Category: Health and Safety

Categories
Health and Safety Schools

Health Related Behaviour Questionnaire

Jeanelle de Gruchy (Director of Public Health) and Margaret Dennison (Interim Director of Children’s Services) would like to invite your school to participate in the Health Related Behaviour Questionnaire (HRBQ) for pupils currently in years 4, 6, 8 and 10. See the  Letter to head teachers 2017

 

This survey is funded by Haringey Council and was last completed in 2015, with 2,753 pupils participating from 26 schools across the borough. We strongly encourage schools to participate in the 2017 questionnaire as it will offer you an insight into the health-related behaviours of your children and young people,and will also  help to inform future commissioning intentions.

 

We would be grateful if you could complete and return the attached Return Form  to indicate whether or not you wish your school to participate in the HRBQ.

 

Please return to Meinir Jones Meinir.Jones@haringey.gov.uk

 

Categories
Health and Safety

Important health and safety information

Update on schools’ fire risk assessment

Following the fire risk assessment review carried out in July 2017, we wrote to a number of schools informing them of the actions to take to ensure their fire risk assessments are suitable and sufficient. For each recipient of this letter, either of the actions below is required of you:

If you have not had an FRA by competent fire risk assessor in the last 2 years, please ensure one is commissioned and provide a copy of the assessment sent to: Health.SafetyAdvice@haringey.gov.uk  

If you believe you have had an FRA by a competent fire risk assessor, please send the name, qualifications and the date that it was carried out to Health.SafetyAdvice@haringey.gov.uk

EVOLVE and educational visits

The final date for processing applications for approval of educational visits in paper form has now passed. The recording, reviewing and approving of all educational visits are now carried out using EVOLVE. This is an online management system introduced by the Council in April 2017.

The system is set up to ensure that the educational visit co-ordinator for each educational establishment approves all visits, prior to approval by the head teacher and Chair of Governors. Certain visits will require final approval by Haringey’s corporate safety team, including visits:

  • outside England
  • involving strenuous or adventure activities
  • with overnight stays.

The initial log-in details for the head teacher and educational visit co-ordinator for each school have been provided. Training on the use of EVOLVE is provided on FUSE and should be completed prior to using EVOLVE. The training can be located by searching the word EVOLVE in the FUSE system.

If you do not have access to FUSE, please email haringeyacademy@haringey.gov.uk and request a user ID and password for Haringey Fuse. You will then be sent your log-in details.

New Health and Safety Procedures

The following procedures were recently approved and are now in use:

  • Accident and Incident Management Procedure
  • Construction Design and Management Procedure
  • Provision and Use of Work Equipment Procedure

For more information, please contact the Corporate Health and Safety Team.

Categories
Health and Safety Schools Traded Services

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) – training offered

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was ratified in 2016 by the European Union (EU) to strengthen citizens' fundamental rights in the digital age and facilitate business by simplifying rules for organisations in the online digital age.

We are holding 2 training sessions in September to brief school staff members in preparation for GDPR. These will be facilitated by Remora, an independent consultancy specialising in cyber security. Remora apply their expertise in firms and organisations to help assess business-wide cyber and data security risk to create mitigation strategies.

The main points of the latest EU GDPR draft include:

  • personal data is the property of the person;
  • personal data is electronic, paper, file notes, fingerprints, CCTV…….
  • very specific consent is required to use personal data;
  • a person can request a copy of all personal data within 30 days;
  • that copy must be in transportable format;
  • a person can request erasure of all personal data;
  • failure to comply will attract potentially seriously punitive penalties;
  • failure to protect personal data is a breach of GDPR;
  • privacy needs to be built into all systems and processes.

The training will make GDPR an operational reality in your school by:

  • coaching you on data security policy;
  • guiding you to create/update your data retention and disposal policy;
  • assisting you with definition of a Governance framework with appropriate policies;
  • creating your Response Plan: breach identification, resource mobilization, and appropriate disclosure;
  • define an operational implementation plan.

