The following information/guidance was taken from Health & Safety in Science in Secondary Schools and Colleges
An information leaflet for Governors and Head Teachers published by THE ASSOCIATION FOR SCIENCE EDUCATION www.ase.org.uk
"In community, community special and voluntary controlled schools, and local authority nursery schools, the local authority is the employer. For all other schools and colleges, the governors are the employer and have the responsibility under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act, for the health, safety and welfare of their employees (e.g. teachers and laboratory technicians) and others who may be affected by their actions or in action (e.g. pupils, parents and visitors). Even where the local authority, as the employer, retains responsibility it is likely to have delegated at least some of the
monitoring role to the head teacher and governors. The local authority health & safety policy should make the role clear.
Governing bodies fulfil a strategic role in school health & safety and are not expected to be involved in the
day-to-day health & safety management of the school; that is the role of the school’s senior management. The governors’ role is to set the school’s policy, monitor that health & safety systems have been implemented and ensure that the school is doing all that is reasonably practicable for the health and safety of employees,
pupils and others affected by what goes on in the school.
The employer cannot fulfil its statutory duty unless it monitors how its policy is being complied with by the school(s). The employer must provide health & safety guidance and risk assessments for those school staff to whom health & safety tasks have been delegated, e.g. subject leaders and heads of department.
Where a governing body is the employer, it is unlikely that it will have the necessary competence and expertise to produce guidance and risk assessments for specialist areas such as science.
This is where the Association for Science Education (ASE) and its collaborators, CLEAPSS (or SSERC in Scotland), see back page, can be of considerable support to schools with risk assessments and guidance produced for science."
