• Economic Wellbeing
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Economic Wellbeing
As parents you know more about your child than anyone else, and care more about their future, including their economic wellbeing. Schools today are required to deliver specific outcomes to promote your child’s economic wellbeing, including work-related learning. Schools also have a duty of care to ensure your child’s safety at all times. At Countec EBP, we helps schools to do this by organising work experience and other work-related learning activities.
As adults, with your own experiences of work, you can help us by helping your child to prepare for these activities. The simplest way is to take opportunities wherever possible to talk through the different kinds of work available, and the rights and responsibilities of people at work. It’s not rocket science! Everyone is an expert in their own experience of work. You may be able to help further by providing work placements for other young people in your own work place, or talking with friends or colleagues about creating a new placement for your own child.
Finally you can help us by giving us your feedback on our activities and how we can improve them. We are a partnership organisation, and value highly our partnership with parents.
Safety
How do we keep young people safe during work-related learning?
Countec EBP and its employer partners have an outstanding track record on health and safety and everyone wants to keep it that way. Changes to the curriculum and the new Diplomas mean more work-related learning, greater employer involvement, more contact with different people and more movement of young people between different locations. Keeping young people safe in this environment requires continued careful attention and good management.
Regulations and requirements that must be observed surrounding health and safety, child protection, insurance and data protection. These exist to ensure that young people are protected during their learning, in particular during work experience. They should not be unduly daunting or onerous for schools, colleges and employers who already take their responsibilities seriously and make use of the extensive help and support that is available.
Key responsibilities
Schools have the prime ‘duty of care’ for their students at all times – including times when students are involved in work experience or other off-site work-related learning. Colleges, employers and other training providers have responsibility for the health, safety and welfare of everyone on their premises, including any students who are there or engaged in activities which they organise.
These responsibilities include:
• complying with child protection legislation;
• checking their insurers are aware of the implications of their involvement with work-related learning and, in particular, 14-16 year-old students;
• agreeing and implementing workable attendance, reporting, monitoring and emergency procedures in partnership with the school;
• supporting their staff in adjusting to teaching young people by organising training and establishing workable and effective policies, and
• complying with legislation and good practice on data protection.
Work experience placements
Schools retain a duty of care at all times – in particular, they have responsibility for ensuring:
• placements are vetted by a competent person, and
• their students are prepared and briefed generally about health and safety and understand how to identify hazards and the sort of control measures that can be put in place to reduce the risk of injury or accident.
Most schools use EBPOs to arrange placements with employers and to carry out health and safety checks on placements which the school or their students find themselves. Countec EBP has a contract with the Learning and Skills Council have to promote ‘safe learners’.
All health and safety assessments of employers and their workplaces are required to meet the LSC’s Health and Safety Procurement Standards’ (HASPs).
Students on work experience placements are designated as employees for the purposes of health and safety – employers have the same responsibilities for the health, safety and welfare of students on work placements as they do for their own workforce. This includes compliance with the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, Management of Health and Safety Regulations 1999 and the Working Time Regulations 1998.
According to the HSE, employers’ duties generally include :
• making the workplace safe and without risks to health;
• ensuring plant and machinery are safe and that safe systems of work are set and followed;
• ensuring articles and substances are moved, stored and used safely
• providing adequate welfare facilities;
• giving employees the information, instruction, training and supervision necessary for their health and safety.
Workplace visits
Parents and carers should be informed in writing of any offsite activity or visit unless it is a regular part of the school curriculum which they have already been informed about through the school prospectus or a letter. When organising workplace visits schools retain the primary duty of care.
Employers are responsible for students when they are on their premises or on a site or in a situation where the employer has duties under health and safety legislation and codes of practice, just as they would be for other people. A formal assessment of the risks that might be met on the visit has to be carried out in advance of the visit to identify any risks and, where necessary, identify what actions to take to minimize them. Visits to places where there is an unacceptable level of risk to students don’t take place.
A copy of the guidance on organising educational visits is included in the DfES publication ‘Health and Safety of Pupils on Educational Visits’ (1998), www.teachernet.gov.uk/wholeschool/healthandsafety/visits/
Child protection
Child protection and safeguarding can be a cause of concern for everyone involved in work-related learning, especially during work experience placements. Countec EBP and all its partner schools adhere to guidance covering recruitment and selection processes, recruitment and vetting checks, and duties for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children in education, to ensure they have effective policies, procedures and practices in place for safeguarding their students.
