Issue - meetings

Kate Sullivan (Strategy and Commissioning Lead – Organisational Development) provided a summary of the Annual Review – Focus on Health and Safety and invited questions from members.

In response to Councillor Hammersley, Gary Summerfield (Health and Safety Technical Specialist) stated that there had been a high number of reports of incidents involving violence to school staff by pupils. He advised that the Health and Safety Team worked closely with schools and the Department for Education to identify if violence to school staff by pupils could be prevented. However, this was inherently challenging. The Department for Education was in the process of developing a policy to determine actions to be taken in these cases. He agreed to provide some additional information showing actions that were taken for cases of violence to school staff by pupils in Warwickshire.

Sarah Duxbury (Director of Governance and Policy) advised that several agencies were involved to resolve incidents involving violence to school staff by pupils. In many cases, efforts were made to avoid the criminalisation of young people. However, this was not to downplay the seriousness of violence to school staff. It was likely that the agencies involved would strive to identify a solution (including alternative provisions if necessary) which avoided the need to exclude pupils wherever possible.

Councillor Gifford highlighted the need for detailed analysis of the relevant data to ascertain if the increased number of reports of incidents involving violence to school staff by pupils was the result of multiple incidents perpetuated by a small number of pupils.

In response to the Chair, Gary Summerfield agreed to provide a breakdown of incidents involving violence to school staff by pupils across schools in Warwickshire.

Councillor Gifford moved that the recommendations be accepted and was seconded by Councillor Tromans. This was supported unanimously by the Committee.

Resolved:

That the Committee:

1.     Endorses the Corporate Occupational Health and Safety Review 2022/23 as set out at Appendix 1.

2.     Notes the performance information in relation to the Council’s management of Health and Safety.

3.     Notes the work in our approach to the management of Health and Safety and supports the key focus areas for 2023/2024 set out in section 4.0.