Schools have extensive Health and Safety obligations — and most take them seriously. But in our experience, the same failures come up repeatedly, often in schools that consider themselves well-managed. Here are the five we see most often, and what to do about them.
Any school building constructed before 2000 is likely to contain asbestos-containing materials (ACMs). The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 require schools to have a written asbestos management plan, a register of all known and presumed ACMs, a system for regular condition monitoring, and a method for informing contractors and maintenance staff before any work that might disturb building fabric.
The failure we most commonly find is not the absence of a register — most schools have one — but a register that hasn't been updated in years, doesn't cover all areas of the building, or isn't accessible to contractors before they start work. An out-of-date register is potentially more dangerous than no register at all, because it creates false confidence.
Schools regularly have contractors on site — for maintenance, cleaning, construction, catering and IT work. Each brings their own risks into the school environment, and the school has a duty to manage those risks under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 and the CDM Regulations 2015 for larger projects.
The failure here is typically a lack of a formal contractor management procedure. Contractors arrive, sign in, and start work without being told about the fire evacuation procedure, without the asbestos register being checked, and without being told about specific hazards in the areas where they are working. This is a foreseeable risk that is straightforward to control — but it requires a system, not just good intentions.
Most schools conduct fire drills. Fewer conduct them in a way that genuinely tests their evacuation arrangements. The most common failure is drills that always happen mid-morning on a dry day in the summer term — when maximum staff are available, children are in classrooms, and everyone half-expects it.
The law requires drills to be suitable — which means testing the arrangements under realistic conditions. A drill conducted during lunch, during PE when half the school is outside, at the start of the day before all children have registered, or during an after-school club will reveal very different things. Schools that only drill in ideal conditions will have an untested evacuation plan. Ofsted and the fire service are increasingly aware of this.
Schools use hazardous substances in science laboratories, art rooms, design technology workshops, and maintenance areas. The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 (COSHH) require a risk assessment before any hazardous substance is used — not a generic assessment for a category of chemical, but one that is specific to the substance, the activity, and the people involved (including pupils).
What we typically find is a folder of COSHH assessments that were written several years ago, may not reflect the substances currently in use, and haven't been reviewed since a change of teacher or a curriculum update. When a new product is substituted for an old one — often for cost reasons — the COSHH assessment may not have followed. This is a quiet but significant risk, particularly in science departments where quantities and combinations of substances can make an incident serious.
School trips and off-site visits carry significant H&S responsibilities. The DfE framework requires schools to appoint an Educational Visits Coordinator (EVC), carry out a risk assessment for each visit, check the competency of supervising staff, and have emergency procedures in place. Many schools have all of this — on paper.
The failure we find is that the process depends on a single, experienced teacher who "knows how it works," with no written procedure that a new or supply teacher could follow. When that teacher leaves, retires, or goes on leave, the system goes with them. We also frequently find that ratios are agreed informally rather than documented, that emergency contact and medical information is not collated consistently, and that the EVC role hasn't been formally reviewed or updated since the appointment was first made.
Governing body note: Governors and trustees have a legal duty to ensure the school meets its H&S obligations and to hold the leadership team to account. If you have not received a formal H&S report from the headteacher in the last year, or if you have never seen your school's Fire Risk Assessment, that is a governance gap worth addressing before an Ofsted inspection makes it visible.
None of the failures above are difficult to fix — but they are easy to overlook when everyone is busy teaching. An independent review by an external consultant takes the load off internal staff, provides an objective view, and generates a prioritised action plan that can be presented to governors as evidence of due diligence.
We work with primary schools, secondary schools and academies across the region. Independent review, plain English report, prioritised action plan.
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