Statement on health and safety in schools

E48:09 19 June 2009

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has called for a common sense approach to health and safety in Great Britain's schools.

HSE Chair Judith Hackitt today responded to a poll published by Teachers TV.

"Hardly a week goes by without another health and safety myth appearing," she said. 

"Health and safety is blamed for a lot of things not going ahead, but they're often about something else - high costs, an event that requires a lot of organising or fear of getting sued.

"Children cannot be wrapped in cotton wool - risk is part of growing up and our children need to learn how to manage risks in the real world.

"The examples cited in the Teachers TV article are quite frankly ridiculous.

"Stop worrying about the "conkers stories" and help children learn how to handle risk by doing things and going on visits. Concentrate on the real risks - not the trivia - by putting measures in place to manage them as far as is reasonable, but don't try to eliminate all risk and don't stop the activity."

Notes for editor:

1. There were 585 respondents to the questionnaire, of which 83.8% were teaching staff. It is believed this represents 0.14% of the education workforce, using figures provided by Teachers TV.
2. HSE recently launched a new strategy to promote a commonsense approach to risk management and debunk myths about health and safety http://www.hse.gov.uk/strategy/index.htm
3. Hundreds of businesses have signed up to the new 'Pledge' to work with HSE and 'be part of the solution' http://www.hse.gov.uk/strategy/pledge.htm
4. Recent research conducted exclusively for HSE found a third of employees wrongly think HSE bans flip-flops at work or children playing with conkers. Read the full findings online at http://www.hse.gov.uk/press/2009/e09044.htm

Press enquiries

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