Further reading

EU Commission (external link)

ICO (external link) 

For further information please contact: Michael Welton – Traded Services Manager and Principal Education Welfare Officer

Telephone: 020 8489 2441 Mobile: 07792 437567

Email. michael.welton@haringey.gov.uk

Categories
Early Years Health and Safety Schools

Supporting pupils dealing with difficult events

In the light of recent events, there has been a great deal of discussion in the media and in communities about the terrorist attacks and the fire.  We are aware that children and young people and their families may be experiencing some anxiety about their safety.  To assist you in helping them, we have attached a couple of documents which we hope will be useful:

Talking to Children About Terrorism and War

Supporting Pupils Dealing with Difficult Events

 

The first document, Talking to Children About Terrorism and War was circulated by the Department for Education after the incident at Manchester Arena.  It was written to support parents in facing the challenge of explaining violence, terrorism and war to children.  Although difficult, these conversations are extremely important.  They give parents an opportunity to help their children feel more secure and understand the world in which they live.  We are sharing this with you as it will also support teachers and other staff members with these difficult issues.

 

The second document is called Supporting Children and Young People Dealing with Difficult Events and is a more general set of tips and ideas to support parents, carers and staff in supporting pupils who have experienced difficult events such as bereavement or loss of any kind.

 

The Educational Psychology Service provides support, advice and guidance to early years settings, schools and other education providers on managing traumatic incidents such as death of a pupil or member of staff.  To support this work, the service has recently updated its guidance for educational settings (Managing Traumatic Incidents) this will be published soon.

 

If you would like further advice or guidance, please contact the Educational Psychology Service on 020 8489 3004 or 020 8489 5039.

 

 

Categories
Health and Safety Schools

School age immunisation programme

I am pleased to inform you that Vaccination UK will be the new provider to deliver school age immunisations in Haringey from 1 September 2017. Vaccination UK have been delivering in Haringey on an interim basis since 1 April this year.

 

Should you require further information please contact:

  

Amanda Goulden, Senior Immunisation Manager (Commissioning)

NHS England (London Region)

Skipton House, 80 London Road,  SE1 6LH

Telephone: 0113 807 0511

Mobile 07900 713074

Email: Amanda.goulden@nhs.net

 

 

Categories
Health and Safety

Introducing the Child Accident Prevention Trust

The Child Accident Prevention Trust (external link)  is the UK’s leading charity working to reduce the number of children and young people killed, disabled or seriously injured in accidents. The Trust gives free advice on child safety to parents and carers, supports professionals working with children and families, supports senior professionals and policymakers and advises the government and other organisations on child safety. The Trust is a useful resource for schools and  it would be helpful to signpost it to parents and carers in our collective endeavours to keep all of our children safe.

 

 

 

Categories
Health and Safety Schools

Emergency plan activation review from St Aidan's

On 19 April St Aidan's was required to activate its emergency plan following an explosion and a serious fire at a property opposite the school. Head teacher Anne Etchells was asked to provide feedback to other schools on how the school dealt with a major emergency situation and the lessons learned.

You can read her full report here: Emergency plan activation review- Anne Etchells 23 05 2017

Categories
Health and Safety Smarter Travel

Moving Up competition for year 6 students

All year 6 pupils should have received a copy of the Moving Up book and the Moving Up competition, in which they have to work out how to travel between several locations using public transport.  If  they can answer all questions correctly then they could win a bike. The competition closing date is 23 June 2017.

 

Pupils aged 11 and over are the most vulnerable. We offer this book and the competition to support the work you do to help them become safe, independent travellers. Full details are on the attached flier.

 

Moving up competition

 

 

Categories
Health and Safety Schools

Message from Christina Andrew

Dear Colleagues

 

In light of the terror attack in Westminster last Wednesday, conversations and conjecture will likely be taking place in school amongst pupils of all ages. Haringey is a place where local communities get on with each other and we have every confidence that this will continue to be the case across the board. We would like to ensure that schools are open about conversations regarding the attack, and in line with the Prevent Duty, are creating a safe space for young people to express their thoughts and feelings on what has happened. Please remember that OFSTED expects educational settings to create safe spaces for debate and dialogue, using both formal and informal opportunities to address the issue. Consider the use of subject areas that lend themselves naturally to this issue such as History, RE, PSHE and citizenship.

