News Updates
Take a look at what's been happening in the world of education and health and safety since our last issue...
Blackpool Schools Traffic Review May Mean Instant Fines for Parents who Drop Off Their Children
A traffic review of the Blackpool area may mean that parents who ignore highway restrictions when dropping off their children at schools could be handed instant fines.
Council chiefs are considering the use of ‘red lines’ outside schools after the system proved to be a success at Armfield Academy in South Shore. Drivers are not allowed to stop or park on a red line at any time, and the restriction is in place round-the-clock 365 days a year.
Currently, Blackpool schools are having to deal with issues such as parents ignoring parking restrictions and ignoring the safety implications of doing so, inconsiderate parking in and around the school and adjacent streets and poor drivers’ behaviour and the conduct.
The move is being considered as part of a £79,000 review of road safety at all 33 primary schools in Blackpool. Experts from Essency Consulting have been appointed to visit each school site to monitor traffic activity and parking during busy drop-off and pick-up times.
Traffic wardens can issue on-the-spot fines and issue tickets using photographic evidence. Highways chiefs added that there “might be the potential for the red line to be installed at all sites”.
This review is part of the implementation of the Blackpool Community Safety Plan 2022-2025 in which road safety is a key priority.
Discussions are underway with headteachers in the area. All reviews are due to be completed within six months, after which each school will receive a report setting out potential safety improvements. Any proposals highlighted by the review would need to be collectively agreed and funding sourced and put in place before a programme can be implemented to make the required changes.
Community relations and estates lead at Fylde Coast Academy Trust, John Topping, said: “I am very pleased that Blackpool Council is targeting funds to a road safety research project that will certainly assist us in supporting all local primary age children and their parents/carers as they journey to and from school. “The Fylde Coast Academy Trust looks forward to the outcomes and recommendations for road safety improvement outside our schools over the next six months.”
This project runs alongside the council’s leisure services and Lancashire Fire and Rescue services’ initiatives to promote active travel and road safety education and training to schools.
Company Fined £20,000 for Multiple Health and Safety Failings in Alderley Edge.
An inspection by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) on 9 October 2020 found many health and safety failings, including several areas where workers could have fallen from height, a risk of exposure to hazardous substances, and inadequate welfare facilities. The company involved, Daniel Taylor Builder and Architectural Woodworker Limited, was served with three Prohibition Notices prohibiting unsafe activities and five Improvement Notices requiring the company to take remedial action to comply with the law.
The HSE then discovered that the firm had previously been the subject of enforcement action relating to unsafe work at height at both its construction sites and joinery workshop. The investigation found company director, David Taylor, was acting as site manager at the London Road site and had failed to ensure the necessary health and safety measures were implemented to protect employees and others, despite the previous HSE interventions.
Daniel Taylor Builder and Architectural Woodworker Limited, of Wheelwrights Yard, Congleton, Cheshire, pleaded guilty to breaching section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. The company was fined £20,000 following its early guilty plea, and ordered to pay £1,507.71 in costs at South Cheshire Magistrates’ Court on 8 February 2023.
David William Taylor, of New Road, Congleton, Cheshire, pleaded guilty to breaching section 37(1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. Mr Taylor, 77, was fined £10 by the district judge taking into account totality of sentencing this defendant as a director of the company, his early guilty plea, positive references and his cooperation with HSE enforcement action. HSE inspector Sinead Martin said: “This type of proactive prosecution will highlight to the construction industry that HSE will not hesitate to prosecute companies for repeated breaches of the law. Good management of health and safety on site is crucial to the successful delivery of a construction project and principal contractors have an important role in managing the risks of construction work and ensuring that safety measures are implemented.”
DfE to Update to School Restraint Guidance
For the first time in a decade, the government will update its guidance for schools on the physical restraint of pupils and other “reasonable force.” The changes come following an inquiry by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission found “inconsistency and uncertainty” over what schools should include in their restraint policies and found a “significant proportion” wanted “better and more specific guidance”.
The Department for Education said it supported school staff to use reasonable force “when it is safe, lawful and absolutely necessary”. They also “recognise that the misuse of reasonable force or restrictive practices can have a significant and long-lasting effect on the pupils, staff members and parents involved, as well as the wider classroom”.
The changes would mean that the government’s “use of reasonable force” guidance, which was issued in 2013 would be significantly updated. This non-statutory guidance advises staff on “how to minimise the use of restraint and in instances where it is absolutely necessary and lawful to use reasonable force or restrictive practices, to do so as safely as possible”.
The consultation will also explore how schools support pupils, parents and staff affected by the use of reasonable force, and how schools meet their duties under human rights, equalities and children and families law.
