Health and Safety
Executive / Commission
Statistics
The number of fatal injuries to workers in education has fluctuated over the period from 1999/2000, with the relatively low number of fatalities offering no discernable trend in the rate of fatal injury. In 2007/08p, there was one fatal injury to an employee, with four fatalities occurring in the previous year (three employee deaths and one self-employed). The recorded rate of fatal injury in 2006/07 stands at 0.2 fatal injuries per 100 00 workers.
In 2003/04 there was a change to the employer database against which HSE non-fatal injury reports are assigned. This affected the spread of non-fatal injury numbers by industry. The change in coding practice affects injury numbers but not the corresponding workforce figures and hence injury rates will also be affected. The change was particularly marked in the education sector causing an artificial fall in 2003/04. Subsequent adjustments to the employer database from the start of 2007/08 mean only the data series 2003/04 to 2006/07 is affected, for full details see Series break.
Following the changes in coding practice the number and rate of reported major injury to employees increased in 2007/08p by 59%, to 1 857 injuries from 1 166. There was a corresponding increase in the rate of major injury, which increased by 58% to 79.9 per 100 000 employees from 50.4 in 2006/07. The data suggests a similar major injury rate in years 2003/04 to 2006/07, given the discontinuity in the data it is unclear whether this trend continues in 2007/08.
* Vertical dotted lines represent changes in industry coding. Between 2003/04 and 2006/07 some workers were coded into other industry groups for full details see Series break.
As with major injuries, the number of over-3-day injuries to employees increased by 63% to 4 685 from 2 977 in 2006/07. A similar increase occurred in the rate of over-3-day injury, which rose by 64% to 201.5 per 100 000 employees. Data between 2003/04 and 2006/07 suggests no real change in the rate. Compared to other main industry groups, education has one of the lowest rates of reported over-3-day injury.
* Vertical dotted lines represent changes in industry coding. Between 2003/04 and 2006/07 some workers were coded into other industry groups for full details see Series break.
Based on the Labour Force Survey (LFS), the rate of reportable non-fatal injury in education was 610 per 100 000 workers (0.61%) in 2006/07 (three-year average), statistically significantly lower than the average across all industries (950 per 100 000 workers – 0.95%).
* Vertical dotted lines represent changes in industry coding. Between 2003/04 and 2006/07 some workers were coded into other industry groups for full details see Series break.
The most common kinds of reported injuries to workers in all industries occur as a result of handling, or slips and trips. These also represent the most common kinds of reported injury within education. In 2007/08, slips and trips accounted for 40% of reported injuries to workers, and handling 24%. However, compared to other industries, education has a much higher proportion of reported injuries to workers caused by acts of violence (9% education vs. 4% all other industries), and to a lesser extent, harmful substances (3% education vs. 2% all other industries).