Why safety and risk education?
Here we explore why we teach about safety and risk in our schools and provide links to key documents to support schools to develop policy and practice. Note: All external links open in a new browser window.
- Why safety education?
- Why risk education?
- Understanding risk
- How can we assess risk?
- Can children and young people assess risk?
- Risk assessment activity for pupils aged 9-13 years
- How do we know what is effective in safety and risk education?
Why safety education?
Traditionally safety education in schools has been a key aspect of the Personal Social and Health Education (PSHE) Curriculum. In Key Stages 1 and 2 the focus may be on road or home safety and in Key Stages 3 and 4 personal safety and road safety may feature strongly, linked perhaps to alcohol education and driving.
Accident statistics are also often quoted as an important justification for safety education in schools. In the UK more young people die in accidents than from any other single cause.
In 2002 405,000 children in the UK had accidents at home which necessitated treatment at hospital. While most accidents in childhood are not severe many of those injuries can lead to a lifetime of disability. In 2004 in the UK 275 young people aged 0-14 died in accidents. For further information see RoSPA Factsheets.
Athough generally the UK has a good record in injury prevention, fatal/serious accidents to young people in the workplace are increasing.
In England, Government policy offers opportunities and support for schools to focus on safety education:
- In 2001 the DfCSF published guidance on safety education
- Curriculum 2000 includes a PSHE framework which incorporates safety and risk education and includes health and safety as part of the general teaching requirement for all teachers
- Keeping Safe is a strand in the Green Paper Every Child Matters; the National Healthy Schools Programme includes PSHE as one of four key areas that must be addressed if a school is to gain accreditation
- Preparation for work experience offers the chance for children and young people to learn about health and safety at work (PDF)
- Take a look at RoSPA's dedicated Young Worker website.
In addition to all this the QCA publishes the curriculum for PSHE for Key stages 1-4 and assessment guidance to help schools manage PSHE.
[From September 2008 PSHE in Key Stage 3 and 4 will become PSHE education, which will include tow strands: personal well being and economic well being and financial capability].
Why risk education?
The concept of risk underpins all aspects of PSHE. Whether we are considering drug education, sexual health or road safety, children and young people are being asked to recognise what can cause harm (hazards), assess risk (the probability of harm) and explain how to control risks to themselves and others in familiar and unfamiliar environments. Good practice in safety education requires us to ‘teach safety’ AND ‘teach safely’. However, recent research by the Health and Safety Laboratory suggests that teachers focus more on ‘teaching safely’ and less on helping their pupils and students gain understanding and experience of the risk assessment process as described in the general teaching requirement. Why is this?
One reason may be that teachers, like most members of the public, don’t understand risk in the same way that health and safety professionals do. The risk assessment process – hazard recognition, risk assessment and risk control is essentially a rational technical ‘model’ and most of us simply do not operate like that in our day to day lives. Often we make judgements intuitively and unconsciously when taking care in different settings or we base our decisions on our own experience, on our feelings and on information which is easily available to us, for example through the media. We are more likely to rate something as ‘risky’ if the possible consequence is very severe, even if that outcome is very unlikely or delayed, while we underestimate the familiar risks we take everyday, such as driving, particularly if we feel in control and we derive benefit from the activity.
While it is understandable that we all assess risk differently, important decisions are made on the basis of our assessment of risk – whether to drive to a meeting or take the train, whether to invest in fencing to keep people away from cliff edges or accept that there will be rare but fatal accidents – so it’s important that those decisions are made systematically and on the best available information.
To find out how children perceive 'risk' see an article from RoSPA's Safety Education Journal, written by Jenny McWhirter, RoSPA's Risk Education Adviser.
Understanding risk
The risk assessment process begins with recognising hazards. So what is a hazard? A hazard is something which might cause harm. Some hazards are obvious because they are objects – ladders, worn carpets, garden ponds, are all hazards. Other hazards are only apparent because of the effect they have on something else– for example bottles of chemicals or food which has not been stored correctly can become hazardous. Other hazards are forms of behaviour like violence or bullying. And behaviours like neglect or inattention can increase the potential of hazards to cause harm.
How can we assess risk?
Risks can range from ‘intolerable’ to ‘trivial’. Risk is made up of two components – probability and ‘consequence’. Very often we focus most on the negative consequences or severity of harm, but we should always bear in mind that many activities which are potentially hazardous are also well controlled so the level of risk is actually quite low. We also have to remember that things or activities which are hazardous also have the potential to benefit people as well as harm them. A good everyday example would be electricity in the home.
So when we make a risk assessment we are weighing up two complex bits of information – what might happen and what is the probability that the various consequences will actually occur. Risk assessment gets even more complicated when we think about who might be affected – is the risk for the individual only or for other people? For example, if a child of school age has an accident a parent may have to stay away from work to look after them. This could affect the family finances.
