Protecting our people: making health and safety a top priority in schools - Q&A with Simon Ashman, Health and Safety Manager

We all want our schools to be safe places where children can learn and grow without fear of harm or injury.

Simon joined Harris in September in 2020 as our Health and Safety Officer and is now the Health and Safety Manager. His team provides health and safety guidance, advice and support to all of our schools. 

 

What does your role involve?

I provide health and safety support and am the point of contact for our primary academies, and my manager Laura, does the same for the secondary and all-through academies. We are always at the end of the phone to answer questions and create resources for the schools to make their lives easier in terms of managing health and safety. We try to be very visible and usually do between 2 and 6 school visits per week. We also support the central Federation departments and academy management teams to effectively manage their health and safety responsibilities and champion its importance. 

 

What does ‘health and safety’ mean?

It is a bit of a catch all term but it covers three core areas:

• People – ensuring that anyone who comes into our schools, whether that be students, staff, parents, visitors; everyone is safe and doesn’t come to harm whilst there. 
• Premises – making sure that the environment is physically safe and secure for everyone, and that extends beyond the schools themselves because we also have a lot of educational visits at Harris and lots of learning outside the classroom. 
• Processes – avoiding the cliché about health and safety where the default answer is “no”, we work the other way so we can enable as many activities as possible to proceed whilst making sure we’re not going to put our students or staff at unnecessary risk. The goal is definitely to make sure students go home happy, well-educated and having enjoyed the school experience. The same standard of care also applies to our staff and anyone at our academies. 

 

How did you get into it?

I started working for a health and safety consultancy company in 2019 and got a taste for the industry. It was specific to water and air quality management so quite niche but I had the opportunity to travel to lots of glamorous buildings like the Gherkin and the Shard. It was a really interesting job and I liked the principles of it and was keen to learn about health and safety more broadly. I knew the opportunity to work as an Officer at Harris meant that I would get a broad view of all the different disciplines across health and safety and could learn that organically rather than through a course. 

 

Why is health and safety important?

It is not fair or reasonable for anybody to go to work or school and not come back healthy. Morally, I would have a guilty conscience knowing that someone came to our school and left unable to live the rest of their life to fullest. 

Obviously at Harris we want everyone to have a high-quality education and work environment but it is equally important that everyone remains safe and well whilst doing that. There is also the legal obligation because we are required to do it and there are big consequences if we do not manage health and safety effectively, and financially, we don’t want to be spending money unnecessarily. But I think the moral side should always come before the legalities and financial reasons for not putting anyone at risk. 

 

What’s been the impact of Covid?

Whilst it was a terrifying experience for everyone, it has oddly had a silver lining for our industry in the sense that people appreciate health and safety more than ever before and it’s amplified the position and significance of what we do. Health and safety was always on the agenda but the focus really became about keeping people safe and healthy. 

 

What’s the biggest challenge in your role?

I think the biggest challenge is making sure that the people who are not health and safety professionals can understand what they need to do. We are often working with office managers, premises staff, support teams, and principals, and they are (rightly) focused on their main priorities, but we need to ensure they also understand their duty to health and safety too. The most important thing is to ensure everyone understands why they need to do it, what the significance is and getting that message across in a proportionate way, being mindful of the demands on the workforce. 

 

What’s your favourite part of the job?

For me, I love going out there and seeing people, I wouldn’t want to be sat behind a desk and not be an active figure that people can rely on. I am now almost in my third year of working here and I’ve built relationships across all levels and whether they are looking for guidance, support, or training, they appreciate that as a team, we can help them. 

I have also been given lots of training opportunities myself and that’s not something I’ve always been provided with in other organisations. The CPD is really good, and I am given the tools to do my job as effectively as I can. I am also really blessed to have such a strong line manager who supports me and who I have a really good relationship with.  

 

How would you describe your team?

We are a small team but we know our subject and have a lot of knowledge between us. We also have a high level of integrity and we practice what we preach, which helps the schools by seeing that we do the same things that we’re asking them to do. I think we are also seen as approachable and dependable; people are happy to pick up the phone and speak to us whenever they need us. 

During the staff conference we had in lockdown, my manager Laura, won an award for cross-collaboration and her efforts across Covid. That was a really good moment for our team as it was nice to feel recognised as part of that, and during some of the most uncertain times this country has seen, we were recognised in the organisation for leading the way forward with safety matters. 

 

What’s been your biggest achievement?

We deliver in house medical training and the first time I fully delivered that on my own was a great moment. When I delivered the whole course that first time, I felt really proud because I hadn’t had to do in person training before. Even more daunting was that I was teaching teachers but it’s given me a lot of confidence. 

 

What makes working at Harris special?

The longer I’ve been here, the more I’ve appreciated that what we do makes a difference. It is that we don’t aim to make money, we make a difference. Going to the staff conference, you really see the impact of what we do and what each of the schools is doing, and I appreciate that collectively, our achievements are making sure that the quality of education is incredibly high for disadvantaged children across London and Essex. 

We don’t apologise for having a high standard at Harris; there is a lot of demand on us but we wouldn’t be industry leaders if we didn’t work to that high standard. I like that ethos we have here and our mentality to push boundaries and be confidently self-reliant.