Poster and leaflet campaign aims to prevent falls in the classroom

HSE Press Release E008:04 - 21 January 2004

This week teachers and classroom assistants from schools in Sheffield, Trafford and Glasgow start a safety campaign to reduce the number of deaths and injuries caused by falls in the classroom. In the last six years there have been five deaths and over three thousand injuries in the education sector alone.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and three local education authorities have produced posters and a guidance leaflet to raise awareness of safety in the classroom.

Teachers and classroom assistants are at risk of suffering injury as a result of a fall from height. Examples include: a teacher falling off a chair while putting material in a cupboard; a teacher standing on a bookcase to put up a display and falling; and a classroom assistant standing on a stool to close a window and falling.

The posters offer a visual reminder that using inappropriate equipment, such as a table or a chair, to carry out an activity at height can be dangerous. The leaflet raises awareness of accidents in the classroom and provides guidance on good practice.

The initiative is scheduled to run until the end of the summer term and once evaluated, may spread across the country.

Bill Gillan, Programme Manager for the HSE Falls from Height Priority Programme, said:

"I am delighted that these three local education authorities have agreed to work with HSE to address the issue of falls from height amongst classroom staff. Our statistics show that teachers and classroom assistants are at risk from this type of accident and we hope that this approach will be successful in raising awareness of the danger and reducing the number of accidents."

Notes to editors

1. The Health and Safety Commission (HSC) has included Falls from Height as one of its Priority Programmes aimed at reducing injury rates in the workplace.

2. From a baseline year of 1999 the Falls From Height Priority Programme seeks to reduce the number of fatal and major injuries as a result of a fall from height by 5% by 2004 and by 10% by 2009.

3. More information on the Falls from Height Priority Programme is available on the HSE website at http://www.hse.gov.uk/falls

Press enquiries

All enquiries from journalists should be directed to the HSE Press Office