Ministers to end work experience health & safety confusion

It is felt that employers have been hampered in the past by thinking that they have to do special risk assessments for young people, and even having to repeat the same assessment for every young person they give a chance of work experience, even though the circumstances were exactly the same.

The new guidance is said to reduce the burdens placed on schools and local businesses. ‘Sensible questions’ will replace the mountains of paperwork which has resulted in many businesses refusing to offer work experience to young people. It makes clear that it is not the responsibility of schools to check health and safety on work placements, and that companies need do no more than they would do for one of their own employees.

In an open letter to employers, Mark Hoban, Vince Cable, Matthew Hancock, Oliver Letwin and Michael Fallon voiced their commitment to putting an end to this kind of health & safety bureaucracy – building on progress already made by the Red Tape Challenge.

The Health and Safety Executive has also issued revised guidance to employers and the Department for Education have worked with Ofsted to publish guidance on how Ofsted will inspect Health and Safety. In addition the Association of British Insurers is reassuring them that they don’t have to take out special insurance policies to cover students on work experience.

Minister for Employment Mark Hoban said: “We know that work experience gives young people vital insights into the world of work, encourages them to aspire to great things, and helps them to prepare for their future.

Too often in the past, the crazy cornucopia of confusing rules discouraged employers from taking young people on. That’s why we have been working across Government to make sure the rules are clear and easy to understand.”

As a result of cross-government action:

The insurance industry has committed to treat work experience students as employees for the purposes of insurance against bodily injury, and confirmed that simply giving work experience opportunities to students will not in itself impact on insurance premiums.

• HSE has issued guidance providing clarity on employers’ obligations with regard to risk assessments – making it clear that if workplace risk has already been assessed with young people in mind, a business does not need to repeat this for each new student.
• DfE and Ofsted have published a guide to clarify the health and safety responsibilities for educational establishments organising work experience opportunities.

Otto Thoresen, director general at the Association of British Insurers, said: “There has been too much confusion for too long in relation to whether work experience students are covered by employers’ liability insurance. As part of the insurance industry’s on-going commitment to help business, we are pleased to provide reassurance to them that they need not buy additional insurance policies when taking on work experience students.

Judith Hackitt, chair of the Health and Safety Executive, said: “Work experience is an important step in preparing young people for the world of work. Our revised guidance makes it clear – and easy – for employers and work experience organisers to understand what they need to do.

There is no need for lots of paperwork or an over-cautious approach. Employers who are already managing the risks in their business effectively for employees are unlikely to need to do anything in addition for work experience. Schools and colleges just need to ask a few questions to ascertain that appropriate measures are in place. There is no need to conduct their own risk assessments.

However, the safety campaigning network Families Against Corporate Killers (FACK), has described the Government press release and HSE’s accompanying statement as “inaccurate, misleading and dangerous”. -FACK points out that both the DWP Press Release, and the HSE’s statement fail to mention the requirement in Regulation 10 of The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations, that employers must provide the young person and the parents of children – those under the normal school leaving age- with comprehensible and relevant information on the risks identified by an assessment, and the preventative and protective measures to be followed.

Linda Whelan a founder FACK ,member says : “Alongside the open letter to employers, we feel there is a need for an open Ministerial letter to parents and to young people themselves on their health and safety rights, the legal requirements on employers, and where they can go for further information and advice. The DWP Press Release and the HSE statement seem intended to let employers off the hook and may lull parents into a false sense of security they may later regret. Parents need to know that their children are going to be safe at work, that employers are carrying out the legal checks that all parents would assume are being done.”