Health and safety bureaucracy in education

I've worked in education. Yes, as a lot of comments are against, in Health & Safety.
If parents and teacher cant be bothered with safety of students then the child will be the only one hurt. People make excuses through the name of elf & safety. If you cant put the right measures in place then dont organise the visit. If one of those kids had a asthma attack or an injury happened between base and site of visit, the point of that permission slip and risk assessment is to make sure things are in place. ie first aider in group and appropriate medical information for students.

It really makes me laugh. PUT THE CHILDREN FIRST AND LOOK AFTER THEIR SAFETY.
Yes. It means you have to do a bit of work.

I have risk assessed and organised a trip to new york for thirty hair and beauty students.
permission slips, medical details, risk assessment (violence and agression, terrorism, mugging, stabing, all very possible)
buddy systems assess to tutor phone number, ensuring that phones work in the USA (roaming access). This trip has now been a reoccuring event for the past five years.
Twice in that time things could have gone wrong. But they didn't because actions and measures from that proactive risk assessment WORKED. Students didnt get lost, Female student were not alone in areas unknown.

One comment said the kids should learn from their mistakes. If that first mistake is a loss of a limb, a permanant disability or even death. YOU should hang your heads in shame. A mother and father have lost their loving child because you let them learn that it is dangerous. You deserve all fines and prison sentences thrown at you.
When i first came into Safety i learnt a message that you all should know
IGNORENCE IS NO DEFENCE

The HSE is about saving lives from significant hazards and i think they will tell you that when you meet them (from the sound of the comments on this site, it won't be long)

I will sleep easy tonight knowing i MADE a difference and i DIDNT look the other way.

So in the cause of trying to make our lives 100 per cent safe, the regulators reduce our amenity, kill off village life, encourage us to take silly risks, and rob our kids of their childhood. Frankly, it's the regulators who should be wearing earmuffs, because the rest of us should be shouting abuse at them as loudly as we can.

I'm being sarcastic about the warnings,you know! I only posted them on for fun

Air is dangerous - falling through it, as from a cliff, balloon or aeroplane, particularly so. There has been much publicity in recent years about the dangers of inhaling pollutants produced by industry, motorcars and aeroplanes, but we take less well-known risks with every lungful - there might be a wasp in it, for instance. Using too much air is risky, too. This is called "hyperventilation" and can cause fainting, leading to involuntary collision with another of our targets, floors. No public body has so far been willing to shoulder the responsibility of pointing out to the public the dangers involved in their use of air. I believe there should be health warnings posted - perhaps suspended from tethered helium balloons - wherever people may wish to breathe. Every fifty metres would be about right, but the frequency should be increased in the country and at the seaside where people tend to breathe more deeply.

Clothes. It is an undeniable fact that virtually all the people who are injured in domestic accidents - and, if you think about it, all the people injured outside the home - were wearing clothes at the time. We believe that people should be warned of the dangers of wearing clothes. The clothing industry are ignoring this problem and it is plainly time for legislation forcing them to face their responsibilities.

Floors are particularly dangerous. They are usually quite hard, and tend to be so large that it is difficult to avoid hitting them in a fall. Hundreds of people - the elderly in particular - injure themselves on floors every year. We suggest that every floor should, by law, carry a red hatching every two or three feet to make it easier to see and therefore avoid, with the words "Danger, hard surface. Avoid when falling" in between.

Vacuum cleaners. Any hospital emergency doctor will tell you of the dire accidents that can befall people who use these for .... unusual purposes. Every vacuum-cleaner should come with a notice warning of the dangers of attaching the nozzle to the mouth, nose, genitals, rectum or budgie.

Every toilet bowl should carry a warning to the effect that users should beware of tripping and falling with their head in the bowl as this can lead to drowning or, at best, bits of crap up your nose. Most of the population did a certain amount of "potty-training" when young. No appropriate training course for adults exists, leaving most of us to learn our use of the toilet by trial and error. This is not good enough and I would like to see DfE introduce a new qualification at GNVQ level.

