Independent School Fined for Health and Safety Breach

A Cambridgeshire school has been fined £6,000 and told to pay prosecutions costs of £2,276 after a teenager fell from a loft. The 19-year-old Stacey Paine, who was working as a pool attendant, fractured her wrist after plummeting to a changing room area below the loft.

Miss Paine had been attempting to retrieve important documents in the loft space at Kimbolton School on 20 April 2010, when she lost her footing on a beam. A Health and Safety Executive investigation found that the school had not assessed the risks posed to employees entering the loft. They had also failed to ensure any work was not carried out on a fragile surface.

“The outcome of this incident could have been very different. Falling from height, particularly onto such a hard surface often results in severe injuries or even death. It is an employer’s duty to ensure the safety of all staff and anyone working at height needs to be protected,” HSE Inspector Stephen Faulkner revealed.

Kimbolton School was fined a six-figure sum after it admitted to breaching 2005 Work at Height Regulations. “In this case, the documents could have been stored somewhere easier to reach and if a simple risk assessment had been carried out, this would have been identified. I urge any organisation to consider where they store items including paperwork and how safe it is for an employee to access.”