How to review your risk assessment policy

What this policy needs to do

If you're in an academy, free school or independent school, the policy must take into account paragraph 16 of part 3 of The Education (Independent School Standards) Regulations 2014, i.e. that pupils' welfare is safeguarded and promoted.

If you're in an academy or free school, it must also comply with your funding agreement and articles of association.

Trusts can choose to set the policy centrally as a trust, or at school level.

It's not your job to cross-reference the policy with the above, but you should expect your headteacher to have done so.

Read more about your role in health and safety in your school.

3 key questions to challenge the policy

Use our list of standard policy review questions as a starting point, then ask the ones below.

Note: there are no requirements as to what the policy should include, but these questions reflect the kinds of things you'd expect to see.

1. Does the policy address all the statutory risk assessments?

It would make sense for the policy to make reference to the various statutory risk assessments that your school/trust has to carry out.

See our article for the full list and corresponding legislation.

2. Is there a clear process for assessing risk?

Check that your policy clearly describes the steps to take when carrying out a risk assessment.

It might follow the guidance on carrying out risk assessments from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which suggests 5 steps to follow to conduct a suitable assessment:

1. Identify the hazards
2. Decide who might be harmed and how
3. Evaluate the risks and decide on precautions
4. Record the findings and implement them
5. Review the assessment and update if necessary

3. Is it clear where responsibility for risk assessment lies?

For example, is it clear who's responsible for the following tasks?

• Monitoring risk in your school/trust
• Reviewing and updating the policy

You might also expect to see a clear description of the responsibilities expected of different roles in relation to risk management. For example:

• The governing board
• The headteacher
• Trust senior leaders
• Other members of staff
• Pupils and parents

Our model policies

Remember, you won't be writing this policy, but you can use our model (provided by our sister service, The Key Leaders) to see what a good policy might look like, or to compare with your school/trust's policy.

Our model policies were approved by Forbes Solicitors. 

For more model policies and complete policy support from The Key, see our policy bank.

Model policy for schools

Model policy: risk assessment – schools

Model policy for trusts

Model policy: risk assessment – trusts

Examples of risk assessment policies

Have a look at the policies below to see how other schools approach this policy:

Primary schools

• Clare House Primary School, an academy in Bromley
• Twickenham Primary Academy, an academy in London

Secondary school

• St Michael’s Catholic College, an academy in Southwark

Independent school

• Millfield School in Somerset

Policy for a science department

Arden, a secondary academy in Solihull, publishes health and safety information about the science department on its website. Section 5 of the information explains the department’s approach to risk assessments.

It says that the school adopts model risk assessments and adapts these to the requirements of the science department. Where possible, the school uses model risk assessments from documents published by the Consortium of Local Education Authorities for the Provision of Science Services (CLEAPSS).

If a model risk assessment for a particular activity can't be found, the school carries out a “special” risk assessment.