Purpose: This guidance provides information on the use of air quality monitors to assess the effectiveness of room ventilation. It explains how monitoring air quality can help identify areas of poor ventilation, the type of areas that may benefit from air quality monitoring and the considerations needed when installing and managing air quality monitors.

Relevant for: School/Service managers, Technical Managers, Facilities managers, School/Service Safety Advisers.

Resource: Air quality monitors and ventilation

How to use: This guidance will help Schools and Services identify areas which may benefit from installation of CO2 monitors and provides information on best practice when operating and managing CO2 monitors.

Purpose: Guidance on management arrangements for creating a safe working environment for staff delivering support services.

Resource: Health and safety of support services staff

Relevant for: Managers of staff providing professional services within schools and faculties.

Purpose: Detailing the SSA role and information on how to carry out tasks.

Resource: School or Service Safety Adviser (SSA) role guidance

Relevant for: SSA candidates, SSAs and their line managers.

Purpose: Providing a starting point for creating a set of local rules, covering generic issues such as manual handling, electrical safety and accident reporting.

How to use: Add new sections, amend existing sections, and remove unnecessary sections, tailoring the template to reflect your school or service.

Resources:

• Local rules template for support services and process owners
• Local rules template for schools and faculties

Completed by: Support services and process owners; Schools and faculties

Schools with laboratories or workshops should add further details about managing health and safety procedures for activities in these areas. 

Policy: Control of contractors

Setting out how the University manages contractors whilst they are working on its premises, in line with the University’s duty of care to employees and others who may be put at risk by its premises or activities, including contractors undertaking work on its premises.

For the purpose of this policy, a contractor is defined as a person or company under contract to provide materials or labour to perform a service or do a job. This does not include temporary contracted office workers involved with office activities.

Purpose: Templates for running inspections in laboratories or workshops and recording actions.

How to use: Inspection form templates include general sections applicable to all facilities and may include optional sections that address hazards commonly present in laboratories. Add new sections, amend existing sections, select optional sections, and remove unnecessary sections from your template to reflect your workplace before you start your inspection. Retain completed inspection forms for 3 years for internal audits and evidence for external regulators or insurance inspectors.

Resource: Laboratory inspection form template

Completed by: SSAs or laboratory supervisors and managers for self-assessmentsa

When: Full laboratory inspections should happen annually or every six months for high hazard areas, in addition to regular inspections by laboratory staff.

Purpose: Templates for running inspections in laboratories or workshops and recording actions.

How to use: Inspection form templates include general sections applicable to all facilities and may include optional sections that address hazards commonly present in laboratories. Add new sections, amend existing sections, select optional sections, and remove unnecessary sections from your template to reflect your workplace before you start your inspection. Retain completed inspection forms for 3 years for internal audits and evidence for external regulators or insurance inspectors.

Resource: Workshop inspection form template

Completed by: Staff member undertaking a formal inspection of a workshop area. Health and safety checklists.

Purpose: Health and safety management process checklists with links to further resources.

Resources: 

• Checklist for heads of schools or services
• Checklist for line managers

Completed by: Heads of schools or services; Line managers.

Purpose: The checklist outlines what factors should be considered when planning a return to normal working arrangements. It will provide a baseline level of mitigations that can be supplemented if COVID-19 circumstances change in the future and additional measures need to be implemented.

How to use: Use the risk rated scoring system to identify factors which may need mitigations and calculate an overall risk rating for the space being assessed. Where the risk rating indicates an overall high-risk area then further, more detailed assessment will be needed.

Resource: Space and Facility checklist

Completed by: Local Managers and SSA's who may be responsible for assessing the risks of specialist facilities such as laboratory spaces, teaching spaces and study spaces?