The care that Countec EBP and its partners has taken in delivering and supporting work experience placements, especially those of a longer duration where young people would be more vulnerable, has meant there have been no reported safeguarding or child protection issues during them.
Criminal Record Bureau (CRB) checks play an important role in child protection. They enable employers to check the backgrounds of candidates who apply for roles that involve working with children or vulnerable adults and to establish whether information is held about them which may make them unsuitable.
CRB checks
When are CRB checks and additional safeguards required?
Additional safeguards and, where applicable, CRB checks are required where one or more of the following conditions is met:
• the placement is for more than one day per week;
• longer than one term in any academic year;
• aimed at children who may be vulnerable (those with special needs or under the age of 16)
• one where the work place supervisor or a colleague will have substantial unsupervised access to the child, because of the nature of the business or
• one which has a residential component.
If any of these conditions apply, additional safeguards should be put in place. As part of those, CRB checks, normally arranged by Countec EBP, are required for any person whose normal duties will include regularly caring for, training, looking after or supervising a child in the workplace. This applies to people who are specifically designated to have responsibility for looking after, supervising or directly training a child or children throughout the placement. Such members of staff should also have some basic child protection training and be aware of their responsibilities set out in ‘What To Do If You’re Worried A Child Is Being Abused’. They must be given details of a person to contact if they have any concerns for a student for whom they are responsible.
Other additional safeguards include:
• School staff or other partners who arrange, vet or monitor the work placements should have training in child protection.
• Employers or training providers hosting students should be asked to endorse a child protection policy or statement of principles.
• School, college, or local authority policies and procedures should define what actions need to be taken by whom and when if any child protection issues are raised, prior, during or after the placement.
• Students should also be given clear advice and a point of contact in the school in case of any problems.
When are CRB checks and additional safeguards not required?
CRB checks and additional safeguards are not necessary (unless any of the other conditions above apply):
• For short-term extended work experience for half a day or a day per week lasting one term or less;
• For visitors who will only have contact with children/ young people on an ad hoc or irregular basis for short periods of time;
• For people who will have contact with children/ young people simply because they are in the same location or as part of their work but will not have regular, unsupervised access to the children/ young people at work;
• For secondary pupils undertaking voluntary work, citizenship or vocational studies or work experience in other schools – in these cases the school placing the pupil should ensure that s/he is suitable for the placement in question.
Where people on short term work experience do have regular, unsupervised access to children/ young people, for example an electrician taking a student from site to site, the situation should be risk assessed.
Employers providing work-related learning should do all they reasonably can to avoid putting young people into a vulnerable position. They should ensure their employees’ relationships with young people on work experience are appropriate to their age and gender, and do not give rise to comment or speculation. Attitude, behaviour and language all require care and thought.
Recent child protection developments include the passing of the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act (2006) and the creation of the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA).
More about child protection
The Criminal Records Bureau
The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) is an executive agency of the Home Office. It was set-up to help organisations make safer recruitment decisions by providing access – through its Disclosure Service – to criminal record and other relevant information to organisations in England and Wales.
CRB checks
A CRB check can provide access to a range of different types of information, such as, information:
o held on the Police National Computer (PNC), including Convictions, Cautions, Reprimands and Warnings in England and Wales – most of the relevant convictions in Scotland and Northern Ireland may also be included;
o held by local police forces and other agencies, relating to relevant non-conviction information;
o from the Government’s Protection of Children Act List (PoCA), where applicable;
o from the Government’s Protection of Vulnerable Adults List (PoVA), where applicable, and
o held by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) under Section 142 of the Education Act 2002 (a list of people considered unsuitable for work with children – known colloquially as List 99), where applicable.
The CRB offers two types of check – Standard and Enhanced. Standard CRB checks are made for a wide range of positions of trust including positions in the Civil Aviation Authority, the Financial Services Authority, accountancy, as well as vets, registered foreign lawyers, judges and others working in courts and some of those working in the RSPCA. Enhanced CRB checks are for posts involving a far greater degree of contact with children or vulnerable adults, such as teachers for example. In general, the type of work will involve regularly caring for, supervising, training or being in sole charge of such people. Enhanced CRB checks contain the same information as Standard CRB checks but with the addition of any locally held police force information considered relevant to the job role, by Chief Police Officer(s).
