Haringey Schools BulletinI am pleased to inform you that the revised Corporate Health, Safety and Wellbeing Policy was approved in December 2018 and it has been uploaded to the Communications Section/Articles of the Traded Services Website. I have also uploaded the 2017/2018 Health and Safety Annual Report for your information.
Alexis Correa
Deputy Head of Service – Health and Safety.
The Corporate Health and Safety team has been busy reviewing part of the Health and Safety Management System. The following procedures have been reviewed and are now accessible in the Communications part of the Health and Safety for Schools, Service Level Agreement, Traded Services website:
The forms contained in the procedures have also been uploaded.
The council’s Corporate Health, Safety and Wellbeing Policy has also been reviewed and it will be presented to council’s committee for approval. When it is finally approved, the School’s Health and Safety Policy will also be reviewed.
Alexis Correa
Deputy Head of Service – Health and Safety
PAPYRUS Prevention of Young Suicide has been given funding to deliver suicide prevention training to schools across every London borough. PAPYRUS believes that suicide is everybody’s business and only by engaging everyone can a community become suicide safer.
Over 200 school aged children are lost to suicide each year PAPYRUS believes that something needs to happen now to reduce that number and keep our young people safe. While there have been moves to prioritise the emotional health and mental wellbeing of young people, fewer people are talking about suicide prevention. Stigma, silence and misconceptions around suicide means that it is often not part of normal conversation.
So far Bromley, Greenwich and Bexley have received the training and 75 schools have been supported. 12 other boroughs have dates booked and PAPYRUS is inviting Haringey schools to take part.
What does the funding cover?
One place per school (maximum of 30 people) on a three-hour Identifying and Talking about Suicide training course.
This training will be offered on a first come, first serve basis and is aimed at safeguarding leads, pastoral leads or deputy heads. Many young people experiencing thoughts of suicide show or give signs which ‘invite’ those around them to explore whether they may be thinking about suicide. Participants on this training will learn what these ‘invitations’ look like, how to respond to them and how to work with that person to keep them suicide-safe – including, where necessary, which support or organisations to signpost.
One place per borough on Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST).
ASIST trains participants to reduce the immediate risk of a suicide and increase the support for a person at risk. The workshop helps participants to recognise what a person at risk may need from others in order to keep safe and get help.
Please note that if you apply to attend the Identifying and Talking about Suicide training course, you cannot apply for a place on ASIST.
What do you need to do next?
If you are interested in the project, please contact London@papyrus-uk.org naming your school, your role and your borough.
Please note that the funding is for secondary schools. If you are not in a secondary setting but are interested in getting to know more PAPYRUS, then please email us.
I am very pleased to inform you that we have appointed Ian Hardwick as Health and Safety Adviser. Please join me in wishing Ian a great start in Haringey.
You may have heard that the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is aware of two UK laboratory-supply companies that have supplied schools and potentially other users with asbestos-containing gauze mats. HSE has assessed the overall risk of exposure to be low, but it has acted to ensure both supply companies immediately cease supply of the gauze mats, oversee arrangements to contact affected customers and provide precautionary advice on how the mats should be disposed of safely. Do not use any gauzes that contain asbestos and dispose of the safely as asbestos waste. The HSE has removed the article from their website. You can find further advice on the NAHT website (external link).
I would like to draw your attention to two recently issued two publications.
The Consortium of Local Education Authorities for the Provision of Science Services (CLEAPSS) has issued two documents: Top 10 hazards in science (external link) and Top 10 hazards found in DT audits (external link). They are short but very good to check against your current practices.
If you would like to self-audit, they have also created G271 – Auditing health & safety in a secondary school science department (external link) and Guide G79 – Auditing H&S in a Secondary School D&T Department (external link).
I have finally added health and safety training courses for schools in the Traded Services Website (external link).
As always, you can book a space for one of your employees through this website. If you have a large number of potential delegates, it might be more convenient and cost effective if we delivered the course in your school. For more information, please contact me: alexis.correa@haringey.gov.uk
I wish you a good start to the second half of the autumn term.
Alexis Correa, Deputy Head of Service – Health and Safety
At the London Crime Reduction Board earlier in the year, the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime asked leaders representing London councils to consider how boroughs can promote the new London Needs You Alive toolkit through schools.
They created the London Needs You Alive toolkit to support schools and colleges to play a part in reducing knife crime by providing resources including:
Please take time to look at the toolkit as it is a useful resource to help you to educate young people about the dangers of knife possession and how to reduce knife crime.