Knives are extremely dangerous. They should carry a printed warning advising that they be kept away from children, and that kitchen knives in particular can cut human flesh and should be used only by persons who are trained, experienced and who carry the appropriate certificate of competence.

Teacups should carry a warning, something like "Danger! This cup may contain hot liquid that can scald if dropped"

Thousands of people every year are injured or ki11ed in household accidents. In America, even car manufacturers fix little stickers to their products now, saying things like "Warning: cars are dangerous. Drive carefully." We think that in this country the government should do more to prevent domestic accidents, so I am starting a campaign to introduce safety warnings on more household objects. For instance .....

I'm fourteen right now and it's not only school that this happens with! On my road there were ten of us rangeing from 6(me) to 14(Jack) and every Saturday we used to go out once it had gone dark and we used to play Murder in the Dark. We soon learned that when you saw the person that was on we didn't barge into them, because that would get us hurt. On a Sunday we used to walk up this hill that was a mile long and really steep, we'd walk for about twenty minutes just so that we could roll down again. We soon learned that you had to plan out your path before you went. There was a wood surrounding our village and we used to go and play poachers, hideing in trees and under rocks. We soon learned to take a proper look at our surroundings before moving. At school there used to be about a hundered of us and we'd all play British Bulldogs for hours and hours. We soon learned the best speeds to run at depending who was behind or infront of you so you didn't fall and get trampled to death. Now the kids aren't allowed out after six, the field is blocked off by eight foot fences ans is the woods and British Bulldogs is banned in most schools across the country. It's rediculous! Also there was this teacher getting sued because he'd seen this little girl fall so he went oven and picked her up to carry her to the medical room because she was really crying and had badly cut knees and hands. The girl's parent are sueing for sexual harassment. We all have to give statements saying that all the man did was his job!

I remember when I was at school (aged about 5 or 6) they let me play with hammers, nails and bits of wood! I always remember I used to nail together the same 'house'! but now kids that age at my old school aren't even allowed to use scissors unattended! All the happened to me was I learnt to aim when I used a hammer! a few split nails and bruised fingers and I feel I came out better from it rather than hideously disfigured! I think kids are being wrapped up in cotton wool and its going to do more damage than good in the long run!
oh and just so you know, I was aged 5 in 1996- so this wasn't that long ago!

To quote from the authored text : "educational establishments are now so over managed with fearful middle managers (kept awake at night by worries that they will be sued by some angry parents for letting little Joe or Josie walk into a door) that education is suffering". You see health and safety has very little to do with it! As a health and safety practitioner and amember of the two largest health and safety organisations I deplore what is done and said in the false name of health and safety. The Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (IOS) even sponsors the World Conkers Championships to prove health and safety is not about spoiling peopels fun and enjoyment. One of our number, who is blind has taken part in a Sky dive, abseiled down a crevice and taken part in white water rafting!! He does this after a risk assessment has been made and safety controls put in such as having a sighted partner to alert and guide him if any hazards occur that have not been visualised before hand. Do not blame health and safety for the silly and stupid edicts of jobsworths or the cost cutting bureaucrats or couldn't be bothered to conduct a risk assessment so called it off brigade. I have recently seen a topic in a newspaper that said swings and roundabouts had to be removed because of health and safety even though no one had received an injury in 40 years. Not true the fact is the council removed it because of fears someone may be hurt. This is not health and safety but councils not wanting to pay the insurance premiums or have an officer check out that the playground equipment is still safe and is being maintained. Health and safety is about stopping people being ki11ed and/or maimed not about taking the risk out of life. We all need risks to be present to be able to grow intelligently. No need for goggles to be worn and workers gloves to play conkers bruised knuckles are all part of growing up.

When my youngest son was at infant school, we always had a long talk all the way home about how school was, and all he got up 2. One day he came out of school busting to tell me about a project to build something out of cardboard. He had his mind already made up that he wanted to make a tank for his action men. When we got home, we went all around the house looking for things to use that was made out of cardboard. We put them in a bag ready to take to school.
Talk about break his heart...he wasn't allowed to use the loo roll tubes, kitchen roll tubes, or tissue box, because of the germs they may carry. Egg boxes were not allowed either.