Board responsibilities
The key aspects of responsibility for a board is outlined in the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 (HSEA) and amendments. The HSEA deals with all health and safety issues in and around workplaces and during all work activity.
The intent of the HSEA is to encourage employers and employees to work together to keep a workplace safe. The emphasis of the HSEA is on the systematic identification and management of potential hazards and other health and safety issues arising in the workplace.
This means that boards of trustees, in their various roles as employers, engager of contractors, and legally responsible occupiers of school premises:
- must take all practicable steps to provide and maintain a safe working environment, provide facilities for staff, ensure plant and equipment are safe to use, ensure employees are not exposed to hazards, provide procedures for dealing with an all hazards approach, and for dealing with emergency situations. As employers they are also required to identify, assess and control hazards; inform and train employees; record and investigate injuries, and report serious harm incidents to employees
- take all practicable steps to ensure no contractor or sub-contractor is harmed while doing any work they are engaged to do
- must take all practicable steps to ensure that no one in the school or vicinity is harmed by any hazard
- provide facilities as outlined in Health and Safety in Employment legislation eg, lighting, toilets, drinking water, cleanliness, first aid, and storage of chemicals
- apply for indemnity from Ministry for uncontrollable hazards
- provide a safe physical and emotional environment for staff and students and comply with health and safety legislation
- are responsible for and have liability for any unsafe actions by staff, visitors and contractors operating under their control.
Health and Safety Code of Practice
Boards of trustees are also bound to comply with the provisions of the Health and Safety Code of Practice in state and state-integrated primary, composite and secondary schools (the Code). The Code has been notified under section 70 of the Education Act 1989 , which allows the Secretary for Education to specify terms and conditions including ‘such matters as minimum safety and health requirements’ by notice in the New Zealand Gazette.
The Ministry has put together a comprehensive document that provides a breakdown of the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 and the Code. Boards are encouraged to familiarise themselves with this document and use it to assist them in ensuring their policies and practices concerning health and safety are up to date.
Read the Ministry’s document on Health and Safety in Schools .
A copy of the notice appearing in the New Zealand Gazette is appended as Appendix 1 in the Code. Those interested in the details of the legislation, section 70 of the Education Act 1989 can be found in Appendix 2.
The New Zealand School Trustees Association (NZSTA) can also provide further information on your responsibilities for health and safety as an employer. It also has resources on what to consider when ensuring the environment is safe and what to do when something occurs. You can also visit health and safety section of the NZSTA website designed for boards of trustees.