Apart from the obvious need to promote health and safety as a responsible employer, the ever increasing compensation culture can also lead to some serious cost implications if slip and trip risk is ignored. In May 2005 a maths teacher in East Renfrewshire was awarded £55,000 compensation after slipping on a chip outside her school canteen.
So what are we obliged to do by law?
The law requires that floors must not be slippery so that they put people's safety at risk. Schools will need to conduct a risk assessment of their property, to assess any risk to employees and pupils, this will include slip potential.
Schools can make use of the Slip Potential Model on the HSE's website, which can be used to ensure that all "walking surfaces be safe and with an effective means of drainage where necessary", as required by health and safety legislation. Two versions of the model are provided - one for new design and another for review of existing floors.
Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 the employer has a duty to assess the risks to their employees and others and to identify and put into place the necessary measures to reduce the risks to the required level.
Potential hazards come in a wide variety of guises. Schools should pay particular attention to the condition of their flooring and any changes in level as the result of steps and slopes. Poor lighting can also be a contributory factor to an accident. Contamination caused by water, food spillages and other obstacles left on the floor are common causes of slips. A sensible footwear policy should be encouraged for all employees and pupils to reduce the risk of accidents further, and pedestrian movement should be in a calm and controlled manner.
Safer surfaces
It is important to consider every eventuality when choosing a floor material as the degree of slip potential of a floor can change dramatically in use, a smooth vinyl or linoleum floor may be fine under perfect conditions but could become dangerous with the introduction of a slip hazard.
Any hard floor surface within a school could be prone to risk of slipping, be it a spilt drink, or a freshly cleaned floor. Therefore, it is a much safer solution to use slip resistant safety flooring in all areas with any risk of liquid being occasionally present, rather than purely in the traditionally specified ‘wet areas'.
The HSE uses two testing methods combined to establish whether a floor is a safety floor or not, these two tests are the pendulum test and surface micro roughness meter. The pendulum test measures the coefficient of friction by striking a swinging pendulum past the floor material and the amount that the pendulum passes by the material gives a direct reading of ‘pendulum value'.
The surface micro roughness meter uses a stylus to measures the surface roughness of the material and gives ‘Rz microroughness values'. For a floor to be considered a safety floor by the HSE it will need to achieve a micro roughness value of 20Rz and a ‘pendulum value' of 36 or above when tested wet and this level of slip resistance must last for the full life cycle of the product.
In all locations where the occasional spill may present a risk, a floor covering with a minimum Slip Resistance Value (SRV) of 36 is now clearly recommended.
This can now be easily achieved without necessarily compromising aesthetic appearance. Recent court cases have increased the need for safety flooring to be used in a wider range of public areas and manufacturers are now producing safety flooring products specifically for these environments. New high design products such as Altro Timbersafe, Stonesafe, Mirica and Suprema are available without the all over sparkle associated with traditional safety flooring.
In addition to the improved appearance of the new generation of safety flooring products, modern technology has led to easy clean products which are more attractive during the busy school day, and for longer than the older style safety flooring.
A safer solution
Flooring manufacturers and suppliers have a vital role to play in reducing the number of slips and trips in schools and should be able to provide clear and honest information on their products and slip resistance. For example, you can take advantage of Altro's own advisory booklet, ‘Slips & Trips: The Essential Modern Guide to Prevention', which gives an easy to read overview of the topic along with information from HSE and some useful advice on how to keep your building safe.
To request a free copy of Altro's guide to slips and trips and for further information on the company's full portfolio of interior surfaces, call 0800 018 2960 or visit http://www.altro.com/