You can access the toolkit here (external link)
Eveleen Riordan
Assistant Director, Schools and Learning
The Haringey Healthy Schools programme (external link) aims to improve the health and wellbeing of children and young people across the borough, and offers bronze, silver and gold award status (external link).
Schools who have already successfully achieved bronze are invited to attend a silver award workshop, for information and guidance on how to create an effective application for silver.
Date: Wednesday 14 November Time: 2pm – 3:30pm
Location: River Park House, Wood Green, N22 8HQ
To book a place, or for further queries, please contact Meinir Jones (Public Health Commissioner) healthy.schools@haringey.gov.uk
Dear Head teachers and Chairs of Governors
In 2016, a four year old Hackney child died at home from dehydration and starvation following the unexpected death of his mother two weeks earlier. Chadrack had learning difficulties and he did not know how to call for help or feed himself properly.
Following a Disabled Children’s policy and practice review group in June 2018, a number of actions were recommended as a result of the discussion regarding the attached Local Review into the death of Chadrack. CHSCB-Local-Review-Chadrack-Report-FINAL It took 17 days for Chadrack to be found, despite efforts from his school to obtain entry to his flat, which they were unable to do because of a communal door entry system.
The review group came up with the following recommendations, which are specifically pertinent to schools and settings with non-verbal students.
Jeannette Brand, Deputy Head of Service for Integrated Service for Children with SEND, has asked for feedback from you and your schools regarding this matter – what actions you already have in place and those that you might propose as a result of the findings into Hackney’s review. Please feedback to Jeannette – Jeannette.brand@haringey.gov.uk
Please also forward a copy of your Attendance policy to Jeannette as soon as possible.
Finally, Hackney has shared the attached Attendance policy template that Hackney’s Learning Trust are recommending to their schools as a result of the review. I am also attaching a copy of the Roles and Responsibilities regarding attendance for information purposes.
Attendance and Safeguarding Sample Policy 2017
Attendance – Roles and Responsibilities 2017
Eveleen Riordan, Assistant Director, Schools and Learning, Haringey Council
Haringey’s Public Health Team commission the Whittington Health NHS Trust School Nursing Service to support the general health and wellbeing of children and young people in schools.The Director of Public Health recently contacted heads at both primary and secondary schools with information about the School Nursing Service. Please can you return this information as soon as possible? Thank you to the schools that have already done so.
To enable the smooth running of the school nursing service, we are asking schools to:
What’s your favourite sandwich? Spicy meatballs, smoked salmon or falafels? Chicken tikka, avocado or red pepper hummus?
Haringey Youth Council is partnering with Exposure, north London’s award winning youth communications charity (with support from Haringey Council) to promote Saucy Sandwich Snaps, a tasty competition to encourage young people to eat more healthily.
We’re inviting young people from Haringey schools and youth groups to take part. You can enter as a whole class, a small group or as an individual. Entrants must create a healthy, appetising sandwich, photograph it and submit this to Exposure, explaining how the key ingredients contribute to a healthy diet.
Full details are here (external link)
At the #FixUp_LookSharp event earlier this year, young people came up with creative ideas to tackle teen obesity. Saucy Sandwich Snaps was the winning idea – a great initiative to get young people thinking about what makes a healthy balanced diet.
For further information, please contact info@exposure.org.uk.
Closing date is Friday 6 December 2018. Prizes are sponsored by Alexandra Palace.
Since I joined Haringey in January this year, one of my main concerns has been the access of information.
Maintained and voluntary controlled schools are required to comply with the council’s health and safety management system – but that system is only accessible through the intranet. During health and safetly audits you have informed us that schools don’t have access to this. To solve this issue in the interim, I sent all the documents to school head teachers in February. I recognise that this was not the best way to do it, but it was the only accessible one I had at the time.
I am pleased to say that you can now access the current Health and Safety Policy and the available procedures, forms and guides through the ‘Publications’ tab on the HaringeyTraded Services Website (external link).
My team is revising the health and safety management system as some of these documents are in need of review. During October 2018, several new and revised procedures will be brought to the Corporate Health, Safety and Wellbeing Board for approval, which will be published in the same manner when approved.
If you have any queries regarding these documents, or any other related to health and safety, please send an email to health.safetyadvice@haringey.gov.uk, or call us 020 8489 4520.