SCHOOLS INCIDENT REPORTING, RECORDING and INVESTIGATION

Transcription

1 SCHOOLS INCIDENT REPORTING, RECORDING and INVESTIGATION Page 1 of 14

2 Amendment Register Revision Number Date Details Amended By Approved By Page 2 of 14

3 Contents Page Number 1. Introduction 4 2. Scope 4 3. Definitions 4 4. Responsibilities 5 5. Procedure Initial Response 5.2 Reporting and Recording of Incidents 5.3 Investigation 5.4 Health and Safety Executive Investigations 5.5 Action Planning 5.6 RIDDOR Incidents 5.7 Record Distribution, Retention and Data Collection Monitoring Review 10 Appendix 1 Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR) 11 Appendix 2 Guidance on Level 1 Investigations 13 Page 3 of 14

4 1. Introduction Incidents leading to injury, ill health or other losses have a negative impact on schools in that they result in business interruption, increase costs, can adversely affect delivery of service and can demoralise employees. The purpose of this procedure is to ensure systems are in place to report, record and investigate the cause of these incidents and so enable the school to learn lessons and improve management controls and health and safety performance. In addition this procedure explains the requirements to report to the Health and Safety Executive those incidents defined in the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR). 2. Scope This procedure explains the process for the reporting, recording and investigation of incidents and applies to all: Local Authority controlled schools, Incidents involving employees and/or other people (contractors, members of the public etc) that arise out of or in connection with work. 3. Definitions Incident: The term incident is used in this procedure to refer to any accident, violence/aggression or near miss event. Accident: is an event that results in injury or ill health. Near miss: is an event that, while not causing harm, has the potential to cause injury or ill health. Violence and aggression: any incident in which a person is abused, threatened or assaulted in circumstances related to their work. RIDDOR: is the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (see appendix 1 for further detail). Serious incidents: are the types of incident that warrant a higher level of investigation (see 5.3 below) and include the following incidents: Page 4 of 14

5 RIDDOR reportable incidents, other lost time incidents, employee becoming unfit for normal duties, manual handling incidents, incidents that have occurred more than once, physical assault of an employee, credible threat or severe abuse of an employee, as required by head teacher or health and safety coordinator, as required by Corporate Health and Safety Unit. Minor incidents: are any other incident excluding major injuries, over 7 day injuries, over 3 day injuries and fatalities (see appendix 1 for definition of major injuries). 4. Responsibilities 4.1 Employees involved in incidents (or a person on their behalf if they are unable to do so) are responsible for: Reporting the incident to their line manager/head teacher. Completing the incident report form (HSMS/FORM/012). Co-operating with any investigation that follows the reporting of the incident. Notes: (1) Incidents and near misses involving members of the public are to be reported and recorded on their behalf by an appropriate employee. (2) Where more than one person witnesses a near miss only one person needs to make a record of the incident with the other persons being listed in the witness section of the HSMS/FORM/ Witnesses to incidents are responsible for: Co-operating with any investigation that follows the reporting of the incident. Page 5 of 14

6 4.3 Head Teachers are responsible for: Having arrangements in place to deal with the incident to prevent further harm or loss e.g. first aid arrangements, access to resources to make buildings safe (Building Services, Premise Managers, Facility Managers etc). Conducting investigations of incidents to determine causes and corrective actions. Maintaining local records of incidents. Ensuring incident reports and investigation reports are completed and sent to the Corporate Health and Safety Unit. 4.4 Health and Safety Unit (in Local Authority controlled schools) are responsible for: Reporting RIDDOR incidents to the Health and Safety Executive. Assisting in investigations. Maintaining a central database of reported incidents. 5. Procedure 5.1 Initial Response Whenever an incident occurs the care of those affected is the first priority. The head teacher must ensure that arrangements are in place to cater for this including first aid provision and communication channels with emergency services. See also HSMS/PROC/004 Procedure for Emergency Planning including Fire and First Aid for more guidance on producing local emergency plans. 5.2 R eporting and Recording of Incidents School Employee Incidents When an employee incident occurs (in any category eg major, violence and aggression, minor etc) the affected person must report this to their line manager/head teacher by completing an Incident Report Form HSMS/FORM/012. Page 6 of 14

