What Should an Academy Trust Health and Safety Policy Include?

Every academy trust should have a clear health and safety policy that sets out responsibilities, management arrangements and expectations across all schools within the trust.

A well-written policy provides consistency while allowing individual schools to implement local procedures appropriate to their premises.

Who is responsible?

The Academy Trust is the employer and therefore holds the primary legal duty under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

Trustees provide strategic oversight, while executive leaders, headteachers and local school leaders manage day-to-day implementation.

What should the policy include?

A comprehensive policy should cover:

• Statement of Intent
• Organisation and Responsibilities
• Risk Assessment
• Fire Safety
• First Aid
• Educational Visits
• Contractor Management
• Premises Compliance
• Accident Reporting
• Emergency Procedures
• Staff Training
• Monitoring and Review

How often should the policy be reviewed?

Health and safety policies should be kept up to date and revised as often as appropriate, including where significant organisational, operational or legislative changes occur. Many trusts choose to schedule an annual formal review as part of their governance arrangements, but annual review is not a fixed statutory interval.

Large academy trusts should ensure individual schools understand how trust-wide arrangements apply locally.

Common mistakes

• Generic policies that are never updated.
• Responsibilities not clearly allocated.
• Procedures differing significantly between schools.
• No evidence of monitoring or review.

How SchoolSafe Systems Helps

SchoolSafe Systems offers compliance support for academy trusts — reviewing health and safety policies, strengthening governance arrangements and providing whole-school audits that offer assurance across multiple schools.