Author: | Mike Cooper |
Date of Publication: | August 2015 |
Revised | 18 December 2020 (WH) |
Next date of review | August 2021 |
The York Learning health and safety policy and procedures are underpinned and informed by the City of York Council’s health and safety policy and procedures and the online resource B-Safe which is a joint resource between CYC and NYCC. As of December 2020, there is still the previous system SafeOrg which is currently being used for creation, review and storage of risk assessments. It is expected that in the next 12 months SafeOrg will be phased out and all creation/review/storage of risk assessments will be on B-Safe.
The York Learning Health and Safety policy and staff guidebook should be read in conjunction with the City of York Council overall Health and Safety Policy which can be found on COLIN.
The service has a dual responsibility to both employees and to learners who attend programmes. The health and safety responsibility extends to all activities that are related to the programme of study, including visits that support provision.
Our aim in implementing this policy is to ensure that we create a culture which recognises that controlling health and safety risks is an essential part of everyone’s day to day responsibility. Our aim is to ensure that:
As part of our duty of care to staff and learners, there is a separate policy which covers dealing with inappropriate behaviour in online classes which could put learners at risk of radicalisation or similar. Please see ‘York Learning Hate Speech Online Guidance’ document
Tutors’ main responsibilities are:
A key responsibility of tutors is to ensure learners are aware of their health and safety responsibilities. Essentially, these consist of two strands:
These responsibilities are contained in the York Learning information guide that is given to learners and we ask that you point this out at the start of the course.
For learners who are doing a remote course via video conferencing software such as Zoom, they will have seen health and safety information as part of their online induction process when they sign up for the course via our online booking portal. This includes how to keep themselves safe online, how to report a safeguarding concern and information about how to sit correctly at a computer.
As of December 2020 learners are mostly not in face to face delivery as much of our course delivery is via video conferencing software due to the effects of Covid-19. Please see Category Four below for explanation of how this affects classes where normally a Health Questionnaire would be filled in by the learner at the first class.
As part of our learning offer, York Learning subcontracts individual learning programmes to pre-agreed partner organisations. As part of the Quality Assurance Process, all partner organisations have their Health and Safety polices checked and recorded under the due diligence for subcontracting procedure and the York Learning Health and Safety handbook is shared with the partner organisation. Partner organisations are visited on at least an annual basis to ensure all learners are working in a safe and suitable environment and that all polices and actions agreed with the partner organisation as part of the subcontract arrangement are being followed. Partner organisations are informed of the reporting procedure in the event of an incident or ‘near miss’ (see below)
York Learning also acts as delivery subcontractor for the learning programmes of other organisations. As part of the subcontract process, York Learning agree to familiarise themselves with the Health and Safety policy of the parent organisation and undertakes to keep learners safe by using the policies and procedures from the York Learning Health and Safety handbook in its most current and up to date form.
Another key responsibility of all members of staff is to report any incidents that have health and safety implications. An ‘incident‘ includes the following, where they arise out of, or in connection with work:
The intention of the policy is to prevent accidents, not just to record accidents that have taken place. Each adult education outcentre has access to B-Safe, the reporting tool for reporting accidents. If you need to report an accident or a near miss, you should contact the administrative staff at the centre and they will support you in completing the report on B-Safe.
If you are working in a building which is not one of our adult education centres, accidents or near misses need to be reported to the Health and Safety Assessor for York Learning who will then report it via B-Safe. This guidance should be used in conjunction with Incident Reporting and Investigation compliance note CN2
The service has identified seven categories of risk associated with activities in in our provision, namely:
For categories 2-4, we have devised generic risk assessments and published them in this handbook. Please refer to Annex 1. The master copies are stored online, currently in the SafeOrg system, will be translated onto B-Safe when this is possible in 2021 and are updated annually as part of the review of this handbook. You should:
The 5th category, ‘high risk activities’ require individual risk assessments. You should:
These would only be used in the event of a York Learning course being delivered in premises which have not been used by York Learning/CYC before or York Learning moving their base of operations to new premises. The building would be risk assessed using the standard PREMISES WORKPLACE INSPECTIONFORM REF NO:CYC/HS/F10A and any issues dealt with before learners and/or staff were allowed into the premises.
Category 2 consists of classroom-based programmes and activities where there is little or no equipment used by tutors or students. There may be some audio or visual aid equipment or the use of overhead projectors or data projectors. Examples include, but are not limited to:
Category 3 consists of programmes and activities that involve the use of some equipment or specialist facilities. These include, but are not limited to:
Category 4 consists of programmes and activities such as sport and fitness and dance classes, where people who have particular medical conditions or poor levels of fitness would potentially be at risk. Category 4 also includes alternative therapy and science programmes where certain types of manipulation or the use of chemicals could be a risk. Examples include, but are not limited to:
In these classes in the first class after a learner has enrolled the learners are asked to fill in a Health Questionnare (see Annex 3) which gives the tutor information about the individual learner. This is on top of the online enrolment system which asks learners to state medical information the service needs to be aware of. Because disclosure is voluntary having two opportunities for learners to disclose a health condition that might be affected by a class where physical activity is included reduces the risk that a learner’s pre-existing medical condition is affected. York Learning recognise that this risk is only reduced by having two opportunities to declare pre-existing medical conditions and cannot be removed altogether.
