Guide to reporting an accident and incident online

The guidance and template in this item is to ensure suffcient information is captured when recording accidents.

The information required at the reporting stage is needed for effective follow up action/review and legal information for schools.

Who is the employer?

The overall accountability for health and safety lies with the employer of a school. The school is responsible for the day to day operational elements of health and safety. The following table explains who is the employer for the various school types:

Where the employer is not the local authority, the school is responsible for ensuring that accidents are suitably recorded, investigated and reported to the Health and Safety Executive as required.

Ealing Council’s online accident/incident system

Many schools within the borough report accidents/incidents to Corporate Health and safety using the online system (Alcumus/Info-Exchange).

It is important that as much information is captured to help with the investigation by both the school and corporate health and safety. Requests for information from third parties (union, insurance, legal) about an accident/incident could be received quite sometime after the event, therefore it is essential the information submitted is clear and detailed.

Information required

In the incident details section of the form, under ‘Describe the events leading up to the incident and the incident itself’ please ensure that you include:

1. What happened
   A fall resulting in injury, slip on leaves, collision with person/object, etc.
2. Who/what was involved
   Such as a pupil, teacher, SMSA, playing football or doing gymnastics, etc. Include whether the pupil/member of staff returned to class/work respectively.
3. Where did it happen
   Inside, outside, communal area, teaching space, entrance, etc.
4. How did it happen
   Weather conditions, challenging behaviour, normal play activity, defective/ damaged equipment/surface, lack of supervision, etc.

Online system categorises accidents/incidents in four areas

• Minor- no treatment: These are accidents where there has been an accident but no first aid or similar was given. Many schools choose to keep records of such accidents relating to pupils in a welfare book or similar. This is normal practice and such accidents need not necessarily be added to the online system as well
• Minor- first aid: These are accidents where some form of first aid was administered. For example, a pupil may have been playing on a climbing frame, fell after losing her grip and grazed her knee on the ground
• Major-hospital/time lost: These are more serious accidents where hospital treatment or similar is given. For example, a child may have been playing on a climbing frame, fell after losing her grip and fractured her ankle as a result
• Fatality: These need to be reported to the Health and safety Executive. Ealing Council will do this for schools who use the online accident reporting system.

Examples and template

See downloads below:

• Two examples of accident incident reports, both of the same incident, one with sufficient detail given and the other with very limited information
• Accident form template - Some schools request that their staff complete an accident form template which is then used to populate the Ealing Council online accident reporting system (Info-Exchange Alcumus). The revised template (July 2019) can be used by those schools who like to capture accident information in this way so that they can populate the online system.