Raising awareness of health and safety among staff – all our academies:

• hold termly health and safety consultation meeting which is chaired by the principal/headteacher
• has a dedicated representative that reports back to the trust regarding health and safety matters
• encourage staff to attend the meeting from all faculties, operational roles and trade union representatives
• staff can raise any concerns about health and safety with their designated representative, line manager, principal/headteacher who will then make a decision about the concern and act in accordance with the trust’s policy statement

Health and safety training – all our academies:

• provide staff with training relevant to their role to ensure health and safety compliance
• have training subject which include managing safety, risk assessment writing, legionella awareness, fire awareness, asbestos management and governor specific health and safety training
• have evacuation/invacuation drills which take place each term across all academies to ensure that the evacuation and invacuation procedures are fit for purpose and are well rehearsed

Roles and responsibilities

The trust’s policy statement clearly sets out the roles and responsibilities regarding health and safety for; the board of trustees, chief executive officer, chief operating officer, local governing bodies, principal/headteacher, staff, students, parents, and visitors/contractors.

Audit and inspection

The trust appoints external advisors to carry out annual audits and inspections for all our academies. This service also provides advice, support, training and regular safety updates for circulation. All audit outcomes are reported to the principal/headteacher and the chief operating officer who will report accordingly to the trust’s trustees and the local governing bodies. .

Health and safety policies

The trust has a trust wide policy statement for health and safety based on advice from the Department for Education and relevant health and safety legislation. In addition, each academy has its own individualised health and safety policy which is contextualised for their campus. Policies are reviewed annual and when legislation changes which are approved by the local governing body or the relevant trust committee. There are also procedures covering particular health and safety issues such as safeguarding, first aid, water hygiene, fire and emergency, accident reporting, display screen assessment, manual handling, COSHH, lone working, working at hights and off-campus visits.