TWEBLO - Health & Safety
The 'Tyne & Wear Education Business Link Organisation'.
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| TWEBLO's responsibilities |
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Ensuring that adequate health and safety provision is on place for every one of the 17,000 plus pre-16 statutory placements that occur annually. |
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We have also continued the practice of collecting information to parents’ sheets from employers and passing them to the school approximately 1 week before the placement commences. |
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Informing Connexions of any placements that have been cancelled withdrawn. |
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Responsible for investigating accidents to prevent re-occurrence. |
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Following up any feedback from students during de-briefing. |
 In order to fulfil the organisers’ duty of care, a representative from TWEBLO may contact you to arrange a mutually convenient time to visit you to check that your health and safety arrangements are satisfactory.
If you are not contacted by a TWEBLO representative don’t worry – we may have visited your company previously and a reassessment may not yet be needed.
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| What does the assessment entail? |
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The assessment should take about 20 – 30 minutes to complete and there are a number of key areas that the Assessor will want to discuss. The next section will look at each of these areas in turn.
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| Insurance |
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You must ensure that all insurance policies, in particular Employer’s and Public Liability, are in place and that this cover extends to pupils on work experience.
The assessor will need to see a copy of your Employers Liability insurance certificate when they visit.
If you do not have current insurance and do not want to set this up for the pupil you should contact Connexions or TWEBLO immediately.
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| Notification |
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You must ensure that legal notification of premises and nature of business activities have been supplied to the relevant Enforcing Authority – either the Health & Safety Executive (for factories etc) or Local Authority (for offices, retail etc).
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| Safety policy |
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 If five or more persons (including trainees or part time workers) are employed you must have in place a written safety policy in accordance with Section 2(3) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
If you do not have 5 or more employees you should still have a Health & Safety policy in place however this may be communicated verbally.
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| Risk assessment |
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Employers must carry out all necessary risk assessments relating to staff and pupil activities e.g. for Hazardous Substances, Manual Handling, Noise, Personal Protective Equipment/Clothing, Display Screen Equipment. Significant findings and control measures should be brought to the attention of all concerned.
Again if you have 5 or more employees the significant risks and control measures should be recorded.
As you are involved in work experience placements you must also specifically assess the risks to young persons taking into account their age, lack of experience and immaturity. In practical terms this will involve ensuring that they young person is adequately trained, has good levels of supervision and that they are prohibited or restricted from doing anything that you feel they are not capable of. (This is looked at in more depth later in the leaflet).
If the pupil is in year 10 or 11, you are also required to provide the pupil's parent or guardian with relevant information on:
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the risks to the pupil’s health and safety identified by the risk assessment |
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the preventative and protective measures |
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the risks caused by others
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There is no prescribed way of doing this and TWEBLO will assist you in complying with this requirement.
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| Induction |
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The employer must provide participants/learners with effective initial induction and ongoing instruction, information and training.
As for any new employees one of the first things you must do with the pupil is carry out an induction. This is a legal requirement and is very important in terms of protecting the pupil from harm. Induction should be carried out as soon as possible on the first day and should cover the following points: -
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Safety Policy – explain the organisation, who is responsible for what and any arrangements which apply to the pupil |
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Risk Assessment – tell the pupil about any significant risks identified as a result of risk assessment and the control measures in place to prevent or reduce these risks |
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Supervision – who is going to look after them |
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Prohibitions/restrictions – any do’s or don’ts deemed necessary as a result of risk assessment |
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Emergency procedures e.g. fire – what they should do if they hear the fire alarm or if they discover a fire |
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Welfare facilities – where the toilets and washing facilities are, where to get a drink, take lunch break etc |
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Personal Protective Equipment and Clothing- what they need to wear, when it needs to be worn |
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Accidents – what to do if they have and accident, where the accident book is kept |
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First Aid – who the first aider or appointed person is and where the first aid kit is kept |
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The pupil’s responsibilities |
The pupil should be shown around the premises and introduced to key people. As there is a lot of information for the pupil to take in it will need to be reinforced and checked that the pupil has understood what they have been told. If the organiser has not informed you of any health or medical conditions the pupil may have, it is your responsibility to ask the pupil on the first day.
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| Supervision and training |
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 Provide participants with effective competent supervision, relative to experience, age, immaturity and special needs.
It is very important to remember that the pupil may have no previous experience of the world of work. You should assume that the pupil knows nothing.
The pupil should be supervised at all times and the level of supervision should reflect the risk assessment, the pupil’s competencies and the type of work and environment that they are in. They must be shown how to carry out any task safely and without risk, once shown they should be supervised on a one-to-one basis to check understanding.
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| Personal protective equipment and clothing |
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You must provide pupils with any necessary Personal Protective Equipment and Clothing (free of charge) and ensure its proper use.
PPE/C includes protective clothing against adverse whether conditions and extremes of temperatures, this is important if the pupil is working out of doors.
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| Restrictions and Prohibitions |
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You must impose restrictions/prohibitions for activities or areas of work which are not part of the agreed programme, or for which the pupil is not yet competent. You must also ensure they have been informed of the prohibitions or restrictions and that the evidence of understanding has been signed by the pupil (this could be incorporated into induction).
There may be some things that the pupil is not allowed to do either legally, such as operate certain dangerous equipment, or because you do not want them involved in certain areas of your business.
As part of your risk assessment you will have considered the young person’s physical and psychological capabilities and must prohibit anything you decide is beyond the pupil’s capabilities. (See the appendix at the back of the leaflet for guidance on restrictions and prohibitions that should be considered).
These restrictions or prohibitions must be communicated to the pupil and anyone involved in supervision of the pupil.
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| Accidents |
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 Any accident involving a pupil which results in a fatality, lost time accident, work related ill health or other condition, which results in time lost from the programme must be reported to TWEBLO by phone 0191 516 6168 or fax 0191 516 6167.
(Please note: - Notification must also be made to the relevant enforcing authority with regards to the legal requirements of Reporting if Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrence Regulations of 1995 (RIDDOR)).
The accident should also be recorded in your accident book.
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| Work environment |
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The employer must provide a healthy and safe working environment, welfare facilities, equipment, safe systems of work and emergency Fire and First-Aid arrangements.
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| Access |
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The employer must agree to allow Connexions, TWEBLO, LSC representatives reasonable access to records, premises, learners and staff for the purposes of monitoring or interviewing related to the pupil’s health and safety or participation in TWEBLO funded programmes.
To view a copy of the assessment form click here.
If you do not currently meet the requirements under health and safety law TWEBLO will provide you with a full action plan on how you can remedy the situation.
If there are any other areas that you are unsure of there are a number of organisations that can help:
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TWEBLO – 0191 516 6168 |
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The organiser of work experience at Connexions Tyne and Wear |
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Your nearest Business Link |
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The Health & Safety Executive (local area office) and the HSE’s information helpline telephone number 08701 545 500, the HSE home page www.hse.gov.uk |
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