Further information can be found at: www.crb.gov.uk, www.teachernet.gov.uk/childprotection/guidance.htm
Insurance
Injuries and damage to or loss of property during work-related learning are quite rare but it is important for schools and colleges to ensure appropriate insurance arrangements are in place, particularly for students on work experience placements and workplace visits.
The main risks are:
• injury to: students; others on the premises (employees, visitors, customers, etc); others who are not on the premises (including customers and members of the general public);
• damage to, or loss of, property belonging to: employers; and others (e.g. students, customers).
A link to the guidance document ‘Safeguarding Children and Safer Recruitment in Education’ can be found at: www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/resources-and-practice/IG00175/
The good news is that these main risks should be covered by normal employer insurance arrangements. Most employers carry insurance policies that cover most risks arising from work experience and other visits, provided that the work experience is in accordance with the normal business practices of the employer. Any injuries caused to employees or students, provided they arise out of activities undertaken in the employer’s name, should normally be covered by the employer’s Public Liability policy or Employer’s Liability policy.
Damage to the employer’s property may be covered by the employer’s material damage policy. Damage to anyone else’s property on the premises should normally be covered by the employer’s Public Liability policy. Schools and colleges should nevertheless satisfy themselves that work-related learning activities involving employers are checked for insurance issues – suitable and sufficient insurance cover should never be assumed.
More about insurance
Insurance and work experience
The range and level of insurance cover provided by schools themselves and/or local authorities varies widely. All local authorities should all have insurance policies to cover negligence on the part of their own employees. They may also have personal accident insurance to cover accidents to students when they are on work experience where no negligence can be proved. The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has issued the following guidelines:
1. The principal risks, which may arise as a result of work experience and other visits are:
a. Injury to the students themselves;
b. Injury to others on the premises (employees, visitors, customers, etc);
c. Injury to others who are not on the premises (including customers and members of the general public);
d. Damage to, or loss of, employers’ property;
e. Damage to, or loss of, other property (e.g. the student’s or a customer’s property).
2. Most employers will carry insurance policies that cover most risks arising from work experience and other visits, provided that the work experience is in accordance with the normal business practices of the employer. Employers’ Liability insurance covers the employer’s liability in respect of work-related injuries to employees. This insurance is compulsory by law. The Health & Safety Executive guidance on employers’ liability provides further useful information: www.hse.gov.uk
3. Policies must provide cover of at least £5 million per occurrence, although most policies cover up to £10 million. Policies normally cover all conventional employees, contract, casual and seasonal staff as well as temporary staff, including workplace students. Public Liability insurance provides cover for injuries to the public or damage to, or loss of, their property. The term ‘public’ means anyone other than an employee, so it includes students on work experience, volunteers, activity participants, spectators and visitors. Typically, policies offer cover of between £2 million and £5 million.
4. The Association of British Insurers (ABI), the British Insurance Brokers Association (BIBA),
and Lloyd’s of London have agreed that, as a matter of convention, students of work experience placements should be treated as employees for the purposes of insurance against bodily injury (that is, they will always be covered by the Employers’ Liability policy).
5. Student injury arising from other visits would normally be covered by the employer’s Public Liability policy. Any injuries caused to employees by students on work experience should normally be covered by the Employers’ Liability policy.
6. In summary, any injuries caused to employees or students, provided they arise out of activities undertaken in the employer’s name, should normally be covered by the employer’s Public Liability policy or Employer’s Liability policy.
7. Damage to the employer’s property may be covered by the employer’s material damage policy. Damage to anyone else’s property on the premises should normally be covered by the employer’s Public Liability policy.
Notification of Risk
8. Employers should notify their insurers of the sorts of activities which students will undertake if those activities are onerous or different from the normal business activities of the employer. In these circumstances employers should make sure they obtain written confirmation that the risk has been accepted.
Placements lasting longer than two weeks
9. There has been some concern that employers’ insurance policies may not cover students on longer work placements. The agreement referred to above (Para. 3) was based on the assumption that placements will last for about two weeks. However, in the light of new measures to motivate disaffected young people through extended work experience, the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) contacted the ABI to discuss the insurance implications of longer placements. The ABI has confirmed that there should be no problem with extended work experience placements.
