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CERTIFICATE
Candidates observation
sheet
MILAN SHRESTHA
ABU DHABI EDUCATION COUNCIL
Observation
Hazards and Consequences
Control measures
Immediate and longer term actions
Timescale
Immediately
Yearly
Every 6 months
Immediately
Yearly
Observation
Hazards and Consequences
Control measures
Immediate and longer term actions
Timescale
6 months
Immediately
Yearly
Immediately
Every 6 months
N/a
N/a
On-going
L
9. Risk of trip due to worn tape
around access hatch in floor in
main corridor
5 Years
Immediately
Replace tape.
Same day
M
L
Monthly
On-going
Yearly
Immediately
1 month
L
14. Risk of falling due to working
on an insecure short ladder
during lone working in store
cupboard.
3 weeks
3 6 months
Every 6 months.
Immediately
1 months
Yearly
Immediately
Observation
Hazards and Consequences
Control measures
Immediate and longer term actions
Immediately
1 month
On-going
N/a
N/a
Timescale
Yearly
18. Risk of hot water burns due
to no warning sign on hot water
boiler in kitchen.
Immediately
2 weeks
Observation
Hazards and Consequences
20. Risk of legionella controlled
by regular inspection of water
supplied from taps and
temperature of boiler in kitchen
On-going
Control measures
Timescale
Immediate and longer term actions
I
N/a
Allocate responsibilities
2 months
Immediately
1 week
Monthly
1 day
1 week
N/a
3 month
1 month
1 month
1 month
3 months
INTERNATIONAL GENERAL
CERTIFICATE
Date of review11/12/2015
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------MANAGEMENT REPORT
1. Introduction
This report follows a workplace inspection of the Abu Dhabi Education Council on 11/12/2015 and
identifies good and poor practices. The centre has a large education council building, one primary
school, one short stay pupil referral unit and a day nursery. The property is owned and maintained by
the local council. There is an access road from the main road, which runs around the school, between
buildings and then through to the rear car parks.
The Abu Dhabi Education Council is occupied by 370 workers whose roles revolve around education
attainment, improvement and inclusion. Many workers are outreach workers and visit schools,
children centres, and homes. As a result, access and egress to the building is heavily used. Potential
hazards include slips, trips, and falls, musculoskeletal injury and access and egress arrangements.
2. Executive summary
It was pleasing to observe a high standard of housekeeping. There was an appropriate amount of
lighting inside and outside the buildings. The welfare facilities were of good standard, i.e. clean and
plenty of toilets and washrooms for the amount of workers.
However, during the inspection it was identified that some areas posed a risk of serious injury or ill
health and were in need of improvement. Areas of concern were vehicle movement through the
school site and risks of electric shock, due to uncontrolled access to the communications mast and
several items of portable electrical equipment being out of date with their portable appliance testing
(PAT) test. Also, there was an increased risk of fire and manual handling injury due to many document
files stored under workers desks, next to electrical cables and sockets. These and other important
observations are discussed in the findings part of the report.
Most of the problems that were observed were related to a lack of maintenance and a general lack of
understanding of the need for good health and safety practice. Recommendations include refresher
training and maintenance of signs and electrical equipment, all of relatively low cost, particularly when
related to the risks observed. Two areas observed that were under good control were the testing and
recording for legionella and asbestos.
Details of all observations made during the inspection are attached at the end of this report.
3. Main Findings
3.1 Observation 1 Risk of road traffic accidents speed limit, hazards and parking
The access road that runs through the school site is heavily used, as many workers do outreach work.
In addition, visitors to the site, parents and children use the road to come into school and the day
nursery. It was noted that many of the painted road sins were worn away, so users would not be aware
of speed restrictions. This presented a significant risk of vehicles speeding and causing road traffic
accidents. Also, there were many sharp bends in the road, which would increase the potential risk
from speeding. The additional problem of vehicles being parked in undesignated areas prevented
drivers having proper vision of the road and obstructed footpaths. In view of the vulnerability of the
many pedestrians in the area, this could easily result in a major injury or fatality. Any claim for damages
would be very high and this type of accident could have very high consequences to the schools
reputation.
Speeding vehicles and vehicles inappropriately parked make access and egress unsafe, not only for
school workers, but other car users and pedestrians. These risks may be seen to contravene the ILO
Occupational Safety and Health Convention C155, Article 16 (1), which requires employers to provide
workplaces that are safe.
