oneSource Health and Safety Team Logo

Health and Safety Awareness for Governors and Trustees e-learning Training Course

The governing boards of schools and academies have a key role to play in ensuring the health, safety and welfare of their schools' staff, students and others affected by its undertaking. As a cornerstone of the establishment's safeguarding activities it is vitally important that individual governors and trustees fully understand the impact their own, and collective board decisions, can have both directly and indirectly on these people's health and safety. A secondary factor to consider is the potential criminal and civil liabilities which may become attributable to the organisation and individuals following an accident or incident (Note: for the Health and Safety Executive to prosecute there only has to be the existence of risk - no one actually has to have been harmed ) .


image of health and safety management diagram above a cupped hand

Most accidents are not caused by carelessness on the part of the injured party but are a direct result of failures in the establishment's safety management system. The critical role of governing bodies and trust boards in the governance of health and safety in schools is often not fully appreciated by the people who volunteer to undertake these roles. The board exists to set the direction of the education establishment's safety management system and to monitor its compliance to gain assurance that risks are being appropriately managed in practice.


The link health and safety governor often has an important part to play in ensuring that his or her colleagues on the governing board fully understand their role and are as equally committed to ensuring high standards are adopted and maintained. This is because without the full commitment of every governor on the board it is unlikely that the school will be able to fully implement systems to ensure effective governance of health, safety and fire matters. They must therefore have an appropriate level of competence in the subject matter themselves.


The content for the Health and Safety Awareness for Governors and Trustees was designed by a chartered safety practitioner with over 30 years experience working with schools and academies to help them develop effective safety management systems. Completion of this course will provide a valuable insight into the role which board members should be playing to ensure the safety and health of students and staff in a school or academy. The main purpose of this training is to help schools & academies ensure that their governors and trustees begin to develop the competencies they need to effectively undertake their roles within the establishment's safety management system.


Topics included:



Completion of this online training activity takes approximately 30 minutes. It includes supporting resources to aid learning and a short assessment to check delegate's understanding.


The people who will benefit the most from completing this training course are the school/trust’s chairman & health & safety link governors/trustees. Completion would however benefit any school governor/trustee to better understand the importance and potential impacts of their decision making and their significant part in promoting a positive health and safety culture within their wider governance role.


This e-learning training course is priced at £15 per licence. Once a delegate is set-up they have 1 month in which to complete the course and re-visit the content. The training course may be purchased in the oneSource Health & Safety Team's store area on the Havering Educational Services portal.