Management Information Sheet

As previously advised, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) are continuing a programme of asbestos management inspections, relating to schools nationwide. They are assessing how we (NCC) and our schools are managing the risks from asbestos.

We have recently had such a visit to one of our LA schools that discovered that the Asbestos Management Plan F602 was not completed, and as such the Inspector was identifying material breaches of the legislation and was minded to the issue of formal enforcement action against the Norfolk County Council, as the employer.

This visit was not notified by the school to NCC's Health, Safety and Wellbeing team (HSW) until after the event, this notification, and subsequent support would have prevented the potential situation.

On this occasion HSW have liaised with the Inspector and prevented the issue of a formal enforcement notice, however there will be a 'fee for intervention' levied by the HSE that will charged back to the school.

To recap on previous advice:

Schools will be contacted to arrange a suitable date and time to carry this out. The HSE will need to speak to a staff member with knowledge of how asbestos is managed by the school and may ask to see your asbestos register and asbestos management plan in advance of the visit, and information on how you share this with contractors.

Please contact the Health, Safety and Well-being Team immediately by emailing healthandsafety@norfolk.gov.uk if you are contacted by the HSE, so that we can provide you with the correct support and advice to prepare for an inspection.

Schools who are following the Asbestos Control and Management Compliance Code P602 will be complying with all of the arrangements that will be reviewed in the HSE inspection. We have also produced C602 - Asbestos Management Checklist to further support you.

Please ensure that the related training is up to date, and that Roles and Responsibilities etc are clearly identified using P611s.

As previously advised, all schools must ensure that staff who are responsible for premises that contain asbestos are competent by attending Safety Management of Premises - Asbestos training. This includes caretaking staff and site teams where they carry out periodic checks of the condition of asbestos containing materials, outlined in the recently updated School Caretaking and Site Management Health and Safety Code of Practice G643a.

Courses can be booked on Norfolk Services for Schools (SLA Online) - please click on the link and select the course from the list. Click on the course title to see more details and follow the Book Now link. If you experience any difficulties in booking onto a course, please contact the Learning and Inclusion Team on landitraining@norfolk.gov.uk.

Please note: all course bookings are closed two working days prior to the training event date.