School workers, parents, children and visitors should be alerted immediately of the speed limit, sharp
bend hazard and parking problem, for example by email and letters handed out. This will incur very
little cost, mainly time and paper. Temporary signs should be made and located on the route into the
school and where parked vehicles cause an obstruction. This can be done by downloading signs from
the internet, printing and laminating them using school facilities, costs for this should be limited to
300 dhs. Maintenance work should be carried out during the next four weeks to repaint speed limit
signs and erect a sing warning of the sharp bends, at a cost of 5000 dhs approximately. Signs and
bollards should be erected to prevent the unauthorised parking; this is likely to cost approximately
10,000dhs. All limit signs and restriction parking should be monitored yearly during the site inspection.
The sum of money necessary to make improvements is small relative to the risk of serious injury that
may be caused by the hazards.
3.2 Observation 5 Risk of electric shock access to communications mast
It was observed that the gates restricting access to the communications mast were not secured by a
padlock and there were no signs warning of the electrical hazard within the restricted area. This meant
that anyone could enter the restricted area and be at risk of electric shock. The school has a large
number of children on site who may be attracted by the electrical equipment and could have entered
the area without difficulty. The absence of warning signs indicating an electrical hazard could someone
to believe they were entering a safe area.
Failing to restrict access to the electrical equipment may be considered a breach of the ILO
Occupational Safety and Health Convention c155, Article 16(1), which requires workplaces machinery,
equipment and processes to be safe and without risk to health. Though the risk of immediate danger
from electricity due to someone entering the restricted area is not high it is significantly increased by
the failure to prevent entry.
With the co-operation of maintenance worker for the site a padlock was added to the fates to secure
them. The padlock was available for their purpose, but had not been fitted to the gate following a visit
from a maintenance contractor, therefore there was no new cost related to this control measure.
Temporary electrical hazard warning signs should be fitted until permanent signs can be obtained. The
cost of these temporary and permanent signs is likely to be about 2500 dhs. In the medium term, the
supervisor of school maintenance work should ensure the padlock is only removed to allow authorised
entry and refitted immediately on completion of this work. The security of access to the
communication mast should be monitored as part of the site security arrangements, this may require
a small amendment to the contract of the security company that does this work, but it is expected
that is could be added with little or no cost.
3.3 Observation 13 and 15 Risk of manual injury and fire document files stored under desks
It was identified that many of the workers stored document files under their desks, occupying a large
amount of space. These files were situated next to trailing electrical cables, which were plugged into
extension leads. The three elements of the fire triangle were present oxygen, fuel (paper files) and
heat (electrical cables and sockets). This combination presented a risk of fire occurring and although
the fire would start in the office area there is a risk that it could spread and affect the whole centre.
This would be a serious risk to all workers and children. No fire risk assessment had been carried out
and fire risk controls were inadequate, contravening the ILO Guidelines on Occupational Safety and
Health Management Systems (ILO OSH) 2001, which require risk assessment and the application of
control measures.
These poor storage arrangements not only increase the chances of a fire starting and spreading
rapidly, but also pose a risk of back injury when office workers have to bend and assume a very poor
posture when retrieving the files. This poor manual handling arrangement could quickly lead to serious
injury of an office worker and long term absence from work. The office workers are all experienced
and specialise in their education field, therefore finding temporary replacement workers would not
be easy and this would be very damaging to the educational service provided. The storage
arrangements do not comply with the ILO Occupational Safety and Health Convention C155, Article
16 (1) and (2), in that manual handling risks should be avoided where reasonably practicable and
where risk remain they are minimised by appropriate protection measures.
Workers should be reminded of the fire and manual handling risk as soon as possible, those workers
not immediately available should be emailed. The files should be promptly removed into temporary
storage, at a cost of workers time and storage boxes, which are currently available as stock was
purchased for a recent educational project. Suitable shelving should be erected at the cost of 5000
dhs approximately. It is recommended that all office workers have fire awareness and manual handling
refresher training , incurring internal cost of worker and health and safety advisor time. The training
should be short and can be done at their monthly meeting. It is recommended that awareness training
is done as part of the annual departmental meeting, this will ensure costs are limited.
3.4 Observation 17 Risk of electric shock and fire out of date portable electrical equipment
testing
Several items of electrical equipment around the site were not displaying up to date portable
appliance testing (PAT) sticker. The absence of the sticker could mean that the equipment is defective.