7 This must be completed on the day the incident occurs. If the employee cannot complete the form, eg because of their injuries or having been taken to hospital, then another employee must complete the form on their behalf, as far as they can, with the information available at the time. The incident report must then be passed to the head teacher or designated person for investigation. A copy of the fully completed from must be sent to the Corporate Health and Safety Unit, Sandwell Council House, Oldbury. If an employee has an incident connected with work which results in a major injury or the employee being unfit for work for more than 7 days the Corporate Health and Safety Unit must be notified as soon as possible in order to fulfil the legal duty to report such incidents under the RIDDOR regulations (see appendix 1). This report is completed on your behalf by the Corporate Health and Safety Unit. Non School Employee Incidents Schools should have a robust system in place for recording all incidents that occur on the school site to non school employees eg members of the public, pupils, contractors. If the incident involves the non school employee being taken to hospital directly from the school and the incident was in connection with work activities the incident should be reported by completing Incident Report Form HSMS/FORM/012. The incident report must then be passed to the head teacher or designated person for investigation. A copy of the fully completed form (including non school employee s full name, home address and date of birth) must be sent to the Corporate Health and Safety Unit, Sandwell Council House, Oldbury as soon as possible. Any incidents that do not result in a non school employee being taken to Page 7 of 14

8 hospital must be recorded and investigated locally and records kept. Information recorded should include: Date and time of incident Name of injured person Details of injury Location of incident Details of first aid given Cause of incident Name of person recording incident Name of non school employee s employer (if they are someone else s employee). 5.3 Investigation An investigation into the circumstances of the incident must be carried out as soon as practicable to identify the causes and actions required to prevent a recurrence. The level of investigation is determined by the severity of the incident as detailed in the table below. Severity of Incident Level of Investigation Investigation Lead By Record of Investigation Minor Level 1 (1) Head teacher or HSMS/FORM/012 appropriate manager Serious Level 2 Head teacher HSMS/FORM/013 Fatality Corporate Corporate Formal report and Health and HSMS/FORM/013 Safety Unit (1) Note the Health and Safety Unit may require a higher level of investigation if considered necessary based on a review of the incident report and discussions with the relevant manager. Level 1 is a minimal level investigation where the relevant supervisor or manager must look into the circumstances of the event and try to learn any lessons which will prevent future occurrences (see appendix 2 for guidance on this level of investigation). Page 8 of 14

9 Level 2 is a more detailed investigation by the relevant line manager into the circumstances and immediate, underlying and root causes of the incident, to try to prevent a recurrence and to learn any general lessons. See Corporate Health and Safety Form HSMS/FORM/013. Corporate Level is a high level investigation involving a team-based investigation led by the Corporate Health and Safety Unit and involving supervisors or line managers and employee representatives. It will be carried out under the supervision of the appropriate Head of Service and will look for the immediate, underlying and root causes. Note: The Health and Safety Unit may lead or decide to be involved in any level of investigation depending on the circumstances of the incident and in particular if there is a view that the incident may attract the attention of any enforcing authority. This will be discussed with the head teacher or health and safety coordinator as required. 5.4 H ealth and Safety Executive (HSE) Investigations The HSE may investigate incidents reported to them under RIDDOR or other information they may receive (complaints from members of the public for example). In these cases the Corporate Health and Safety Unit will coordinate the responses to the HSE investigation. 5.5 Action Planning On completion of the investigation the head teacher/health and safety coordinator must ensure that the actions identified are implemented as soon as practicable or in accordance with the timescales set out in any action plan that follows the investigation of an incident. 5.6 RIDDOR Incidents Appendix 1 gives details of the incidents that must be reported to the Health and Safety Executive. Schools must contact the Corporate Health and Safety Unit as soon as they become aware of any incident that meets these criteria. The Corporate Health and Safety Unit will report RIDDOR incidents to the Health and Safety Executive for Local Authority controlled schools. Page 9 of 14

