Health & Safety Department
Health & Safety Department
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School / Area Safety Advisers

The School Safety Adviser is concerned with the day-to-day safety organisation within their school or building.

School Safety Adviser MS Team

We have set up a Microsoft Teams School Safety Adviser group. The Team is used to share H&S updates, ask questions and share good practice. We have a General channel in the Team which all School Safety Advisers can see and add to, as well as private channels for each of the College/Support Groups to allow for area specific discussions. All new School Safety Advisers will be added to the group. 

Updates and news blog

The Department uses the University blogging system to update the community on health and safety matters, guidance and important information as well as direct emails if required. All SSAs have been added to the Blog and will receive an email when a blog is published, unless they have opted out of this part of the system. All University staff can access the Health and Safety blog.

Yammer discussion forum

We have set up a Yammer discussion forum for all School Safety Advisers. The aim of the group is to facilitate and encourage questions and discussions around health and safety issues in your areas, especially when schools or departments have had similar issues and previous experiences can be shared on how these issues were resolved. The group has been set to private and only group members can see the discussions.

The Corporate Health and Safety Department will moderate the group and staff from the Department will also be in the group to assist with queries.

 To log in, click https://edin.ac/2qVhCBc and sign in using your Office365 log in details.

All new School Safety Advisers will be added to the group. Please email us at health.safety@ed.ac.uk if you do not wish to be in the group and we will remove you.

Responsibilities

 

School Safety Advisers responsibilities are detailed in the University Health and Safety Policy Framework: Organisation document, Section 11, an extract of which is provided below.

Framework: Organisation Section 11

University Health and Safety Policy

The full Health and Safety Policy and Framework documents are available online.

Model List of Duties of a School (Area) Safety Adviser

Each Head of School must appoint a School (Area) Safety Adviser.

A model list of duties which a Head of School may delegate to the School Safety Adviser is downloadable below.

Model list of duties for a School / Area Safety Adviser

School (Area) Safety Advisers Handbook

Various template checklists are also available, such as for local health and safety inspection, in our Checklists section.

Accident and incident investigations

School Safety Advisers will receive an email for any accidents or incidents submitted for their area and are expected to act upon any accidents or incidents which are submitted using the online system called AIR (Accident and Incident Reporting). For very minor incidents, a review of the accident may be all that is required. For more serious incidents, a more thorough investigation may be more appropriate.

Please see our Accident/Incident reporting pages for more information on what is expected and support available.

Retention of health and safety documents

The Health and Safety Department have put together a retention schedule for common health and safety documents. The schedule sets out the minimum amount of time that you need to keep certain common types of health and safety records. This retention schedule does not apply to documents held by the Health and Safety Department.

Health and Safety records Retention Schedule for Schools

School / Area Safety Adviser contacts list

A contacts page listing all School Safety Advisers is available below. This is only accessible by University staff and students.

Training

No formal qualifications or standards of training for Health and Safety Advisers have yet been set down in any of the relevant legislation. Appropriate training, to assist School (or area) Safety Advisers to understand and perform their role and functions within their own schools, is available on People and Money.   It is expected that all School (or area) Safety Advisers complete this online training course.

Course outline

This course covers the following information:

  • Health and safety law and University health and safety policy

  • University management structure and roles and responsibilities

  • Accident and incident reporting, training, and risk assessment

  • Accident and incident management - including how to report an accident etc., and how to use the AIR system to manage your accidents etc. and a template investigation form

  • Further useful documents

  • Further useful links

Accessing the course

An online course is available for all School Safety Advisers.   Please click on the button below to self-enrol.

Self-enrol on the Role and responsibilities of a School (Area) Safety Adviser training course

Guidance for contact with the HSE

The Health and Safety Department has produced a general guidance note for School Safety Advisers regarding contact with the Health and Safety Executive. This will be sent directly to all School Safety Advisers as required.

Another, more specific guidance note on types of interviews the HSE undertake and how these affect staff has also been produced and disseminated directly.

Health and Safety Conference

List of regular conferences held by the Health and Safety Department for School Safety Advisers.

Health and Safety Department

Contact details

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