The Equalities and Human Rights Commission found in 2021 that there was “inconsistency and uncertainty about what should be included in school policies governing the use of restraint”. They also revealed that schools’ recording practices were “not consistent and they need a better understanding of what constitutes restraint, and what they should record”.
The DfE said it remained committed to “mandating recording and reporting of incidents of restraint to parents”.
Counter-extremism Workers Have Warned of increase in Andrew Tate-related Cases Referred to Prevent by Schools
These warnings come amid criticism of a review of Prevent by William Shawcross, which concluded last week that the “incel” subculture, whose misogynistic followers have been drawn to Tate, was not a counter-terrorism matter.
Prevent have said that incidents include the verbal harassment of female teachers or other pupils and outbursts echoing Tate’s views, which students have accessed via Tik Tok and Instagram despite him being banned from them.
Prevent advisors who spoke to the Guardian told of cases referred to them where Tate was cited and were also trying to help teachers understand a whole new lexicon of words they were hearing but did not understand. A Prevent staff member said, “There are cases such as where a kid draws a swastika or say that they want to join Isis. The inclusion of Andrew Tate within that – in small and bigger ways – is quite new””.
Tate, who has claimed to have converted to Islam, has also had links to far-right figures including Tommy Robinson. As well as conspiracy theorist Paul Joseph Watson and the US “alt-right” activist Jack Posobiec.
Senior counter-terrorism officers regard incel as an “emerging risk.” Currently, 1% of all referrals to the anti-extremism scheme in the year to March 2022 are as a result of this worrying trend. Shawrcross went on to say, “Incel violence against women could well be classified as a form of hate crime,” he stated in his review, adding: “Such individuals may also be driven toward suicide and self-harm due to psychological distress rather than violence against others.”
A government spokesperson said the online safety bill would require technology firms to protect young people from being exposed to harmful material online and enforce their age limits. The teaching of online safety is also being reviewed. “To help schools protect children, we have made relationships, sex and health education a compulsory part of the curriculum and are strengthening our guidance for schools on how to be alert to issues such as misogyny and gender stereotypes,” they said.
Plans For a Four-day School, Week Put Forward in Scotland
West Dunbartonshire Council is currently considering a shortened school week alongside a range of other measures as part of the local authority’s 2023/24 spending plans. These measure are part of a bid to plug a £15m budget gap. The change would mean that schools would not open to pupils on Fridays. If new proposals are agreed at the full council meeting on March 1, primary schools would open Monday to Thursday from 8:30am until 3:45pm and secondary schools would run an eight period day from Monday to Thursday, 8:20am until 4:10pm.
West Dunbartonshire Council say the plans for a four-day week would have no impact upon teaching time or teacher numbers. However, it states that the proposal “may not be well-received as it may impact upon childcare arrangements for parents”. It also notes that “consideration must be given to supports in place for vulnerable children whose attendance at school provides a much-needed routine”.
A fifth day of services for vulnerable and at-risk children are currently being examined as well as a programme of extra-curricular activities on Fridays.
Mick Dolan West Dunbartonshire’s EIS spokesperson said: “It would require a considerable level of consultation before it was possible to take it forward, if it ever was to be taken forward."
He added; “While teacher working time and pupil contact time wouldn’t change, the shape of the day for teachers, pupils and their families would change as well as the impact of having one less day at school per week. Other authorities have moved to an asymmetric week with a half day on Friday but never a complete closure on a Friday so we don’t have any lived experience to draw on. It also presents an issue in relation to the national guidance on the number of school openings and on the number of working days for teachers per year which impacts on pay structures."
A spokesperson for West Dunbartonshire Council said: “These options were developed by officers to address the Council’s unprecedented £15m budget gap. No decision can or will be taken until this is considered by elected members at a Council meeting on March 1.”
DfE Acknowledges That ‘There is a Risk of Collapse of One or More Blocks in Some Schools’.
Seven unions have written to the government demanding that they take immediate action to address the state of school buildings in England. This follows a call from the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) for full disclosure regarding which school buildings are most at risk. They also demand urgent intervention to shore up the buildings which are most at risk.
The unions want to know what measures the government is planning to eradicate the risk of structural collapse, as well as what extra funding will be provided to ensure that all school buildings are safe and fit for the future.
The letter references research by the House of Commons library stating that between 2009-10 and 2021-22, overall capital spending on the school estate fell by about 37% in cash terms and 50% in real terms. As a result, ageing buildings, some of which contain asbestos, are at a real risk of falling down. The risk predominantly exists in school buildings dating from 1945 to 1970 when “system build” light-frame construction techniques were used. DfE officials also raised the risk level of buildings collapsing from “critical” to “critical – very likely”.