Because most of our programme is currently being delivered online via Zoom, learners are being given this information in the course guide as well as the information they read in the online induction package:
Before starting any exercise programme, it’s advisable to seek advice from your GP or a health professional if you have any health concerns, such as a health condition or an injury. As we are not qualified healthcare professionals, by participating in one of our online courses you agree to take full responsibility for your own health, wellbeing and safety.
If you have any health problems or difficulties that you suffer from which you feel may impact on your ability to participate in this class please email york.learning@york.gov.uk with details of the class you will be attending (title/code/tutor) and we will forward this on to the relevant tutor who will, if they feel it appropriate, contact you before your first class to discuss this with you.
Category 5 consists of programmes and activities where the nature of the activity is inherently dangerous, for example intensive aerobic activity, or where the equipment being used carries a risk of serious injury, for example metalwork and woodwork.
Category 5 also consists of programmes from category 4 which involve a lone tutor teaching or where first aid or access to a telephone was restricted.
The service should have very few of these programmes.
Category 5 programmes require an individual risk assessment. If you teach a course that the tutor/curriculum manager think falls into category 5 and there is not already an individual risk assessment they complete and return the ‘Notification of Additional Risk’ pro-forma. The York Learning Health and Safety Assessor will then create in discussion with the tutor/curriculum manager a bespoke risk assessment for that specific class/scenario.
Staff have access to the Risk Assessment register on SafeOrg via a generic York Learning login and can check whether a pre-existing Category Five risk assessment exists for their specific scenario, or can request that the York Learning Health and Safety Assessor checks for them if they wish.
Please note that on any course offered by York Learning where learners are taken out from the standard course venue to engage in an enrichment activity (eg a trip to a nature reserve with a Family Learning group) MUST have an individual risk assessment. Contact the Health and Safety Assessor at least two weeks before the enrichment activity takes place to discuss your enrichment activity and to allow for a bespoke risk assessment to be created.
The York Learning Sessional Childcare Service has its own specific Health and Safety Policy due to the changing nature of the needs of the service users. This policy is used in conjunction with the Health and Safety Handbook to ensure that all children using the crèche facility and staff running the crèche facility are kept safe.
As part of the Sessional Childcare Service Health and Safety Policy, all crèche venues are inspected annually. If issues are raised as part of that inspection, a second unannounced followup inspection will be carried out by the Health and Safety Assessor after due time has been given to resolve the issues.
A copy of the Sessional Childcare Service Health and Safety Policy is listed in Annex 5.
As part of York Learning’s duty of care for apprentices and those taking loan funded qualifications with York Learning, a workplace inspection takes place annually (apprentices) and every two years (loans)
These inspections use the standard CYC Health, Safety and Welfare Assessment forms. They are stored here: S:\Education\GROUP\York_Learning_Routes2success\PETER HULL – H & SAFETY PLACEMENTS
In the event of an inspection flagging up that an apprentice/loan learner was working in conditions deemed by the inspection to be unsafe, an urgent review would take place involving the manager/owner of the workplace, Workplace Learning Manager and potentially the Strategic Manager/Head of Service. The safety of the apprentice would remain York Learning’s highest priority.
Covid19 note:
It is acknowledged that COVID19 prevented inspections from taking place for much of 2020, as settings would not allow visitors. This is likely to continue into 2021 for some of our settings such as care homes.
Use the links below to download template risk assessments:
The following list of instructions should be followed in the relevant circumstances. They are taken from H & S risk assessments. If you have health and safety issues or concerns, please contact Will Harris (will.harris@york.gov.uk) or 07887 545795 x2905.
Further information: L:\GROUP\Comm_Ed_Entrust\YORK LEARNING\POLICIES & PROCEDURES\H&S and Risk Assessments (or ask Will!).
will.harris@york.gov.uk or 07887 545795.
You are not expected to do the formal risk assessment yourself but you and any other helpers on the visit need to have read the completed risk assessment and have a copy in your Course File before the visit takes place.
Should you wish to make yourself familiar with the full risk assessments, they can be found in L:\GROUP\Comm_Ed_Entrust\YORK LEARNING\POLICIES & PROCEDURES\ H&S and Risk Assessments. The ‘Generic Low Risk Activities RA Annex 1’, ‘Generic Medium Risk Activities RA Annex 2’ and ‘Generic Medium Risk Activities Exercise RA Annex 3’ are the ones that cover almost all classes.
See also:
York Learning Health & Safety Handbook
Illness, Health & Emergency Policy
Manual Handling Policy
Outdoor Play Policy
Food & Drink Policy
No Smoking Policy
Missing Child Procedure
Procedure for Non-Collection of a Child
Cleaning & Maintenance of Premises & Equipment Policy
(See ‘Cleaning & Maintenance of Premises and Equipment’)
(See ‘Illness, Health and Emergency Policy’)
(See ‘Manual Handling Policy’)
Review Date: December 2020