Schools To Face A Dangerous Future As Cuts Bite

This weeks TUC Risks highlights a major issue for schools - the risk of asbestos exposure:

A toxic mix of cuts in school building and maintenance, education budgets and official safety oversight is going to have a damaging impact on school safety, teaching union NUT has warned. A briefing from the union says '2010 was not a good year for health and safety in schools', but says worse is to come.

The axing of the school building programme by the coalition government 'means that many thousands of pupils and teachers will be forced to continue to work in sub-standard buildings, in some cases in asbestos-ridden classrooms, with leaking roofs, or in science laboratories which have been condemned as unsafe,' the document warns.

Redundancies driven by cuts in funds available to local authorities will lead to 'increased workload for teachers generally, and in the worst cases, to more violent assaults on teachers. This in turn is bound to lead to increased levels of stress-related illness in a profession which is widely recognised to be one of the most stressful to work in.'

The union fears increased pressure on union facility time may mean essential union safety cover will be reduced. 'The end result is that accidents may not be investigated or reported and that the positive health and safety culture in many schools is likely to be diminished in the long term,' the briefing says. 'Employers will know they can get away with 'cutting corners', which will eventually lead to more accidents and ill health.' It adds swingeing cuts to HSE's budget mean 'visits by HSE inspectors to schools will become even rarer than they currently are, and the amount of guidance and number of initiatives directed at schools is bound to decrease.'

You can download the full NUT briefing document on safety in schools from the E-Library Database using the search word 'schools'

Source: TUC Risks

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