St Chad’s Health and Safety Statement

The Governing Body of St Chad’s College is responsible for health and safety within the College. It fully accepts this legal and moral responsibility and is committed to fulfilling its health and safety responsibilities. It delegates such responsibilities to the Principal, the Bursar, the Clerk of Works, and the Catering Manager, and it encourages all college employees and college members to exercise their particular responsibilities to identify and minimise risk.

The College aims to follow best practice and to manage health and safety risks by integrating risk management into its overall management structures, chiefly through the Senior Management Committee. The Senior Management Committee, which generally meets weekly, has an ongoing health and safety monitoring brief. Health and safety policy is overseen by the College Committee, which reports to the Governing Body, and which makes Health and Safety policy recommendations to the Governing Body.

The College has a health and safety planning process, which involves a once-yearly, room-by-room inspection and audit of every room and area of the College by a team of at least three people. This feeds into the Senior Management Team, which decides on follow-ups and priorities. The College has a qualified surveyor on call, and he has regularly inspected the College for such things as asbestos risk and major physical hazards.

All accidents, work related ill-health, incidents and complaints are investigated by the Senior Management Committee, which (in the first instance) receives all incident reports. The College Committee reviews the College’s implementation of its health and safety policy and its Health and Safety Manual on a term-by-term basis. The College’s health and safety standards are to be found in that manual.

All staff play a role in health and safety monitoring and compliance, and the health and safety policy and manual are available for consultation in the Main Office. Staff are also directed to consult the University’s Health and Safety resources on the internet. Staff are to be regularly notified of any emerging health and safety issues and/or changes of policy. They are consulted on a termly basis via expanded Management Committee meetings, via the College Committee, or via departmental meetings.

Staff are offered regular free, usually on-site, health and safety training, including fire safety, first aid, manual handling, stress management, and food hygiene. A number of other Health and Safety related events are also sometimes offered through the College’s Education and Skills Programme (or ESP). Particular staff are offered enhanced training in fire, electricity, bar and catering risk management.

The College’s health and safety policy is reviewed annually and updated as necessary.