Key points - monitoring

The DfES good practice guide “Health and Safety of Pupils on Educational Visits” (HASPEV) and supplements provide the main source of guidance on monitoring in connection with adventure activities and for educational visits.

• Department for Education and Skills

For those in Scotland, the Scottish Executive Education Department guidance "Health and Safety on Educational Excursions" should be accessed at:

• http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/education/hsee-00.asp

It is important that you also look at the 10 vital questions which we believe are the essential things anybody should ask about a visit.

Any references in brackets refer to the paragraph numbers in the Investigation Report.

The key points on monitoring emerging from, or reinforced by, the Glenridding tragedy are set out below:

General principles

DfES advise that the LEA cannot fulfil its statutory duty as an employer unless it monitors how its schools are complying with the LEA policy. The LEA should monitor robustly to ensure required standards are reached and should take action where they are not. This advice is also appropriate to the Governing Body in a school where the Governing Body is the employer.

Monitoring and audit provide mechanisms for identifying when H&S systems are degraded or abused (Para G 28).

Organisations with otherwise robust H&S management systems are often weak on monitoring (Para G 28).

Hazard checklists have their value, but can often distract from looking deeper into management systems where the real problems may lie (Para G 29).

One simple way of monitoring is to check compliance with the precautions identified in risk assessments or set out in safe operating procedures (Para F6).

Monitoring should be seen as supportive, recording and acknowledging good practice and achievement, as well as identifying and remedying lack of achievement (Para F 6).

Schools

Monitoring by head teachers, senior managers and governors is important to ensure compliance and prevent complacency (Para F 4).

Monitoring needs to cover activities and H&S management systems as well as sites (Para F 6).

Compliance with procedures should form part of a school’s internal monitoring arrangements (Para C 11).

There should be “field” monitoring of educational visits (Para F 6). This should be undertaken on a sample basis. Priorities for field monitoring should be established using risk management procedures (Para G 14))

Governors should be told well in advance of proposed educational visits and always be prepared to ask searching questions about the educational objectives and management arrangements for forthcoming visits and the outcomes of completed visits (Para C 13).

It would be good practice for the Governing Body to ask regularly about the first aid qualifications held by staff (Para D7).

It is good practice for school governing bodies to receive evidence from monitoring by the school and LEA which shows both what has been done well and what can be done better. The aim should be to achieve continuous improvement (Para F 6).

H&S considerations should feature in performance monitoring, staff appraisal and staff development programmes (Para F 7).

Local Education Authorities

LEAs should have monitoring systems in place and provide feedback to schools

Where H&S tasks/functions are delegated under Fair Funding, the LEA should make clear who does what, and monitor to confirm that the tasks are being carried out (Para G 5).

LEAs need to make clear to head teachers, Governors and advisers:

• what effective monitoring “looks like”
• who is responsible for monitoring what
• how the findings should be recorded and reported
• how reports should be evaluated and actioned (Paras G6, G14, G35).

Training and support for school governors and senior managers in the self-assessment of H&S will support the monitoring and audit processes (Para G 27).

Monitoring and auditing of schools by the LEA should be wider than just premises issues and include evaluation of the monitoring and auditing done by the school (Para G 26).

It is good practice for LEAs to

• provide governing bodies with guidance on the issues they need to be considering. A “core agenda” is one way of doing this
• brief clerks to governing bodies to remind governors of the visit approval procedures and indicate questions they might ask in connection with proposed visits
• make the Governing Body aware of reports of any monitoring or review of H&S performance done by the LEA and of any monitoring documents that the school submitted to the LEA
• have clear policies and guidance for governors and head teachers on monitoring, evaluation and accountability
• provide training and support for governors in the self-assessment of H&S performance to help them in their role as “critical friend”. (Paras G 27, G 34