Dear All, I work for a University and have been asked to help write a risk assessment for a new student who has various mental issues these revolve around her emotional behaviour but can manifest in anger, confusion & irritability. We have several workshops that they will need to access as part of her course and this will involve her using machinery and tools. We have risk assessments in place to cover these areas and we can adapt them to suit if we are asked to adjust for anyone with a physical disability. We do have a department that works with students who have disabilities but there standard response seems to be "We have done a PEEP" My question is does anyone have any experience in writing risk assessments for something like this and are there any specific we should be including. All help and advice gratefully received and if you need anymore information please let me know however I don't wish to give out too many personal details so maybe they made need to be communicated in a private message. Thanks in advance Ian

This is a very complicated area especially where the person is not at work/is not an employee Initially I would contact your occupational health advisers for support/advice etc and the person involved as they would need to provide private information and if the person is an adult e.g. 18 and over they have that duty to provide information and where a person is below 18 you will need to have permission granted by their guardian/parent. Additionally the person concerned, noting your comments, may have a carer in place so they too should/may have to be involved Remember that the person concerned must be a part of the creation of that risk assessment and I advise that you do NOT act alone here as any repercussions may fall back to you Also remember if she is likely to become unexpectedly angry etc. it is also the uni's legal duty to stop her attending/ accessing areas that may cause her or anybody else harm!!! noting that the Equality act and similar areas is/are subservient to H&S irrespective of what many may say as treating somebody equally does not mean that they are allowed to put themselves or others at real risk Best of luck

I don't think there's anything you can do and I'm not sure you should; even if there is. This is a person and under normal circumstances we risk assess them for activities they are carrying out. Have you ever risk assessed someone for what they may or may not do based on their state of mind? Has anyone? I don't believe we're qualified to have an opinion, much less carry out an assessment. What you can do is figure out where the request for a risk assessment is coming from. Find out why it needs to be done. Ask if there isn't a professional medical opinion somewhere stating that there's no risk. If the medical people see no risk why should you, or the organisation you represent, see one. People are unpredictable at the best of times and no risk assessment is perfect. Given the circumstances you present I wouldn't want to be one holding that RA if "something" happens. Talk to the medical professionals and let them make the call. Michael

Kevin, I can accept risk assessments in an environment that's designed and prepared for all those senarios. Such risk assessments are designed and built upon the research and development of techniques that provide the necessary structures and failsafes to ensure a positive end result. A university is not prepared in the same way. Students, for the most part are there to fend for themselves. The teachers have been removed and replaced by lecturers. My point is that I would be looking to the medical professionals to tell me whether or not this person is a risk to other students. In the same way that an epileptic bus driver has the responsibility to declare their condition when applying for a licence. Michael

The University has a duty of care towards them. They are not there to fend for themselves when they are under instruction, especially in labs or workshops, although we do expect a greater degree of maturity.

You cannot hope to address these issues with such vague information. There are some defined conditions (Asbergers etc.) where very specific strategies are required and lecturers /teachers would need to be briefed accordingly. Perhaps the support of family, school or even medical professionals in handing over information is required. People with emotional difficulties can be an even greater handful if you get the intervention strategy wrong.

Many thanks to you for taking the time to give a response, I think I need to clarify a few things that have come out of the discussion so far. I am not writing the RA myself, I have been asked to be part of the process, so will the student who has been very open with us regarding her condition and the causes. I am being cautious on this forum in discussing personal details so apologies if the information may be scant but I do not wish to contravene her confidentiality. However I can say that her problems will not alter from having a chill out period. I am in favour of the RA, my reason being is that there is the potential for her and other to be harmed by her possible actions, for instance one of her symptoms is a lack of concentration so does this mean we need to increase supervision when she completes certain processes and if we do how does that impact on the other students who also have a right to supervision but may not be getting it, does this mean we need to increase the amount of staff in the area or decrease the amount of students? Unfortunately in todays financial climate can we afford to do either. The comment about students being left to fend for themselves I am sorry to say is a misinformed generalisation, students are paying up to £9000 per year and become very vocal when they do not get what they signed on for. We do have a department that provides support to our students with disabilities, however in this case a carer or Learning Support Advisor is not being provided, I understand this has been decided after a discussion between the student and the department, it would seem that some get support and some do not. I will be asking why in this case she does not. I am grateful for the advice so far and would anymore that comes along. Thank you Ian

Time to clear up my "fend for themselves" quote... The quote is in reference to the students, in that they have moved from minors to adults and similarly they will not be subject to instruction in the same way as in school. Learning and their level of success is entirely up to the student. My quote, though seemingly general, was actually quite specific and please note the following sentence to make my point. I don't like misinformed generalisations myself and have plenty of experience of 3rd level institutions. My concern regarding the OP was that there has been no mention of the importance of a defining medical opinion, except my own. I'm surprised at the absence of support for that stance. The most important element here is the student in question and finding a way for him/her to safely integrate with the student body in all its forms. Mick