Health and Safety

Children and Young Adults

The University has a responsibility to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of its employees, and this duty extends to children and young people whilst on work experience at the University of Sussex. A young person is anyone under the age of 18, and a child is anyone who has not reached ‘minimum school leaving age’ (school year at which they turn 16 years old). For the purposes of this guidance, both are referred to collectively as ‘young people’.

Employers have a legal duty of care to protect young people from risks to their health and safety due to their lack of experience, absence of risk awareness or lack of maturity. As they are also likely to be new to the workplace and unfamiliar with work-related risks, sufficient induction, instruction and training, and higher levels of supervision than would be expected for adults is essential. Any young person on work experience should be supervised at all times during work activities.

Work Experience

Planning is key to ensure a placement is appropriate and safe for a young person, and early engagement with the School / Organiser is recommended. Whilst there will be general workplace risks that need to be considered, the individual needs of the student must be considered, therefore any essential personal information (e.g.neurodiversity, medical condition or special needs) about the student must be provided by the School / Organiser prior to the placement to ensure their welfare whilst at the University.

Each work experience student needs to have a member of staff assigned to them as a ‘Work Experience Supervisor’. The Supervisor can be any grade where there is a supervision element to the role, but they need to have the time and capacity to give them a full induction, supervise the student and be able to give them access to / provide all the necessary information and instructions they need to remain safe and well on placement.

The student must be inducted and have all necessary information to ensure they are safe and well whilst on placement, and feel able to ask for support if they need it. It is strongly recommended that they also have a mid-placement review and an end of placement evaluation / feedback meeting.

Health and Safety Work Experience Toolkit

Follow the Health and Safety Executive guidance on Work Experience for your placement planning, and make use of the resources provided below to plan for and support the placement:

Risk Assessment

A written risk assessment must be in place before any placement begins, and a copy provided to the School / Organiser and shared with all relevant staff that will be engaging with the work experience student.

Risk assessments need to recognise ‘what more is needed’ to allow for existing controls to be extended to meet additional / changed working arrangements needed to ensure the safety of the young person. Ether existing risk assessments need to be reviewed and amended to consider young people, or separate ‘young person’ risk assessments should be written.

The risk assessment(s) must:

  • Consider any risks to their health or safety which are a consequence of their lack of experience, or absence of awareness of existing or potential risks or the fact that young persons have not yet fully matured and may therefore overestimate their own capabilities.
  • Give detail of the risks they may be exposed to during their work experience placement and the protective and preventative measures put in place to control and reduce those risks.
  • Cover the level of supervision to be provided.
  • Consider any known neurodiversity, disability or pre-existing medical condition, relevant to their health, safety and welfare whilst on placement.

Generic ‘Work Experience Risk Assessment for Office Working’ and ‘Activities on Campus Risk Assessment’  are available and must be adapted to address local hazards, additional controls and any specific individual requirements of the student.

Prohibited Activities

Whilst most areas at the University can offer work experience, when planning the placement, no work must take place where:

  • The work is beyond their physical or psychological capacity,
  • It involves harmful exposure to agents which are toxic or carcinogenic, or which in any other way chronically affect human health,
  • It involves harmful exposure to radiation,
  • It involves the risk of accidents which it may reasonably be assumed would not be recognised or avoided by young persons owing to insufficient attention to safety/ lack of experience or training,
  • It exposes them to a risk to health from extremes of heat or cold, noise or vibration.
  • They are left unattended to work with or around any equipment or materials which could be considered to give rise to significant risk.

Safeguarding

The University, as a higher education provider is not subject to the same legal safeguarding duties as schools, further education colleges, local authorities, and care providers. However, as part of creating a safe environment for its community and aside from its legal disclosure and barring obligations, it has a moral and ethical responsibility to help safeguard the welfare of children and adults at risk by reporting any such concerns.

To safeguard both the young person on work experience, and the staff working with them, consider how to prevent or reduce lone working with the young person - as a responsible adult, staff will need to be aware of the potential risks and the practical steps which can be taken to minimise safeguarding risks. Please see the University Safeguarding pages for guidance and links to ‘Safeguarding Essentials Training’ which is strongly recommended for staff undertaking the ‘Work Experience Supervisor’ role.

Authorisation of Work Experience Placements

Work experience placements must be agreed by the relevant Line Manager of the team or service hosting the placement. In high-risk areas, or where the research is sensitive or has intellectual property rights implications, additional authorisation may be required from the Head of School.

Further Support

The University Health and Safety team can be contacted for general advice on placement health and safety: healthsafety@sussex.ac.uk, and the Science Schools Health and Safety team for placements related to Science or Engineering: safetyscienceschools@sussex.ac.uk,