Management Information Sheet

Responsibilities for premises maintenance

The responsibility for the maintenance of LA-maintained school sites and buildings rests with Governing Bodies in line with the Norfolk Scheme of Local Management.

As Norfolk's Building Maintenance Partnership 3 came to an end on 31st March 2015, schools have been considering the options on offer to ensure that there remains a suitable maintenance regime in place for their premises.

These arrangements should ensure that there is a named technical adviser who can be called upon in the case of the Governing Body's Business Continuity Plan having to be implemented, backed up by immediately available resources to ensure that the premises can become operational again following a complete or partial 'outage' of accommodation.

In cases where the County Council has powers* to intervene in premises maintenance and needs to do so to ensure the continuance of education provision (in line with the LA 'sufficiency duty'), the school budget will be charged accordingly for any necessary work, unless there is insurance-type or pooling coverage from the building maintenance arrangements entered into by the school. Schools should check that their arrangements will support immediate reinstatement in the case of the operational failure of premises.

For those sites where NCC does not have powers to intervene, but is asked to do so on an emergency basis, it will use the resources of NPS Property Consultants Ltd and similarly will charge all costs the school.

For further information - See Model Health and Safety Policy and Premises Management Guidance on PeopleNet.

Tree maintenance

Responsibility for tree maintenance also falls fully to Governing Bodies. From April 2015 there is no funding retained from the Direct Schools Grant to support a tree maintenance fund. The previous arrangements whereby this fund permits NORSE interventions for emergency tree maintenance have ceased. Governing Bodies will have to make their own arrangements and fund the maintenance regime. In cases where maintenance is required for urgent Health and Safety reasons, e.g. after a severe storm, the school's Devolved Formula Capital may be used, but ongoing maintenance has to be funded from the school's revenue budget.

Schools are advised that they must adhere to Norfolk County Council's Tree Safety Management Policy that sets out a tree inspection and record keeping regime and gives details of the requirements of the Council's policy on tree management, pruning felling and replanting and all relevant legislation.

http://www.schools.norfolk.gov.uk/School-management/Site-management/Tree-Policy/index.htm

The person who carries out the tree inspections required by the Tree Safety Management Policy does not have to be a qualified arboriculturist. Children's Services run training courses twice a year at Holt Hall which are designed to give "Level 1" basic tree inspection training to lay persons such as teachers and grounds managers so that they can carry out the required inspections. The inspectors are supported by the Arboricultural and Woodland Officers in the Natural Environment Team at the County Council who will carry out professional tree inspections on any trees with defects that are a cause of concern to the inspector.

Details of the course, entitled Risk Management of Trees:Level 1 Tree Inspection Course can be found at s4s.norfolk.gov.uk/TrainingAndEvents

Some individual establishments with large grounds or large numbers of mature trees may prefer not to train a member of staff as a Level 1 Tree Inspector and to employ a consultant arboriculturist to provide a more detailed inspection, survey or safety policy for their site. This is over and above the required standards set out in the Tree Safety Management Policy, but is perfectly acceptable as long as the system of inspections, recommendations and tree surgery follow the procedures and guidelines set out in the Tree Safety Management Policy and that an accountable, auditable system of records are retained to demonstrate compliance.

NORSEGrounds provide a tree maintenance service for schools: Grounds Advisors Contacts, Nicola Richardson 07850609034, Steve Coombe 07798668070, Grounds Office 01362 869930.

As with premises, any emergency interventions requested of NCC or NORSEGrounds will be charged to the school budget*.

*The relevant part of the Local Management Scheme is: Norfolk's Scheme for Financing Schools, Section 6.2

Link(s): www.schoolspeoplenet.norfolk.gov.uk/Manager/Managing-health-safety-and-wellbeing/Health-and-safety/Responsibilities-and-organisation/index.htm www.schoolspeoplenet.norfolk.gov.uk/Manager/Managing-health-safety-and-wellbeing/Health-and-safety/Premises-and-work-environments/General-premises-management/index.htm