I belong to a PLG with 4 other Principals and we are lead by an experienced consultant who today raised the issue of the new Health and Safety legislation and what this means for us as Principals, as Boards of Trustees and for our schools.
After plenty of discussion about the role of the Officer around property and hazard registers, we were asked to consider also the mental health and well-being of everyone in our school, especially the teaching staff. How is their well-being looked after? What do we do as leaders to model healthy work-life balance? What do we do if notice that someone is stressed?
In today's age when we're all potentially "available" 24/7 how do we ensure that teachers are not burned out or stressed.
It was a timely reminder that health and safety is about people, not compliance and it goes way way further than hazard registers.
Our work is in developing a shared understanding with staff and with Board members so that everyone is involved, understand their roles and see this as being a culture shift.
There were timely reminders today. Health and Safety does need to be viewed differently. It's about people and goes further than just their physical safety.
