Health and Safety Advisory Services for Schools and Colleges

In order to be able to effectively and efficiently manage health and safety in a school or college the employer needs to have access to competent advice. Schools and colleges can have access to competent advice from a number of sources (in-house, consultants or a combination of both). For most education sector employers the option to have a totally in-house source of competent advice is not practical for the following reasons:

• the range of hazards for which competence is required;
• the depth of knowledge required on the hazards present in the school or college;
• understanding of safety management systems;
• the employment costs of having full-time specialist competent persons on the staff;

The oneSource Health and Safety Team has extensive experience in assisting establishments to manage health and safety in schools, academies, multi-academy trusts and colleges. A key part of the work which we do with clients is developing their in-house competency. This can be through workshops, training, working 1:1 with staff members to improve their practical skills, understanding or confidence, or simply providing advice on the external specialst training which is required.

Having worked with education clients for a long time we appreciate that managing health and safety in colleges and schools is not your foremost concern. Therefore our school safety management systems are designed to achieve the highest standards of health and safety compliance with the minimum use of client's resources. The Health and Safety Manual which we provide to clients is an example of how we have reduced their administrative burden. The Manual serves several purposes, it:

• forms part of the client's health and safety policy;
• can be the client's risk assessment for a large proportion of their risks;
• provides guidance on managing and assessing risks, for which the Manual itself cannot be the risk assessment.

Service options

The Health and Safety Advisory Service is available in two main versions:

• On-site health & safety advisory packages;
• Remote health & safety advisory packages;

Bespoke services tailored to specific needs can also be provided. Please contact us to discuss your specific needs.

On-site Health and Safety Advisory Service

Our experience in assisting schools, academies and colleges to develop and maintain safety management systems (SMS) has shown that investment in on-site support results in more effective development, implementation and integration of the SMS. This leads to improved management of criminal & civil litigation risks, reduced wastage of resources and improved business outcomes.

What the service provides



1. Three half days of on-site support visits per year. The visits include a core monitoring element and a support element. The monitoring element is designed to ensure that there is continuous improvement in the school's health and safety management system. This can include audits of the establishment’s health & safety management system, the frequency of these is decided by the establishment’s risk rating. The support element is flexible to enable best use of the advisory support time. The options available include training workshops, assistance in developing policy and supporting documents (including risk assessments) & inspections;
2. Access to telephone & e-mail advice throughout the contract period (weekdays 9am to 5pm);
3. Access to the policy and guidance developed by the School’s Health & Safety Team. The Service supports the continuing development of these;
4. Reduced prices for attendance at training courses. Please see the Health and Safety Training Courses page for more information on the range of courses available.
5. Reduced subscription to the Smartlog task recording system. It can be used to manage the performance of school health and safety related tasks (e.g. weekly testing fire alarm actuation points, fire drills, water outlet flushing etc.). The system will remind responsible employees and notify managers of non-compliance. It is offered to subscribing schools and colleges at a discounted price to direct purchase from the provider.

* Services available as optional extras are charged at cost.


Remote Advisory Service

The remote advisory service is available for schools and colleges with mature safety management systems which do not require on-site support and those establishments which are geographically remote to the oneSource Advisory Services’ staff bases. The service delivery is divided into 2 categories:

• Initial and audit years;
• Non-audit years.

What the service provides

Initial/audit years

1. Half-day on-site health and safety management system audit;
2. Access to telephone & e-mail advice throughout the contract period (weekdays 9am to 5pm);
3. Access to the policy and guidance developed by the School’s Health & Safety Team. The Service supports the continuing development of these;
4. Reduced prices for attendance at training courses. Please see the Health and Safety Training Courses page for more information on the range of courses available.
5. Reduced subscription to the Smartlog task recording system. It can be used to manage the performance of health & safety related tasks (e.g. weekly testing fire alarm actuation points, fire drills, water outlet flushing etc.). The system will remind responsible employees and notify managers of non-compliance. It is offered to subscribing establishments at a discounted price to direct purchase from the provider.

Non-audit years

1. Access to telephone & e-mail advice throughout the contract period (weekdays 9am to 5pm);
2. Access to the policy and guidance developed by the School’s Health & Safety Team;
3. Reduced prices for attendance at training courses. Please see the Health and Safety Training Courses page for more information on the range of courses available.
4. Reduced subscription to the Smartlog task recording system. It is offered to subscribing schools and colleges at a discounted price to direct purchase from the provider.

The oneSource Health and Safety Team is able to undertake the following specialised risk assessments for schools and colleges:

• Noise;
• Hand-arm vibration.

Health and safety training is a useful method for schools, academies and colleges to establish and maintain the competence of their staff. We provide both face-to-face and e-learning courses.

Face-to-face Health & Safety Training Courses

The oneSource Health and Safety Team offers a range of courses, most of which have been developed specifically for the purpose of school safety training. They therefore contain school-based exercises and case studies. Our trainers all have extensive experience of working with schools, academies and colleges from their roles as health and safety advisers. If your delegates ask questions on courses they will know the answers they receive are not general "catch-alls" but appropriate for their needs based on our practical experience of working with schools and colleges.

For your convenience the health and safety courses have been put into groups. Click on the green headings to see further information on the courses:

Health and Safety Management Courses for Schools and Colleges

The following courses are routinely delivered:

• IOSH Managing Safely (4 Days);
• IOSH Managing Safely Refresher (1 Day);
• Health and Safety Awareness for Managers (½ Day).

Risk Assessment Courses for Schools and Colleges

The following courses are routinely delivered:

• Risk Assessment (½ Day);
• Manual Handling Risk Assessment (1 Day);

Employee Skill Courses for School and College Staff

The following courses are routinely delivered:

• Manual Handling (½ Day);
• COSHH Awareness (1.5 hours).

e-Learning Courses and Packages

To learn more about the e-learning which oneSource Health and Safety can provide click on the heading,

If you have a specific need which is not covered in the above lists please contact us to discuss your requirements.