Guide

How is a risk assessment set up in a school?

What sets a school apart is crowding and children: the same hazard produces a very different outcome in an evacuation or a laboratory.

Confirm the hazard class first

The depth of the assessment and the renewal interval follow from the workplace's hazard class. The class depends on the activity code and is not guessed; read it from the hazard class query tool on this site.

Crowding changes everything

The width of a corridor, the height of a stair rail and the direction a door opens stop being ordinary details in a building where hundreds move at once between lessons. Evacuation time cannot be known without being measured in a drill.

Special areas

Laboratories, workshops, sports halls and kitchens are assessed separately from the rest of the school. Chemical storage, machine guarding, floor slipperiness and ventilation are asked separately in these areas.

People other than workers

The assessment exists to protect workers; but a school holds students, parents and visitors in the same space. If that population is left out when recording how many people a hazard affects, the severity score comes out lower than it is.

In Optifora

The risk assessment module gives this setting's hazard list as a starting point; you correct it with what you see on site, score it, and tie the control to a task with an owner. When the renewal date approaches, the reminder arrives on its own.

  1. Set the class and scopeConfirm the hazard class from the activity code and write down the areas to be assessed.
  2. Walk the siteWalk every area at the hour the work is done; ask the workers what they struggle with.
  3. Record the hazardsRecord every hazard you see, with its location and the number of people affected.
  4. ScoreScore with the method you chose; write down diverging views with their reasoning.
  5. Tie controls to tasksGive every control an owner and a date; re-score the residual risk once it is in place.
  6. Put renewal in the calendarEnter the interval the class requires; if there is an accident or a change, renew without waiting.

Manage this in Optifora

Optifora is not a single program but a compliance platform assembled from modules. The catalogue states which module is ready today and which is on the roadmap.

See what Optifora is