10 5.7 Record Distribution, Retention and Data Collection The master copy of incident report forms (HSMS/FORM/012 for Sandwell employees) must be sent to the Corporate Health and Safety Unit at the Sandwell Council House, Oldbury, within 2 days of the incident being reported. Incident report forms completed for non-employees (pupils, contractors, members of the public etc) must be held in local records unless the incidents are work related and result in the non-employee s death or them being sent to hospital from the scene of the incident. Head teachers must keep a copy of incident report forms in local records (eg health and safety file). The Corporate Health and Safety Unit maintain a central database of employee records for reporting purposes. 6. Monitoring Head teachers or health and safety coordinators must ensure that they monitor to completion action plans produced as a result of their incident investigations eg in local health and safety meetings, management meetings, one to ones etc. The Corporate Health and Safety Unit will monitor the implementation of this procedure through the health and safety audit process. 7. Review The Corporate Health and Safety Unit will review the effectiveness of this procedure by the analysis of incident reports and investigation reports to ensure they have been completed accurately and submitted in a timely manner. Page 10 of 14

11 Appendix 1 Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR) Article I. The following injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences are reportable to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). An accident connected with work that: results in the death of an employee or self-employed person, or results in an employee or self-employed person suffering a major injury (including as a result of physical violence), or results in a member of the public being killed or taken to hospital from the scene of the incident, or results in an employee or self employed person taking more than 7 days off work (excluding day of accident but including rest days, holidays and weekends) or being unable to carry out their normal duties for more than 7 days of work. Major injuries include: Fractures (excluding fingers and toes), Amputation, Dislocation of shoulder, hip, knee or spine, Loss of sight (temporary or permanent), Injury resulting from electric shock or electric burn leading to unconsciousness or requiring resuscitation or admittance to hospital for more than 24 hours, Unconsciousness caused by asphyxia or exposure to a harmful substance or biological agent. Reportable dangerous occurrences include: Collapse, overturning or failure of load bearing parts of lifts and lifting equipment, Explosion, collapse or bursting of any closed vessel or associated pipe work, Electrical short circuit or overload causing fire or explosion. Reportable diseases include: Certain poisonings, Some skin diseases such as occupational dermatitis, Page 11 of 14

12 Lung disease including occupational asthma, pneumoconiosis, asbestosis and mesothelioma, Infections such as leptospirosis, hepatitis, tuberculosis, anthrax, legionellosis and tetanus, Other conditions such as occupational cancer, certain musculoskeletal disorders, decompression illness and hand-arm vibration syndrome. Note: for a disease to be reportable it has to be diagnosed by a medical practitioner and arise from specific work activity. Further advice should be sought from the Corporate Health and Safety Unit. These lists are not exhaustive; if in doubt refer to the RIDDOR guidance or the Corporate Health and Safety Unit. Page 12 of 14

13 Appendix 2 Guidance on Level 1 Investigations These notes are aimed at low-level investigations of minor incidents for which it is unlikely to be necessary to stop work due to injury or damage. This level of investigation requires the manager or supervisor to discuss the incident with the affected person and witnesses (if there were any). The following points should be used to identify actions to prevent a reoccurrence. Premises Adequate premises/access/egress provided but not used. Adequate place etc once provided but not maintained. Adequate place etc never provided. Premises not a significant factor consider equipment and materials/substances. Equipment, Materials and Substances Adequate controls for the use of equipment and materials/substances provided but not used. Adequate controls for the use of equipment and materials/substances once provided but not maintained. Adequate controls for the use of equipment and materials/substances never provided. Equipment and materials/substances not a significant factor consider procedures. Procedures Correct procedure devised but not used. Correct procedure once devised and used but now lapsed. Correct procedure never devised. Correct procedure in use consider people. Page 13 of 14

14 People Competence - consider whether the person was: never competent, once competent but performance not sustained. Competent person but did wrong thing. Possibilities include: unintended actions such as: o slip - doing the right thing in the wrong way, o lapse - forgetting the right thing. intended actions such as: o mistake - choosing the wrong action in error, o violation - purposely doing wrong thing. Page 14 of 14