NASUWT: Scrapping Health and Safety guidance is potentially reckless
Responding to the Coalition Government?s decision to scrap over 140 pages of health and safety guidance for schools, Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, the largest teachers' union, said:
?The decision to scrap over 140 pages of guidance is potentially reckless and could increase litigation against schools and teachers.
?There is no evidence demonstrating the need for the previous guidance to be abandoned, and no educational reason for doing so.
?Schools and teachers organise educational visits when it is clear that there is an opportunity to enhance and enrich pupils? learning and when they assure themselves that children will be safe.
?The dilution of guidance for schools is likely to reduce rather than increase the number of educational visits.
?The previous health and safety guidance was developed in response to particular needs and in response to incidents in which children had died or been seriously injured.
?The previous guidance was widely accepted by teachers and there is no evidence that the generality of schools found the guidance to be off-putting.
?The existence of robust and detailed guidance provides schools and teachers with an important safeguard if things go wrong. The Coalition Government?s decision to dilute the guidance could make teachers more vulnerable.
?Parents will continue to expect schools to act in children?s best interests. Parents should be extremely worried that the Coalition Government?s cost-cutting measures could damage their children?s education and welfare
-01.png){kind=spacer}