 

Please also consider the guidance below:

·        Bring the topic up with students in an age-appropriate way. This attack goes against the values of the UK and that of your school. We need to ensure the school is the safest space to talk, debate and learn about significant political and news events, including awful acts like the one that took place yesterday.

·       Reassure students (particularly with the younger students). The chances of being harmed by a terrorist attack is still very, very low. There will also be a heightened police presence over the course of the next few days and weeks. This is a result of the ongoing efforts to protect people rather than a reaction to intelligence or a specific known risk.

·        If the attack does turn out to be Islamist, we all know how far away this kind of act is from Islam and is absolutely not an accurate reflection of what Islam teaches.

·       If you do become aware of pupils or parents glorifying the attack in any way, please follow normal Prevent safeguarding procedures and consider contacting our Prevent Lead, Christina Andrew at Christina.andrew@haringey.gov.uk  telephone 020 8489 1280

·         Likewise, if you pick up on any discrimination, this should be dealt with using your behavioural policy, and if there are reports of hate crime either taking place within school, or being fed back from the home / community environment, they should be reported to police either through 101 (for retrospective reports) or 999 (where a hate crime is taking place).

 

As mentioned above, locally we will see an increase in police patrols over the course of this week, particularly at key sights deemed to be vulnerable, and increased dialogue with local communities.  We would appreciate feedback on any tensions or concerns you may pick up on, but we remain confident that the strong community cohesion we enjoy in this borough will see individuals and communities coming together to process yesterday’s attack in a supportive way.

 

Christina Andrew

Acting Strategic Lead Communities

Categories
Health and Safety

Take part in a research project on the use of defibrillators in schools

The Cardiology Department at St George's University Hospital, supported by Professor Sanjay Sharma, is conducting a survey on cardiopulmonary resuscitation and the use of automatic external defibrillators (AED) in London schools. The results will help to improve the standards of schools’ healthcare in the future. We would like to invite you to take part in the survey (external link).

See more information about the project below:

My name is Dr Dimitra Antonakaki and I am one of the doctors working at St George’s, University of London in the cardiology department of St George’s Hospital.  I am writing to you on behalf of our research team, in order to ask for your valuable help on our project.

This project is on the use of automatic external defibrillators (AED) and their establishment at schools of England.

As you might know, an AED is a machine used to give an electric shock (also known as defibrillation) when a person is in cardiac arrest, i.e. when the heart stops beating normally. Cardiac arrest can affect people of any age and without warning. If this happens, swift action in the form of early cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and prompt defibrillation can help save a person’s life. The likelihood of successful resuscitation drops rapidly over the first ten minutes after cardiac arrest so rapid defibrillation is crucial to a successful resuscitation.

The precise number of cardiac arrests in the UK each year is uncertain, but is thought to be up to 60,000. In England the ambulance services attempt resuscitation in approximately 28,000 people, of whom less than 10% survive. Approximately 270 children die every year of sudden cardiac arrest at school, usually due to asymptomatic cardiac conditions. Overall survival rates vary across the country, but currently range between 2% and 12%.

The purchase and installation of AEDs are entirely for schools to determine at the moment.

Our short questionnaire on the current use of AEDs in schools (external link) includes demographics of your school, questions on any AED devices you might have and some questions on utilisation of the device. It will take you less than 5 minutes to complete and will help us to extract significant information on the current situation in the country.

I really appreciate your time and contribution that will help us to improve the standards on schools’ healthcare in the future.

Kindest regards

Dr Dimitra Antonakaki, Cardiology Registrar, MD

Email: d.antonakaki@nhs.net

Telephone: 07960 395614