The DfE have acknowledged the crisis in its annual report, published in December, which said “there is a risk of collapse of one or more blocks in some schools which are at, or approaching, the end of their designed life expectancy, and structural integrity is impaired”.
Simon Allford, president of the RIBA , told the Architects’ Journal: “The safety of school building users is paramount, so the government must urgently publish the buildings conditions survey and ensure any buildings with structural safety risks are immediately assessed, interim safety measures put in place, and all necessary works scheduled to an urgent programme. With so many buildings likely to be in need of overhaul, we hope to see the government seize the opportunity to invest in good design to ensure these vital community assets are fit for future generations.”
Joint general secretary of the NEU, Kevin Courtney, said: “It is disgraceful that over the last decade of austerity our school buildings have been allowed to deteriorate to the extent that some are at risk of collapse, and the government does not even know which buildings fall into this category. In one of the most advanced economies in the world it is shocking that many children, young people and school staff work and learn in an environment that is dangerously unsafe.”
A DfE spokesperson said: “If the department is made aware of a building that poses an imminent risk of collapsing, immediate action is taken to ensure safety and remediate the situation. At present, the department is not aware of any school building that remains open in this state and would expect responsible bodies to immediately approach us if this were the case.”
Police Hunt for Gunman as Two Schools Put in Lockdown
Police are hunting a gunman after two Stoke-on-Trent schools were placed in lockdown. The Discovery Academy and nearby Maple Court Academy, both in Bentilee, ordered students to remain in their classrooms at the end of the school day.
Staffordshire Police stated that a member of the public reported seeing a man with a gun in the Beverley Drive area. A search to find him is ongoing and a witness appeal has been launched.
A message sent out by the Discovery Academy to parents shortly before 4pm said: "Following concerns of an incident in the surrounding area, the Academy has been placed in temporary lockdown to ensure student safety. Police have been called. Further updates will follow shortly."
A Staffordshire Police spokesman said: "We were called at 3.30pm this afternoon to reports that a member of the public had seen a man with a gun on Beverley Drive, Bentilee. Officers attended and an area search is ongoing. If you have any information or relevant CCTV or dashcam footage that could help us, please get in touch."
One parent posted on social media: "We've all been stood outside the classroom doors for over an hour for two police officers to arrive to eventually give the all clear. My lad was absolutely shaken up. What I don't get and was disgusting is they kept the kids under the tables in the classrooms due to a threat. There was loads of parents which were not happy. I understand they have to keep kids safe but it was home time. To have us stand in the grounds while the school had a threat there is an absolute joke. This is going way too far now."
Another parent said "It’s a joke, Maple kept all the gates open for anybody to walk around. Police didn’t say anything. Parents were crying to the teachers and they just walked away. All the Discovery Academy kids came down banging on the windows, all the kids must have been scared with all that noise. It was badly handled from Maple. The police took 45 minutes to get to Maple as well."
‘Sunsetting’ Bill Could Harm Asbestos Health And Safety Warns British Occupational Hygiene Society
Plans by the government to ‘sunset’ many European Union-derived laws by the end of 2023 may mean the loss of important asbestos health and safety regulations, the British Occupational Hygiene Society (BOHS) has warned. Along with the Chartered Society for Worker Health Protection, BOHS has welcomed the findings of a review by the Health and Safety Executive into the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012.
The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill, currently going through parliament, is set to scrap more than 2,400 laws and is set to take effect from the end of December.
The review, published by the National Organisation of Asbestos Consultants (NORAC) in February, highlighted that the regulations were effective and should be retained, but there was further scope to regulate work around asbestos surveying and removal.
BOHS, which hosts the professional standards body for asbestos scientists, has expressed concern that the regulations could either be significantly reduced or scrapped entirely as a result of being classed as ‘retained EU law’ and therefore fall foul of the government’s Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill.
Registrar of FAAM and a NORAC committee member, Jonathan Grant, said: “It is almost unbelievable that the Asbestos Regulations, which are essential to save lives, could be listed for potential repeal. We urgently need confirmation by the government that our health and safety is not going to be diluted.”
NORAC and Asbestos Testing and Consultancy ATAC recently published research that has argued that the risks to the public and workers from asbestos being managed, rather than being removed, is significantly greater than had been previously thought.
BOHS chief executive Professor Kevin Bampton has warned that “asbestos, noise, radiation, gas safety and indeed the whole mechanism for management of health in the workplace are listed as retained EU law to be repealed, restated or amended. Most of these standards have been pioneered in the UK. The UK fought the European Commission over decades to retain its unique and effective approach to health and safety management and the REUL Bill is likely to throw this all away.”