Grey Street Primary School

Manual Handling Policy

1.      PREAMBLE

 

         This policy applies to all school staff, students, visitors, contractors and volunteers.  It also applies to all activities both on and off school property, including school camps, excursions, and any other programmed activity outside the school grounds.

 

         The Principal is responsible for ensuring the implementation of the plan for managing manual handling in the school, and will ensure that resources are provided to meet Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) commitments.

 

         The aim is to promote and maintain the health and well-being of staff, students and visitors, and to minimise the risks of manual handling injuries by implementing a systematic approach based on a Risk Management Model as follows:-

·           The Principal will nominate a management team member to manage the manual handling risk assessment process.  The Health and Safety Representative (HSR) will be consulted during this process.

·           Identify the hazardous manual handling tasks.

·           Assess the risks.

·           Control the risks.

·           Monitor the controls.

·           Timelines will be developed for completion of the risk assessment process and reports provided to staff and school council on progress.

·           A system will be developed to ensure that any new manual handling hazards are identified, assessed and controlled as they occur.

 

2.      DEFINITIONS

 

         Manual Handling is defined under the Occupational Health and Safety (Manual Handling) Regulations 1999 as: Any activity requiring the use of force exerted by a person to lift, lower, push, pull, carry or otherwise move or restrain any animate or inanimate object.  Also actions involving repetition and sustained awkward posture.

 

         Hazardous Manual Handling means when actions described above cause or have the potential to cause a Musculoskeletal Disorder (MSD) as a result of the following:

·           Repetitive or sustained application of force.

·           Repetitive or sustained awkward posture.

·           Repetitive or sustained movement.

·           Application of high force.

·           Exposure to sustained vibration.

·           Handling live persons or animals.

·           Handling unstable or unbalanced loads, or loads which are difficult to grasp or hold.

 

3.  PROCEDURES

      

        The following is a procedure to enable the school to fulfil its obligations as stated in the Manual Handling Policy and also comply with the requirements of the OHS (Manual Handling) Regulations 1999.  The HSR should be consulted about the identification, risk assessment and control of risks.

 

3.1    Where possible, manual handling risks should be considered and designed out prior to any building upgrade, new activities and/or the purchase of all goods to be used at the school.

3.2    A process should be in place to identify all manual handling hazards in the school.  This should involve both teaching and non-teaching staff.  The process may involve:

3.2.1        Looking at injury records to see in which areas, and on which tasks, injuries are occurring.

3.2.2        Consulting with employees at staff meetings about tasks which they carry out and which may involve manual handling hazards.

3.2.3        Formally observing work practices.

3.3    Manual handling risks in school might include:

·           Moving furniture

·           Carrying computers/televisions

·           Pushing a trolley

·           Lifting a ladder

·           Restraining a child

·           Typing school reports using a notebook computer in an awkward posture

·           Stretching to reach a high shelf

·           Separating fighting students

·           Lifting high jump mats and other PE equipment

·           Standing on a table and/or chair to pin up students’ work

·           Bending to a bottom shelf to reach a carton

·           Lifting 25 litre containers of cleaning chemicals with one hand

·           Moving rocks, digging etc at a garden bee

·           Bending over for extended periods to be at the same heights as students

·           Poor workstation design or layout.

3.4    A risk assessment should be done on all tasks identified as having a hazardous manual handling

component.  The purpose of assessing the risk is to firstly establish if there is risk involved in a task and secondly to determine the level of the risk: high, medium or low.  The risk assessment must take into account the following factors:

·           The force to be applied by the employee.

·           The actions and movements involved (eg reaching up, reaching forward, unbalanced or uneven lifting or carrying, awkward grip).

·           The range of weights handled.

·           The duration and frequency of the manual handling.

·           The time and distance over which an object is handled.

·           The availability of mechanical aids.

·           The layout and condition of the workplace environment (eg height of workbenches, restricted access, confined space, hot or cold, poorly lit, floor surfaces slippery or uneven).

·           The work organisation (eg availability of people, flow of materials, lack of time).

·           The postural requirements imposed by manual handling (eg bending, twisting, stretching).

·           The analysis of injury statistics relevant to manual handling.

·           The age of the person carrying out the manual handling.

·           The skill and experience of the person.

·           The nature of the object being handled (eg size, shape, structure and material, animate or inanimate).

·           Any other factors considered relevant by the employer, the employees or the HSR (eg risks to staff returning from leave, teaching a new subject or in a new environment).

3.5    Once the risk assessments have been done controls should be developed, starting with the tasks

rated as high risk.  When developing controls the risk control hierarchy is as follows:

·           Redesign to eliminate or reduce the risk as a first step.

·           Change the workplace, systems of work and/or the object.

·           Provide mechanical aids to reduce the risk, and training in their use.

·           Training and education appropriate to the task.

For some manual handling tasks a combination of the risk control methods for reducing risk may be appropriate, however information, training or instruction should never be the sole or primary means of controlling the risk.

3.6    Once the control measures are in place, they must be monitored to make sure they

·           Are being used correctly.

·           Are not increasing the risk of injury.

·           Do help to reduce the manual handling risk.

·           Do not need further improvement.

 

 

 

 

Grey Street Primary School is committed to ensuring this policy is publicised and implemented and will regularly monitor and review its effectiveness.

 

 

Signature…………………………………….                 Signature…………………………………………….

                                                   (Principal)                                                                                                                    (School Council President)

 

 

Date…………………………                                          Date………………………….

 

References:

OHS (Manual Handling) Regulations 1999

Code of Practice for Manual Handling 2000

Compliance Guidelines for Schools – Manual Handling 2002

Preventing Manual Handling Injuries 1999

OHS Guidelines – Support Material for Schools 1999

Victorian Government Schools Reference Guide 2003, Section 6.9

Noel Arnold and Associates – Information Sheet IS26