Why do I need a Property Safety Inspection at my School or College?
Why do I need a Property Safety Inspection at my School or College?Schools and Colleges have a duty to provide a safe workplace so as not to injure workers and others specifically students. The Property safety inspection process is often overlooked in the education environment until a common law issue arises from an incident at the premises.
Facility managers at eh schools or colleges are required to deal with a wide range of challenges to maintain structures and facilities and often work on a reaction system. That is, repair or fix when it breaks rather than a preventative. The Work Health and Safety legislation in Australia requires control of the school or college to ensure the health and safety of everyone accessing and using those premises.
Some properties have several inherent health, safety and environmental risks associated with their historical designs, old fittings, student behaviours to name a few. Our consultants are experienced in safety management and in providing property inspections to the education environment.
Why do I need a safety consultant to complete a property safety inspection at my School or College?
Our team of Safety Consultants have been completing this type of inspection for many schools, colleges and universities including accommodation buildings. They identify existing and potential hazards that may result in injury, illness, or environmental affect. Each of which has the capacity for being a financial and/or reputational impact. These inspections identify and report potential hazards that could be removed or avoided and allow for effective risk management. These property safety inspections are part of the process that is discussed in more depth around Monitoring Safety Systems.
What hazards should Schools and Colleges be aware of?
A thorough property safety inspection will help you identify the risks that need to be rectified and confirm areas that are safe, so far as reasonably practicable. Additionally engaging contractors to complete works on site may increase risk if not monitored. This is discussed in more depth in the article focusing on Contract Management Systems in Schools and Colleges.
The safety consultant interrogates the physical conditions of all areas of the premises using a risk management framework. The inspection protocols we have in place to prioritise and minimise potential risks associated with your managed building and property. These assessments will identify existing hazards with the potential to cause accidents/incidents, injury, illness, environmental impact or financial loss. Our inspection process can be customised to suit the requirements of your property and specific workplace hazards.
What are the issues that need to be part of a property safety inspection?
Some examples of areas that may need assessing are:
• Safe Access & Egress throughout the common areas
• Hazardous Chemical Safety
• Confined Spaces
• Contractor management
• Electrical Safety
• Workplace design and layout
• Fire Safety systems & Emergency response
• First Aid systems and response
• Personal Protective Equipment
• Plant and Equipment Safety
• Traffic management
• Working at Heights
The Safety Consultant will use their years of experience as a safety professional to ensure that robust property safety inspection protocols on the physical conditions of the premises. All areas identified are assessed for their health, safety, environmental and public risk following the legislative risk management principles. At the completion of the inspection the safety consultant will provide you with a clear and actionable property risk assessment report for health, safety, environmental and public liability. The property safety inspection report will include a range of recommendations to consider as part of the elimination or reduction of the hazard.
Following are some posts with added information for this topic that may assist in you deciding on using a Safety Consultant to assist your business,
- What is a Safety Consultant?
- How can a Safety Consultant assist with Health and Safety regulatory compliance?
- Importance of Professional Certification for Safety Consultants.
- Safety Consultants assisting with reducing workplace injuries.
- The importance of getting Qualified Safety Advice.
- What qualifications and certifications should I look for in a Safety Consultant?
- What skill set must you look for before engaging a Safety Consultant?
- Developing Safe Systems of Work and how a Safety Consultant can help?
If you are interested in our WHS Consultancy services, you can contact David, Andrew or Mark to discuss your Health and Safety Issues.
We have qualified and certified Safety Consultants that can assist you in your business and offer a range of WHS consulting services along with general and specific health and safety training courses.
Contact us today for an obligation free quote on any of our services.