Every day thousands of people pass through the doors of schools, colleges and universities across the UK. This volume of traffic gives rise to health and safety risks, especially at times when construction and maintenance are being carried out. The need for educational establishments to manage these heightened risks effectively is imperative, in order to be compliant and up to date with health and safety legislation. Darran Hughes, Director of Operations for SAFEcontractor, explains the obligation that organisations have to ensure the competence of various contractors that are hired to work on site, in order to uphold their duty of care.

Schools, universities and colleges have a huge number of people coming onto their premises on a daily basis, including students, pupils, teachers, lecturers and parents. In addition to this, educational establishments will work with a large network of suppliers and subcontractors, who will be responsible for carrying out tasks such as reactive maintenance as well as planned construction or redevelopment.

The subcontractors and suppliers can include anyone from window cleaners, landscapers, repairs and maintenance, scaffolders to plasterers and electricians. The risk of an accident occurring is heightened due to constant work being carried out during term-time when a high volume of people will also be moving around and on and off-site.

These risks must be managed carefully by educational establishments so that they do not fall foul of health and safety legislation, as they can be made solely accountable in the event of an accident or proven breach of care.

Increasingly tough legislation has been brought into force in recent years, including the Corporate Manslaughter Act (2008) and the Health and Safety (Offences) Bill (2009). This has led to soaring fines and has provided courts with greater sentencing powers for those who violate the health and safety guidelines. The legislation places the responsibility for health and safety right at the very top of the organisation. This means those who enlist others to do work on their behalf are liable for the actions and breaches of all subcontractors employed to work on the premises.

Educational establishments have a duty of care to ensure the safety of everyone on their site and they face extra complications, especially when people are moving around a multi-site estate, such as in the case of many universities and colleges. It is important that a thorough risk management scheme is in place to safeguard against any hazards that may arise.

Even minor offences can carry fines of around £20,000, so it is now more important than ever before that educational institutions stay the right side of the law in order to prevent any potential prosecutions. In the event of an incident on site, organisations could face steep fines if they have failed to install an effective system to mitigate risk, even if the fault lies with an external contractor.

In addition to these tougher regulations, the Sentencing Guidelines Council has recently announced that organisations found guilty of corporate manslaughter can expect to be fined up to seven-figures, rarely less than £500,000. The new guidelines allow courts to impose higher fines in order to deter against complacency relating to health and safety and emphasise that having correct measures in place can prevent avoidable deaths.

The seriousness of the offence and the fine are dependent on a number of factors, including whether or not non-compliance is considered part of the organisational culture, whether an incident was foreseeable and how high up the chain of command the breach lay.

It is an organisation's responsibility to ensure that all the contractors they employ are compliant with the highest standards in health and safety. This usually involves a lot of additional paperwork and questionnaires which can place a huge strain on internal resource, usually falling on the shoulders of a headmaster or site manager.

Maintenance work that is carried out within schools and universities presents an obvious danger to the pupils, students and staff and for this reason it is vital that extra care is taken and the way in which hazards are dealt is formalised.

Organisations should promote safe practices and a culture of compliance within the workplace. The only way to exemplify this is through a rigorous health and safety management system, which not only serves to reduce incidents but in the event of an accident on site, can dramatically diminish liability.

Institutions such as universities and colleges tend to consist of many buildings on multiple sites or campuses and this generates a requirement for increased consistency and a streamlined approach to managing health and safety. This can be difficult to manage internally as it involves assessing potentially hundreds of contractors, some who will need a great deal of support and guidance in addressing gaps in their procedures.

A third party accreditation scheme can be an efficient way in which to manage complex health and safety issues. The schemes assess, review and audit the health and safety policies, procedures and documentation of contractors. They also ensure that all contractors hired by an organisation are vetted vigorously and meet the highest standards of compliance and competence.

By having an accreditation system in place, educational establishments can demonstrate that they have taken steps to manage health and safety risks so that if an incident did occur, they had the relevant procedures in place to prevent it occurring, which should be favourably in a court of law.

With so much at stake if an accident occurs, schools, colleges and universities cannot afford to be cavalier with the law. They must ensure that all the correct procedures are in place to ensure health and safety compliance avoid falling foul of legislation.

Darran Hughes is the Director of Operations at SAFEcontractor. SAFEcontractor is the UK's largest safety, health and environmental risk management specialist. SAFEcontractor was established in 2002 and now has more than 16,500 members, including contractors involved in more than 100 different work activities, spread across all parts of the UK.

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