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 Dear NASUWT School Representative,
Derby NASUWT Branch Health and Safety News -1
Derby NASUWT Branch safety reps
Derby Branch officers and executive committee members
November 2007
Dear Colleague
Welcome to the first edition of Derby NASUWT Branch’s health and safety newsletter. Derby NASUWT Branch decided recently to set up a health and safety reps’ network and this newsletter is the main means of communication between reps on the network, branch officers and branch executive committee members. If you wish to contribute to the newsletter, please contact me on davewilkinson@nasuwt.net
Meanwhile, let me begin by thanking all our safety reps for the immensely valuable work you do in making our schools safer places and fighting for better working conditions for members. Like all trade union activity in the current climate, it seems like an uphill struggle at times, but without you, the working lives of our members would be far worse. The recent Derby City Council health and safety conference, held on 19th October 2007, had more NASUWT Derby safety reps in attendance than from any other union on the Council – this is a magnificent achievement and shows our strength in this area.
Each of these newsletters will concentrate on different subjects – this newsletter will focus on asbestos in Derby schools.
Asbestos in Schools
Again, NASUWT is at the forefront of activity in Derby to ensure that asbestos is managed effectively and the risk to staff and pupils in schools is minimised. NASUWT and UNISON were the only trade unions to give evidence for the prosecution in the trial of the previous headteacher of Silverhill School, Mickleover, last year (the head was found not guilty of breaching the asbestos regulations, but the contractor, Horizon Windows, and Derby City Council were both convicted). NASUWT invited Michael Lees, an asbestos campaigner whose wife, a teacher, died some years ago of mesothelioma, together with Robin Howie, an occupational hygienist specialising in asbestos exposure risk to address the Derby safety conference on 19th October. Robin Howie presented a risk assessment which claimed that the risk to staff and pupils was far higher than that previously assessed by the Council (which commissioned IOM to risk assess the incident). Initially, it looked as though the Council may have decided to revisit the case, but this now looks increasingly unlikely. I have copied to safety reps a letter to Michael Lees which summarises recent developments – please treat this as strictly personal and confidential.
Disturbingly, there have been further asbestos exposure incidents since Silverhill, including one at Nightingale Primary which occurred, ironically, on the same day that UNISON and NASUWT were giving evidence in court about the Silverhill case. NASUWT and UNISON met in August with the HSE to discuss the Nightingale Primary incident, which again was foreseeable and should not have occurred, but the head acted promptly when he realised the danger and immediately escorted pupils out of the classroom in question.
The most serious recent incident has just occurred at Lees Brook School. The local authority was in the school sealing up gaps in classrooms where asbestos fibres could have leeched out and discovered a cupboard backed by an asbestos containing material (ACM) panel which had not been sealed or even painted. Air tests were being carried out which showed dangerously high levels of asbestos and the local authority has recorded details of potentially exposed employees on its Occupational Health record. The HSE has visited the local authority in connection with the incident but has yet to meet with the trade unions and NASUWT has therefore requested the HSE risk assessment, together with the IOM report (the local authority has commissioned IOM again to risk assess the incident).
Unhelpfully, the local authority is still taking the view that the only point of recording details of exposed employees is if someone becomes terminally ill and than brings a personal injury claim against the local authority. However, this is not the only reason – a great deal of current research work is taking place to find a cure for mesothelioma, which is currently incurable. If a cure is ever found, the key – as with all cancers – to increasing the chance of recovery is prompt diagnosis. It is important that employees know if they have been exposed so that they can obtain appropriate medical treatment, including health monitoring, to pick up any asbestos related condition early.
Building Schools for the Future
Derby City secondary schools will be either refurbished or mainly partially rebuilt over the next 10 years as part of Building Schools for the Future. Unfortunately, the Government does not see this as an opportunity to remove asbestos from schools – much of it will be resealed, giving it the opportunity to degrade over the next fifty years, which simply postpones the problem. However, that is not the only issue for us. All this building work is likely to be under PFI builds, which will hand more Derby school buildings over to another PFI contractor, probably the one which picks up the new academies contract. Meanwhile, school safety reps should be closely involved with BSF plans at school level – including being part of school BSF project groups.
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