We also need to ask what other factors might affect the likelihood or the outcome. There are health risks associated with drinking alcohol, but the risks change if we also drive a car when we have been drinking.
Finally we have to recognise that the level of risk associated with many hazards is affected by our experience of that hazard and the environment. A child may learn to look both ways before crossing a road, but does she also know that she should do this in a car park? So we have to take into account the unfamiliarity of the environment and the possibility of some unknown or unforeseen hazards when assessing risk.
Can children and young people assess risk?
Of course we can’t and shouldn’t expect the youngest children in school to be able to take responsibility for formal risk assessment. Weighing up danger starts at an early age. However, research (
PDF format 581kb) suggests that as they mature children and young people are increasingly capable of contributing to structured risk assessments. Practitioners tell us that where schools have involved children in assessing risk and setting school safety rules, the children are both more likely to comply with the rules and contribute to enforcing them. Schools have a statutory duty to take all reasonably practicable steps to ensure the safety of pupils and staff on school premises and when taking pupils off site. However, it is also vital to share with them the skills of recognising hazards, assessing risks and taking steps to control risk. Otherwise when young people gain greater independence from parents and teachers and move on to unfamiliar environments such as the workplace, they are likely to have accidents and injuries. More generally, understanding risk is all about helping young people to make sound judgements when coping with danger and uncertainty. It is an important life-skill which they can take with them into adult life.
See below for an example of an activity which could help pupils to understand how risk assessment can help them to keep safe in a familiar environment: the classroom.
Risk assessment activity for pupils aged 9-13 years
Aim: to help pupils understand how to assess risk.
Intended learning outcomes:
- Pupils will be able to recognise some familiar hazards, assess the level of risk and explain how the risks can be controlled.
- Pupils will be able to recognise where the risks associated with some hazards have been controlled.
- Pupils will be able to carry out a simple risk assessment in a different but familiar environment.
Ask the pupils if they know what is meant by the word ‘hazard’. Collect up their answers and display the following definition.
A hazard is something which might cause harm. Some hazards are obvious because they are objects or situations – cliff edges, hot liquids, moving vehicles, broken glass, deep water are all hazards. Other hazards are only apparent because of the effect they can have on something else– for example food which has not been stored correctly can become hazardous. Worn parts in machines can cause accidents. Plastic bags can suffocate. Other hazards are forms of behaviour. So bullying and neglect are all hazards because they have potential to cause harm.
Invite the pupils to look around the room. What objects could be hazards? Examples might be back packs, chairs, trailing wires. These are all trip hazards – people might trip and fall. What might be the consequence of a fall in the classroom? Collect up the pupils’ responses. These might include:
- Nothing
- A graze or bruise
- A head injury
- A twisted muscle
- Looking or feeling silly
Ask the pupils if they can decide which of these outcomes is
- the most severe?
- the most likely?
Based on both of these factors, which of the different trip hazards is the most risky? Who is most at risk? Are some people more at risk of tripping than others? What could be done to reduce the risk to everyone in the room?
Explain to the pupils that what they have done is take part in a risk assessment. Risk assessment is something we do every day although we usually don’t stop and think about it the way they have in this activity.
Now ask the pupils to look around the room again. Are there any hazards which have been controlled? An example might be the use of a toughened glass panel in a classroom door, or a self-closing spring on the door. Doors in schools and other workplaces often have glass panels so that you can see if someone is standing outside the door before you open it towards them. The glass is toughened so that you can’t cut yourself if you push on the glass section. Doors often have self-closing mechanisms to prevent them slamming suddenly and as part of fire safety.
Ask the pupils to work in groups and identify other hazards around the school – for example in the gym, or hall, the laboratories, on the playing fields. What steps have been taken to control the risks?
Review and reflection:
What other hazards have the pupils identified? What steps have been taken to control the risks? Do they have any other suggestions for controlling these risks?
Pupils have been learning about the risk assessment process. This involves:
- Recognising hazards (possible sources of harm)
- Assessing the risk (possible consequences and how likely they are to occur)
- Suggesting actions to control risk to self and others in a familiar environment
Follow up activity:
Ask the pupils to carry out a risk assessment in another familiar environment, for example their bedroom or kitchen at home, the garden, local park or playing field.
Next time you are planning to take pupils off site, share the risk assessment process with them. What hazards do they think they will face, what will be the risks. Which risks are severe? Which are trivial? Which risks should they pay most attention to? What can they suggest to help to control the risks?
Encourage the pupils use the risk assessment process in other aspects of PSHE such as drug education or sex and relationships education.
How do we know what is effective in safety and risk education?
In 2008 the PSHE Association and RoSPA worked together to research and publish 10 principles for effective safety education.
Jenny McWhirter (June 2008)
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