The PAT sticker confirms that electrical equipment has been suitably tested as part of the maintenance
programme. The use of equipment that has not been maintained breaches ILO Occupational Safety
and Health Convention C155, Article 16 (1) requirements that equipment should be safe, since
equipment that is not maintained can lead to the risk of fire or workers experiencing an electric shock,
which may prove fatal. An injury or fatality would not only be a cost to the centre, but also to the
worker and their family. Employers have a legal duty under EWR to ensure all portable electrical
equipment is maintained. This should be clearly marked on the equipment and recorded.
Immediate action is required to identify and isolate all items that are out of date, this would be at a
small cost taking a couple of hours of time and labels to mark them out of use. Following this , a
competent person (trained electrician) should carry our PAT test on this equipment, typically at a cost
of 20 dhs per item. In the future, all equipment should be tested regularly and care should be given to
ensure equipment stored in cupboards is included in all tests.
4. Conclusion
Routine maintenance is identified as an area where attention is needed. The poor maintenance of
road speed limit signs and lack of portable appliance testing on electrical items were particular areas
requiring immediate management attention. Under the ILO Occupational Safety and Health
Convention C155, Article 16 (1), employers have a responsibility to ensure equipment is safe, including
the carrying out of maintenance to protect workers and others who may be in the workplace or come
into contact with their equipment.
Storing document files under desks next to electrical cables and sockets is a fire hazard. The poor
storage of files also creates a risk of manual handling injuries when workers have to retrieve the files.
This suggests a lack of appreciation of the need for good health and safety practice. Fire and manual
handling risk assessment of the storage of files in the education workers office need to be carried out
immediately in order to ensure the safety of workers. Education workers should have refresher
training to remind them of the importance of fire and manual handling issues. This may indicate a
wider problem, this should be evaluated as other workers may also need similar training.
All the areas identified in the findings of this report could result in injury or a fatality, which would
cause suffering to the victims and their families. Employers have a legal and moral duty of care to take
action and reduce the risk identified.
The inspection identified a number of good practices where strong management of hazards was in
place, including two important health hazards, legionella and asbestos. The good practices identified
are commended and should be continued.
Health and safety needs to be of a high priority as failure to manage risk can lead to prosecution or
compensation claims, which can only have an adverse effect on the centres reputation and financial
position as well as the health and safety of the people involved.
I suggest that my recommendations are implemented at the earliest opportunity according to the
priority allocated to them in the next section of this report. By doing this, the centre will openly
demonstrate to all workers that their health and safety is being taken seriously at all levels of
management. Also, it will show that, in the long term, a positive health and safety culture is being
developed, which will reduce the sizeable cost attributed to accidents and enhance the reputation of
the organisation in a very competitive market place.
5. Recommendations
Ref. No.
Recommendation
Priority
Target date
Immediate
High
Immediate
3.2
(item 5)
Immediate
3.2
(item 5)
Fix temporary
electrical hazard
warning signs.
3.3 (items
13 and 15)
Remove
files
temporary storage
3.4
(Item 17)
High
Immediate
High
Immediate
High
Immediate
Medium
One month
3.1
(item Repaint
speed
5000 dhs, using local
1,2 and 3)
limit signs on the contractor
road.
3.1 (item Change
observation
1,2 and 3) mirror to large one.
Erect permanent signs
warning of sharp
bends.
Medium
1-2 months
Medium
1-2 months
3.2
(item 5)
Medium
As
Medium
One Month
Monitor to ensure
gates are padlocked,
particularly
after
maintenance worker
visits.
3.3
Erect suitable shelving 5000 dhs
(item 13 to store files on
and 15)
entry
is
required
3.3
Ensure
employees
(item
13 undertake fire and
manual
handling
and 15)
refresher training.
3.4 (item
17)
Medium
One month
Two weeks.
Six months
Low
Six months
After one
month,
ongoing
One year
3.4
(item 17)
Annually
MILAN SHRESTHA
Milan Shrestha
11/12/2015
For completion by the course providers representative (e.g. internal practical assessor):
I declare that the work marked is identical to that received from the candidate. I recognise that
contravention of this statement constitutes malpractice and may result in my being subject to the
penalties set out in the NEBOSH malpractice policy.
Name (Print)
Signature
Date