Maintained schools within Somerset Council use European Educational Consultants (EEC) as its primary Health and Safety Management System. This system enables schools to compile risk assessments, record accidents and near misses, submit off-site visit applications for endorsement and provides the platform for Somerset Council to complete its health and safety audit of maintained schools.
Accidents of significance, acts of violence and near misses must be entered onto the Accident Reporting area of EEC. Examples of incidents that should be reported include:
- Accidents
– Broken bones
– Going to hospital
– Concussion
– Burns
– Major cuts
– Falls
– Electric shocks
– Any accident that results in a pupil being absent from school following the incident - Near Misses – an unplanned event that did not cause injury or damage but could have done
– Child absconds, narrowly avoiding a collision with a vehicle
– Toaster placed close to an uncovered paper filled notice board - Acts of violence – incidents of assaults, threats or abuse suffered by employees while at work
Other medical issues such as epilepsy seizures are not reportable unless an accident occurs during a seizure. However, schools should ensure appropriate records are held in the bump book and the child’s care plan updated where required.
Reporting of incidents applies to staff, pupils and visitors. Many schools have the paper accident form to hand out at time of the accident, then an administrator completes the EEC form on-line within 7 days. The Corporate Health & Safety Unit (CHSU) get a copy of every reported incident to investigate and will report it to the HSE on behalf of the school, if the accident is deemed RIDDOR reportable.
In the past some schools were using a paper based IR1 form and it must be noted that Accident Reporting on EEC has replaced this.
Schools are encouraged to continue using their onsite “Bump book” to log minor injuries and monitor these for trends from time to time. If you are on a residential trip and an accident occurs during an activity managed by the centre, they fill out their accident book, but if it happens during down time under supervision of school staff, you will need to fill out an EEC accident report.
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