery) from the
temporary classrooms, has been delayed due to under-staffing. Lack of space has meant some of this
old stock has been stored in boxes in the permanent building. A complaint has recently been made
by a wheel-chair user that sometimes they cannot pass through corridors due to boxes left on the
floor and near fire exits.

Appropriate action has not been taken to repair the identified faults and poor conditions in
classrooms. The health and safety (H&S) committee believe this is putting school workers at risk,
even though the school has not received many reports of near misses or accidents to workers. The
H&S committee are also concerned that health and safety inspections are not carried out frequently
enough. Teaching and Facilities workers are beginning to experience a relationship breakdown, as
both groups are frustrated about their working conditions.

You arrive at work to be told that one of the FS’s had sustained a serious injury at the weekend.
Despite torrential rain, it is believed that they were using a stepladder to carry out essential repairs
at the school.

A pregnant sports teacher found the FS unconscious on the main driveway and left a message on the
Headteacher’s answerphone. They also gave first aid and telephoned for an ambulance. No other
school workers were around. The sports teacher assumed that the FS was working on the roof trying
to clear leaves from a blocked gutter.
You open an accident investigation to try and find out what happened. At the scene there is a
broken step ladder. Brooms and sticks are still on the roof and full bags of rotting leaves are still on
the driveway. You look at the Facilities Team job-request sheets. You find some unactioned job
requests including replacing faulty ladders, but there is no reference to the gutter-clearing activity.
This supports the view that the FS could have been trying to clear the gutter to stop water
overflowing. You look for any evidence of work-at-height training, instructions on how to do the
work safely, permit-to-work, and specific risk assessments, but nothing is found.

First thing that morning you arrange informal one-to-one interviews with workers to gather as much
information as possible. You book a private meeting room at the school. Some of the workers are
visibly shaken by the accident so you allow sufficient time for answers to be given, taking breaks
when needed. You tell the interviewees you are just trying to establish facts and not to appoint
blame.

You start each interview by asking them what they know about the accident. Workers from the
Facilities Team inform you that they regularly use ladders and step ladders to access roofs. This is to
retrieve sports balls from the guttering or anything else stuck on the roof. None of them have seen,
or been involved in, risk assessments associated with the gutter-clearing task. The workers also say
that the injured FS has been working longer hours to get ‘jobs done’ but the FS had not informed
anyone that they were going to work that weekend.

Later, you talk to some of the teachers and they tell you that a roof near to the workers’ breakroom
has been leaking for several months and nothing has been done to fix it. Some of these leaks have
resulted in minor slip incidents and near misses.

During your interview with the FM, they tell you that they have been under a lot of pressure to work
within a certain budget. Many tasks that would have normally been done by an external contractor
have been carried out by the Facilities Team.

You verbally agree the summary of your written notes with each interviewee before closing the
meeting.

Task 3: Safety culture

Based on the scenario only, what appear to be the negative indicators of health and safety culture in
the school? (18)

The negative indicators of health and safety culture in the school are as follows:

1) Lack of proper maintenance: The poor state of repair of the temporary classrooms and the
leaking roof nearthe workers' breakroom indicate a lack of timely and adequate
maintenance.
2) Overcrowded and unsafe facilities: The expansion of the campus without proper planning
and the presence of boxes obstructing corridors and fire exits show a lack of attention to
safety and potential hazards.
3) Reduction in training budget: The Facilities Manager reducing the training budget, including
health and safety training, indicates a disregard for investing in employee safety and
development.
4) Understaffing: The Facilities Team being understaffed leads to delays in planned activities
and poses risks to worker safety.
5) Lack of proper records and risk assessments: The absence of evidence of work-at-height
training, safety instructions, permits-to-work, and specific risk assessments highlights a lack
of commitment to safety protocols.
6) Pressure to cut costs: The Facilities Manager being pressured by the Business and Finance
Director to reduce costs may compromise safety measures and employee well-being.
7) Infrequent health and safety inspections: The concern raised by the health and safety
committee about the infrequency of inspections indicates a lack of proactive safety
monitoring.
8) Storage issues: The presence of old stock stored in boxes in the permanent building further
contributes to hazards and disorganization.
9) Frustration and relationship breakdown: The strained relationship between teaching and
facilities workers due to their dissatisfaction with working conditions shows a negative
impact on the overall health and safety culture.
10) Lack of communication: The injured FS not informing anyone about working on the weekend
suggests a lack of open communication about potential risks and activities.
11) Inadequate external contractor use: The Facilities Team taking on tasks that should be done
by external contractors may indicate an inability to prioritize safety and expertise.
12) Unaddressed safety concerns: The unresolved complaints and incidents related to the
leaking roof and blocked corridors demonstrate a lack of responsiveness to safety issues.
13) Inadequate emergency response: The absence of other school workers during the accident
and the injured FS being left unconscious without immediate assistance point to potential
deficiencies in emergency response procedures.
14) Lack of awareness about risk assessments: The workers' unawareness of risk assessments for
specific tasks, such as gutter-clearing, indicates a lack of emphasis on risk management.
15) Absence of proper work documentation: Unactioned job requests and missing records for
specific tasks suggest inadequate documentation and accountability.
16) Underreporting of incidents: The school not receiving many reports of near misses or
accidents may indicate an underreporting culture, which hinders identifying potential safety
hazards.
17) Lack of priority on vulnerable workers: The presence of vulnerable individuals among the
staff without specific measures to protect their well-being points to a lack of focus on their
safety needs.
18) Inadequate training and awareness: Workers not receiving proper training for tasks involving
ladders and step ladders reflects a lack of safety awareness and education.