School complaints can often be a bit of a touchy subject – it’s not nice to think that we would ever have to claim from a public institution serving the generations of tomorrow. But, as I would like to think many of you would agree, health and safety is of even more importance in schools; particularly at infant and primary level.
As specialist personal injury lawyers, we rarely hear of an accident we haven’t already got experience in – so a great deal of our new claims come as no surprise. But when you hear of a child being injured through the schools negligence, it always feels different. I often ask myself: “how has an institution catering for the education of such young people allowed something like this to happen?” Naturally, the parents and guardians of the child claims we take on normally express their frustration and concerns to us quite honestly and openly; it’s a parent’s natural instinct to safeguard their children.
In infant and primary schools, health and safety should be at the forefront of every staff member’s minds. So, if your child has been injured at school, when can you make a claim for compensation?
Perhaps:
- Supervision: Pupils should be adequately supervised – there should be the appropriate numbers of staff to watch over the right amount of pupils. Too little staff, means too little supervision; things can so easily go wrong!
- Secured Gates and Doors: all heavy or potentially dangerous doors / gates should be secured. Youngsters like to play with things – an unsecured door or gate is just too fun not to swing back and forth. But when the door is accidentally slammed on to another pupil’s hand, the victim’s injuries can be nasty. Particularly at infant level, this should be taken very seriously.
- Equipment: young children should not have access to non-safety scissors, blades, dangerous substances, or anything else that poses an obvious hazard. At such an innocent age, children cannot comprehend the consequences of misusing such articles.
- Risk Assessments and Outings: its one thing to ensure the school is safe, but what about when pupils venture out on a field trip? Risk assessments are a necessary requirement – many people believe it’s a “waste of time” and “too much paperwork”, but I have risk assessed a school field visit in the past – you simply cannot take any chances.
Now, I know there is the big “Nanny State” and “Claims Culture” argument still thick in the air; but there are times when such simple health and safety procedure eliminates dangerous risks. You can’t take chances in schools – staff need to do everything they can to ensure the wellbeing of pupils is maintained.
Adhering to health and safety legislation, and just using our heads to do all we can to ensure the safety of our children in schools, is such an important thing to maintain. Luckily, many youngsters can bounce back and heal up OK – but children simply cannot comprehend risk as an adult can. We must do all that we can to protect them.
If your child has been injured due to the negligence of their school, there may well be a claim to make. Child claims are still run on a Genuine No Win No Fee basis (well, I can say that for us!), and there are still no costs to pay win or lose. The primary difference is that the child’s compensation money is normally held in a court trust fund until they turn the age of 18. The trust fund protects the money to allow the victim to spend it when they are old enough to be able to have it. The fund itself has a great interest rate on it too!
For further advice about claiming for your child, feel free to get in touch for a little friendly no obligation advice!
