In April 2021, Meánscoil Iognáid Rís engaged Ark to work with their school leaders and key stakeholders on Health & Safety in their school.
Ark has developed an innovative approach to Health & Safety compliance in schools. Over the course of 6 months, we established systems to address all areas of Health & Safety in the school.
Under the Safety, Health & Welfare at Work Act 2005, Meánscoil Iognáid Rís has many onerous and wide-ranging legal obligations.
The lack of available time, expertise, and focus can really impact a school’s ability to meet its duty of care to students and staff.
Ark proposed an approach to identify gaps in current systems and then set out a practical action plan.
We would prepare the necessary safety documentation and then advise school leaders and the postholder on setting up systems that could be maintained year on year.
The Health and Safety Audit provided a thorough review of Meánscoil Iognáid Rís’ systems. An action plan was then prepared outlining a practical approach to address the Board of Management’s duty of care to staff and students.
Schools are required to have an up-to-date Health and Safety Statement and Risk Assessments – which Ark prepared. In addition, useful resources for the Postholder and Safety Committee were developed.
A Safety Committee was then formed and trained by Ark. Led by the postholder, they would now meet regularly to review the action plan and the implementation of the Health & Safety Statement.
Now, when the Safety Committee or Postholder need advice, they have same-day access to expertise and opinion from a dedicated point of contact. This support will strengthen the school’s systems in the long term also.
Our 4 Stage Process provided a thorough review of your current H&S policies and management systems whilst offering simple, practical advice on how to comply with the relevant Health & Safety legislation.
In just 4 weeks, Meánscoil Iognáid Rís were up and going with a clear action plan and supporting policies, risk assessments and resources. From start to finish, school leaders and staff were fully supported by the Ark team.
The Policy Pack was delivered "ratification-ready". This included the new Health and Safety Statement and Risk Assessments. The school could then focus on the action plan.
School leaders benefitted from a practical action plan, i.e. one that addressed the gaps in current systems and provided clear guidance on what staff needed to do in their specific department or area to meet the school's legal obligations.
A safety committee, whilst not mandatory, was then formed. This ensured that tasks identified in the action plan could be shared between many staff memebrs.
The newly formed safety committee was then trained and given clear guidance on what activities should be completed and at what time of the year. Cooridnated through the postholder, they would meet regularly to review the plan.
Ark would then attend meetings with the Safety Committee to assess progress and provide direction as required.
After the initial project had been delivered, school leaders, the health and safety postholder and the safety committee continued to benefit from same-day support for H&S related queries.
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