Work-related Ill Health
Cases of self-reported work-related ill health are increasing. There were an estimated 174,000 workers suffering from work-related ill health (new or long-standing), averaged over the three-year period 2020/21 – 2022/23, and this represents an increase from the pre-pandemic period. Around 4.9% of workers in the Education sector suffered from work-related ill health, which is statistically higher than for workers across all industries (4.1%).
Stress, depression or anxiety accounts for the significant majority at 55%, with musculoskeletal disorders accounting for a further 19% of the total.
Now would be a good time to review your Stress and Wellbeing policies and risk assessments, and ask yourselves ‘are we doing everything that we say we will?’ and ‘is there anything else we can do proactively to mitigate the risks?’. It’s so much easier to put measures in place to prevent and minimise mental health issues in the workplace, than to try and put people back together again once they’ve reached breaking point.
Fatal and Non-Fatal Injuries
In terms of fatal injuries to workers, we’re pleased to see that there were 0 in 2022/23. However, there were 2 fatal injuries to members of the public in 2022/23 within education settings, and an annual average of 3 fatalities over the five-year period 2018/19 – 2022/23.
We’re pleased to see that the number of non-fatal injuries is decreasing, but there is still much work to be done. According to the Labour Force Survey, there were an estimated 36,000 workers who sustained a non-fatal workplace injury over the 2020/21 – 2022/23 period, which accounts for 1.1% of workers in the sector (this is statistically significantly lower than that for workers across all industries at 1.5%).
RIDDOR reporting indicates that there were 4,845 non-fatal injuries to employees reported by employers in 2022/23, with 2,011 specified injuries (these may include injuries such as fractures, other than to fingers/thumbs/toes, amputations, serious burns etc.). As has been the previous trend, the significant majority of these were caused by slips/trips/falls on the same level (62%). This is followed by falls from a height (11%), acts of violence (8%), and struck by moving/flying/falling, object (6%).
There were 2,834 ‘over seven day’ injuries to employees reported by employers for 2022/23 (i.e. whereby the employee is unable to work, or unable to undertake their normal duties, for more than 7 days). The significant majority of these were again caused by slips/trips/falls on the level (32%), followed by acts of violence (20%), manual handling (11%), and and struck by moving/flying/falling, object (10%).
The biggest reason as to why it’s so important to manage Health and Safety effectively is to ensure that we can send everyone home safe at the end of each day, and so anything that we can do to reduce the above figures, even by 1, has surely got to be worthwhile? Now would be a good time to review your Health & Safety management systems and ask yourselves ‘are they effective?’ and ‘what else can we do to ensure that a positive Health and Safety culture is embedded throughout the school, and that everyone takes Health and Safety seriously?’.
Working Days Lost
There are around 3 million working days lost each year in the Education sector due to work-related illness (84%) and workplace injury (16%), which is the equivalent to around 1.2 working days per employee.
Economic Cost
So we’ve covered the human cost in the preceding paragraphs, but what’s the economic cost of all this? Well, the total cost from work-related ill health and workplace injury in the Education sector for 2021/22 is estimated at £1.9 billion!
Using the HSE Statistics to Generate Discussion on Health & Safety in Your School
It can sometimes be difficult to get people interested in, and talking about, Health and Safety, but here’s a tried and tested method on how you can use the HSE’s latest Education statistics with your board, senior team, Health and Safety Committee and wider school workforce to generate discussion. Trust me, I’ve used this in training sessions for staff at all levels and it’s a very interesting exercise!
- Take each of the key statistics and write them as a question on a PowerPoint slide (one question per slide), such as ‘How many workers in the Education sector were suffering from work-related ill health?’. You can write the answer on the next slide (or if you’re a dab hand with the PowerPoint animations, you can reveal it on the next click). I have a readymade version which I am more than happy to share with you – drop me an email: michelle@pearsonwebb.co.uk
- Get your target group together, whether it be the Board of Governors, Senior Team, or Health & Safety Committee and give each person an A4 whiteboard with wipe-clean marker (or you can just use A4 paper and pens).
- Go through each question with the group, and ask them to write their answer down on the whiteboard/paper and then hold it up (think Strictly Come Dancing judges!). Tell them not to spend too much time thinking about their answer and to write down the first number that comes into their head.
It’s really interesting to see the different perception levels – in my experience, they ALWAYS underestimate the number of non-fatal injuries, and this can hopefully generate some discussion around how your school can make improvements to Health and Safety and avoid becoming part of the statistics.
You can download the full HSE Education Statistics in Great Britain, 2023 report here