PLC Public Sector reports:
The decision in a recent Scottish case highlights the need for schools to act quickly to assess and take account of the health and safety risks following incidents with pupils that could put staff in danger.
In this case, the failure of the school to act immediately following a violent incident led to the local authority responsible for the school having to pay a teacher in excess of £70,000 in damages.
The claimant was a teacher who worked part time in a school that was managed by the defendant local authority as a school for children with special educational needs. Prior to the relevant incidents the adequacy of the school’s health and safety practices had been questioned, but these had been addressed by the time that the first incident took place.
The first incident took place on 7 June 2001 and involved the claimant and a support worker being repeatedly punched by an autistic pupil experiencing an anxiety attack. The incident was recorded in the school’s incident book, but the section setting out what action needed to be taken was left blank and the form was signed off by the deputy headteacher responsible, who required no action to be taken. Further incidents that involved the same pupil acting violently toward the claimant occurred on 30 August 2001 and 6 September 2001 and, while the actions necessary to deal with the pupil’s anxiety were discussed, no consideration of any additional protection for the claimant was considered.
Following a fourth incident on 19 September 2001, the deputy head teacher noted in the incident book that a strategy “identifying an agreed plan to support staff in the event of M becoming violent” was required. Even then, it was the claimant’s refusal to carry on teaching the class that prompted a male support worker to be appointed and a walkie-talkie given to the claimant. After these steps had been taken the violent incidents stopped. However, starting in 2002, the claimant’s mental health deteriorated to the extent that she had to stop teaching. This deterioration was attributed to the violent incidents.
The court found that in failing to take action following the incidents on 7 June, 30 August and 6 September the authority had failed in its duty to devise, maintain and enforce a safe system of work for the claimant. The local authority was therefore liable to pay in excess of £70,000 in damages.
While this case does not set any new legal precedent, with the employer’s duty to provide a safe place of work a well established one, it does highlight the need to act quickly in response to any incident that puts the health and safety of any employee in danger. An incident should not be ignored on the basis that it was probably a one off and a “wait and see” approach will not be sufficient. Health and saftey policies should be constantly evolving and the health and safety of staff and applicable policies must be reviewed after all incidents to see if action needs to be taken. While the risk to teachers may be greater in a special educational needs setting, the same principle applies to mainstream schooling and, indeed, to all employees whatever their role and in any setting.
It is obviously difficult for a local authority to micro-manage to the extent that it ensures that all schools take the appropriate action following an incident, but this decision highlights the financial incentive in ensuring that all practical steps are taken to ensure school compliance.
For more information on stress in the work place see our practice note.
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