10. Longer attachments, including those associated with NVQs or GNVQs, will inevitably call for more detailed information. In those cases, employers are advised to submit all the details set out in the form shown at Annex A of the DCSF guidance (although whether or not the form itself is used is a matter for the employer). Even if the activity is likely to be recurring, it should be enough to inform the insurer on one occasion. There may be some adjustment to premiums, but it is still likely to be very small in relation to the overall size of the premium.
11. Work experience organisers are not expected to check the fine print of employers’ insurance policies but they should check, in broad terms, that relevant cover is in place. Organisers are recommended, in advance of placements, to ask employers to complete the checklist reproduced at Annex B of the DCSF guidance,or an equivalent.
For more information about insurance see:
• ‘Work Experience: A guide for secondary schools’ (SPD/WES/01/02/02)
• ‘Work Related Learning and the Law’ (DfES/0475/2004)
• ‘Work Experience and the Law: the essential guide for central organisers, employers, schools and colleges’ (Anthony Johns with Andrew Miller)
Data protection
Schools need to share relevant information about students with colleges, employers and training providers to help them to make decisions about appropriate forms of work-related learning activity and aspects such as health and safety. Information about students might also be collected through employer assessment and student evaluation forms and on visits made to students who are in placements. The disclosure of personal information collected before, during and after work-related learning is covered by the Data Protection Act 1998. This Act regulates how personal information is used – it provides a common-sense set of rules which prohibit the misuse of personal information without stopping it being used for legitimate or beneficial purposes. It is important that these rules are not overlooked.
More information about the Data Protection Act 1998 is available at www.ico.gov.uk/Home/what_we_cover/data_protection.aspx
More about health and safety
‘Safe learner’
Safe learners’ are learners who, through the quality of their learning experience:
• gain an understanding of the importance of health and safety, and
• understand how hazards are identified, risks are assessed and the principles of control measures, and develop a set of safe behaviours, so that they play an active part in the process and acquire practical, transferable skills from their experience.
Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974
The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, also referred to as HASAW or HSW, is the primary piece of legislation covering occupational health and safety in the United Kingdom. The Health and Safety Executive is responsible for enforcing the Act and a number of other Acts and Statutory Instruments relevant to the working environment.
Health and Safety Procurement Standards (HASPs)
HASPs were introduced by the Learning and Skills Council to provide clarity, ensure consistency and avoid the wasteful duplication that could otherwise arise if different schools, colleges, EBPOs, and training providers all carried out health and safety assessments on the same employer/workplace.
Management of Health and Safety Regulations 1999
This is an important piece of legislation for health and safety issues relevant to work experience. Detailed advice for employers and schools is set out in two HSE publications:
• Young People At Work – A Guide for Employers HSG165 (2000), and
• Managing Health and Safety on Work Experience – A Guide for Organisers HSG1999 (2000)
Working Time Regulations 1998
These regulations regard a young person who is a trainee on work experience – and who is above the minimum school leaving age but under 18 – to be a ‘young worker’. The Regulations set parameters for working hours and rest breaks and can affect students on work experience placements such as in the leisure industry where working hours and attendance
times vary considerably.
Useful Websites for young people and their parents/carers
• Apprenticeships, www.apprenticeships.org.uk/
• Child Protection, www.crb.gov.uk, www.isa-gov.org.uk/
• Diplomas (for young people), yp.direct.gov.uk/diplomas/(for parents) yp.direct.gov.uk/diplomas/parents/parents_information/
• Education Business links, www.dscf.gov.uk/ebnet/students/
• Employability, www.cbi.org.uk/pdf/timewellspentbrief.pdf
• Enterprise education, www.teachernet.gov.uk/teachingandlearning/14to19/ks4/enterpriseeducation/guidance
• Health & Safety Executive, www.hse.gov.uk/legislation/hswa.htm
• Information for students and parents, www.qca.org.uk/14-19/homepage/students-and-parents.htm
• ‘Every Child Matters’, www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/aims/, www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/_files/F25F66D29D852A2D443C22771084BDE4.pdf
• Qualifications, www.qca.org.uk/14-19/qualifications/116_118.htm
• Safe learner website, www.safelearner.info/learners/index.aspx
• Work experience inYears 10 and 11, www.direct.gov.uk/en/EducationAndLearning/14To19/Years10And11/DG_10013569
Feedback
Finally you can help us by giving us your feedback on our activities and how we can improve them. We are a partnership organisation, and value highly our partnership with parents. |
Mission
