Last Monday morning, I encountered a Summer camp (for children 7-11 years old) being run in a school, which was at the time undergoing a total rewiring of its circuits. There were lots of ladders, partially unwound cable reels, bits of steel conduit and plenty dust from the works being carried out. Considering the fact that the school was a very old school, I am not even going to think what other things both the workers and the children may have been exposed to. The class room did have lots of bare wires at various points etc. To compound the problem, the Safety Officer for the electrical company was on site. Nothing suggested anyone considered it un-wise to have children walking about a school which was at the time being re-wired. Maybe it is only me, but this seemed like a disaster waiting to happen. Any views?

Immediately contact the local councils internal H&S department / team if it is a council controlled schoool & get a name if nothing else and if it is not a council controlled school then contact the HSE for that area as this is too much NB: Our current government is bent on removing schools out of the control of local councils - who will control after that is anybodies idea

Qutoe from Stewart - In my experience (admittedly limited) H&S considerations in schools is something that doesn't happen a great deal! How wrong you are!! I'm glad you said ("admittedly limited") because to state ("that doesn't happen a great deal") is commenting from a position of total ignorance particularly as the OP sights one incident. I have worked as a health and safety practitioner in schools for over 6 years and I can assure you that health and safety is taken very seriously. If anything teachers and support staff are overly conscious of repercussions if anything goes wrong and a child has an accident - hence great effort is made by all concerned to ensure a safe environment In response to the OP - most if not all maintenance and refurbishment of schools happen during holidays. My school (a lucky one) is partly a construction site and during the last 6 weeks (one week to go) have hosted a summer school (over 1000 children) without incident. The OP also blandly states the (potential) problems encountered but said nothing about how the children were supervised etc. Let's have the full story without sensationalism. Angry

Its the asbestos you should be worried about!

Indeed a risk but without knowing more about the school then it would be hard to comment if there is any on site (although highly likely in some form especially if they are re-wiring). I think most contractors these days are more than aware of the risks and only cowboys would carry out such work and most contractors have to be on an approved list certainly to work on council owned property. Phil

Without knowing that there is asbestos present that's a bit of a generalised statment isn't it? It's a bit presumptive that they hadn't checked for asbestos. Talk about condeming without the facts.

When ever i have worked with schools (which isn't often) they have always refereed to an approved supplier list they work with held by the council. But as you say the schools are probably independent and can use who ever they want which it then makes it even more the responsibility of the school to select the correct contractors which i question whether they have someone in place with the right skills and training to be able to select competent contractors. For me the whole issue is down to the school to manage correctly which by the sounds of it they have failed to do. i would take up the issue with the school as a risk assessment should have been carried out for this summer time activity to ensure proper supervision and procedures in place for any emergency's. the issue of contractors being on site while kids are let loose in the same area not only has H&S issues but have the guys working in the area been CRB checked. When i have been on school premises i have either had to be escorted at all times or only been allowed to carry out inspection when the kids are in class (but maybe i look at bit dodgy Lol) Phil

Yes, it is in the ROI, the summer camp in question finished fairly quickly. It was suggested to its organisers that they should either change the venue, or cancel the event. It was a surprise to me that none of the organisers were teachers. I do remember a while back, hearing something on Joe Duffy or similar radio programme that at present it (running summer camps) seemed unregulated. The camp was eventually cancelled. Monies were refunded. I am sure that on paper the electrical firm had lots of controls in place, nothing suggests there were hidden dangers for the electricians. It looked like a standard school undergoing an electrical rewire. Asbestos could of course have been present; however a few years ago the Government did contact individual schools to ensure the Boards of Management carried out asbestos checks. Hopefully the Board did something about it. Considering they are volunteers I would not bet on it. I could if I was bothered look up the reports on line for the school, and might find some information there. The electricians appeared to be well kitted out, with high viz vests, and helmets. No I did not look at their footwear. To me (I worked as an electrician for a few years) their electrical work looked ok, and could not be faulted. I was with difficulty a normal person that day (member of the public), and just spoke to the organisers of the event. By coincidence one electrician looked familiar to me; I suspect he attended one of my training courses in the past. The surprise to me was that the safety officer did not stop the job immediately when it was obvious there were children going about the school, or at least see what they were doing there.

Certainly doesn't sound that well planned if they where so quick to cancel the event and hand the money back. Why would electricians need to wear hi-viz inside a school when re-wiring. it might have made more sense for the kids to wear the hi-viz lol Phil