FIRE SAFETY REQUIREMENTS IN SCHOOLS
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. places primary responsibility for fire safety on ‘responsible persons’. These are the employer and others in control of workplaces. In schools this includes governing bodies. It is the role of ‘responsible persons’ to determine and provide the measures which are needed to meet the risk from fire. The NUT’s view is that where the local authority is the employer, it retains strategic responsibility for fire safety in school. Governing bodies, however, must satisfy themselves that local authority procedures and advice are followed.
The key requirement for compliance with the Order is that every employer must carry out a “suitable and sufficient” risk assessment relating to fire safety and take appropriate steps to remove or reduce the risk of injury due to fire. The risk assessment must pay particular attention to the needs of disabled adults and children and those with special needs. The Order requires employers to:
- identify any fire hazards in the workplace;
- identify people at risk, including everyone who uses the premises, with particular attention paid to the disabled, people with language difficulties, employees who work in isolated areas and people in neighbouring properties;
- evaluate the risk of fire occuring, whether by accident or deliberately;
- record significant findings and action taken, prepare an emergency plan, inform and instruct relevant people and provide training;
- keep the assessment under review and revise where necessary.
Employers are required to remove or reduce the risk of fire occuring. This could include operating a no-smoking policy; requiring that gas and electrical installations are worked on by qualified staff only; the use of fire resistant materials; the installation of fire detection systems; and other precautionary measures.
Employers are obliged to consult safety representatives about arrangements for nominating fire wardens to implement the measures for fire fighting. The Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations 1977 include these provisions.
ACTION POINTS FOR SAFETY REPRESENTATIVES
Make sure that:
- a fire risk assessment has been carried out for your school, as required by the Order, in line with the above guidance and in consultation with the local authority and the fire authority;
- proper precautions against the risk of fire are in place in your school;
- fire emergency procedures are established, are known to all staff and pupils and are clearly displayed in prominent positions in the school;
- fire drills are held at least every term in the school; and
- fire precautions checks form a major part of your regular termly safety inspections.
Health and Safety
Health & Safety is an important area for teachers, and an important area for the NUT. It includes a wide range of issues, all of which can impact on pupils as well as teachers. H&S matters can also impact on the families of teachers: work-related stress is an obvious example of this.
While NUT Reps are often asked about H&S matters (especially when the temperature drops!), Leicestershire NUT would urge Reps and members to contact our H&S Officer, Greg Jones, if they have any issues which cannot be resolved at school level.
THERE IS A FORM FOR CONTACTING GREG AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE
HEATING STANDARDS FOR SCHOOLS
Minimum Temperatures
The legal requirements which specify the minimum temperatures which must be maintained in school classrooms are set out in the Education School Premises Regulations 1999. DfES guidance on meeting these requirements is set out in DfES Guidance 0029/2000, Standards for School Premises.
The Education (School Premises) Regulations require that schools must have heating systems capable of maintaining specified minimum temperatures. They also require that school rooms are actually heated up to at least those minimum temperatures and the temperatures maintained for as long as the rooms are used for their normal purpose.
The Regulations provide that, in areas where there is the normal level of physical activity associated with teaching, the appropriate minimum temperature is 18ºC (64.4ºF). In areas where there is a lower than normal level of activity (e.g. sick rooms) or higher than normal level of activity (e.g. gymnasia and also washrooms), the appropriate minimum temperatures are 21ºC and 15ºC respectively. Temperatures in school classrooms should therefore be at least 18ºC (64.4ºF).
The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, which apply to all workplaces, also set out requirements on minimum temperatures in workplaces. Regulation 7 requires that temperatures shall be “reasonable” and the accompanying HSC Approved Code of Practice defines this as "normally at least 16°C" (60°F) (para 43) during “the length of time people are likely to be there” (para 49). Although this is lower than the minimum temperature normally required by the Education (School Premises) Regulations, it applies to non-teaching areas as well as classrooms and also applies outside school session times.
Maximum Temperatures
There are no legally-prescribed maximum temperatures for school premises or other workplaces. The Workplace Regulations and accompanying HSC Approved Code of Practice require, however, that all reasonable steps are taken to achieve a reasonably comfortable temperature by, where necessary, special ventilation measures including provision for fans. DfES Guidance 0029/2000, Standards for School Premises, includes specific standards for ventilation in school buildings.
