Blogs and Guidance
The STPCD 2015 was published last week and will become effective on 1 September 2015.
As the holidays draw closer we thought we'd provide a brief update on recent developments regarding educational employment matters, please see a summary of these below.
If your school uses a tallescope or a scaffold tower you should be aware of the following HSE prosecution. Stafford Borough Council was fined after an incident at a theatre in which a worker suffered fractured bones in his back and as a result was unable to bear weight on his right leg for four weeks.
The governors of a school in Kent have been prosecuted after a pupil was severely injured when he was hit by a shot put during a routine multi-sport PE lesson in June 2014.
There are some significant changes to employment law as of 5 April 2015, particularly in the area of family leave. The headline news is the introduction of shared parental leave, but various other changes have also taken effect.
The Construction Design and Management Regulations 2007 have been amended and CDM 2015 will be released on 6th April 2015.
Electronic cigarettes have become increasingly popular in the last 12 months but most employers are unsure of how to treat them. On the one hand employers want to be seen to assist employees who use them to stop smoking. However, some also feel that if they don’t treat e-cigatettes in the same way as normal cigarettes, it may undermine the existing smoking restrictions in force on the employer’s premises.
All schools are likely to have at least one pupil or employee who is severely food-allergic, and many schools will have more. Peanut allergy is particularly common, with one in 70 children nationwide thought to be affected.
This is one of the employment-related ‘hot topics’ which Ofsted are currently interested in. You may wish to amend your single central records to include a section which allows you to demonstrate regular checks in relation to these issues.
You may already be aware that last week the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) ruled on two very significant cases regarding overtime and commission payments, and concluded that in certain circumstances these should be paid during holiday periods. We have prepared a brief summary below outlining the effect of these rulings and what they mean for schools
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