Sudden Faults and Problems
Where sudden faults or failures arise with heating systems, the NUT safety rep should ensure that the headteacher has firstly taken action to ensure that the system is repaired as quickly as possible and secondly given consideration to appropriate additional measures to be implemented until the system is repaired. Again, such measures might include bringing in temporary heating sources, rearranging timetabling in order to move classes, or closing all or part of the school.
Where temporary faults occur which can be resolved within 24 hours, school closure will, as noted above, in most cases be impossible since there will be no opportunity to provide notice of closure to parents. Other appropriate action may nevertheless be possible, which may include closing those parts of schools most severely affected, rearranging timetabling or bringing in temporary heating sources.
Again, the NUT does not regard the use of portable temporary heaters as an appropriate solution other than as a temporary measure while action is being taken to repair the system. The length of time for which the system will be out of order will influence the NUT’s view as to whether the use of such heaters as a temporary measure is appropriate. The NUT again advises against the use of portable gas heaters unless no other temporary heating system is available.
Portable gas heaters with liquefied petroleum gas cylinders attached are often used in schools in winter as temporary heating when normal heating systems have broken down or to deal with longstanding heating faults. As outlined above, NUT policy on the use of such heaters is that they should be used only as a temporary measure in emergency situations where no alternative temporary heating systems are available.
The NUT does not consider it to be the teacher’s duty to ensure that the school is adequately heated. The NUT advises teachers not to participate in the operation of these heaters in any capacity (i.e. turning heaters on or off, changing gas cylinders, etc) other than in emergency situations (see section 6 of attached HSC guidelines). Heaters should be installed correctly by skilled/trained operators and should be regularly checked and maintained by trained personnel to ensure they are working properly. The HSC's Guidance warns of the need to guard against the dangers of explosion, toxic fumes and fires and urges that plans are drawn up in advance to deal with any emergency and to ensure the heaters are used safely.
The Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations 2006
The 2006 Regulations tighten the requirements for managing and working with asbestos-containing materials (ACMs). A single, lower control limit of 0.1 fibres per cubic centimetre of air replaces the former combined limit of 0.2f/ml for amphiboles and 0.3f/ml for chrysotile. In addition, the new regulations require:
comprehensive - and obligatory - training requirements for workers and others likely to be exposed to asbestos in the workplace;extension of the accreditation requirements needed by those issuing clearance certificates following asbestos clearance;
use of the World Health Organisation’s approved method for measurement of asbestos levels; and
closer ties with the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations (COSHH).
These changes have been broadly welcomed by unions and health and safety campaigners. There are, however, two further measures which have proved far more controversial amongst many specialists in the field. They are:
a weakening of the legislative controls covering asbestos exposure where it is ‘sporadic and of low intensity’; and
Textured decorative coatings can be worked on or disturbed for a number of reasons, for example during maintenance, refurbishment and repair, or during replacement of lights and other fittings. The NUT believes as a consequence that school maintenance staff should receive training in asbestos awareness as a minimum, in order that they can recognise potential ACMs and act accordingly. It should always be assumed that all potential asbestos-containing materials do in fact contain asbestos unless this can be specifically ruled out. The NUT believes that for legal compliance and to reduce safety risks to the absolute minimum, even apparently simple tasks such as changing a light fitting - where the ceiling may contain ACMs - should not be carried out by site maintenance staff but by licensed contractors.
The draft AcoP to the Regulations states that organisations should have in place a policy to always check for the presence of ACMs before allowing any relevant work to begin, and to ensure that work which does disturb ACMs is restricted to authorised people who are given the necessary information, instruction and training.
Furthermore, paragraph 58 of the draft ACoP states that:
Employers must decide whether it is practicable to avoid exposure to asbestos altogether. This can be difficult in building work, for example, but employers should consider whether it is possible to do the work in some way that avoids contact with asbestos, for example, routing cables so that ACMs are not disturbed.
Where the removal of any asbestos-containing material is unavoidable, the NUT believes that the only way to minimise asbestos exposure is for:
- only licensed contractors to be permitted to carry out work with ACMs in schools, even where the ACMs in question are de-licensed, such as ‘Artex’ or asbestos cement;
- such licensed contractors to use negative pressure units, 3-stage airlocks and personal decontamination units; and for
- enclosures not to be removed unless an independent accredited third party has carried out a full clearance inspection and monitoring.