There is no "one liner" which clarifies the respective responsibilities of the Governing Body and the Local Authority in relation to employee stress.
All employers have a general duty of care under the health and Safety at Work Act 1974 to ensure the health and safety and welfare of their employees so far as is reasonably practical. The management of health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 require all employers to assess and manage all risks to which employees are exposed at work including any risks of stress related injury.
By complying with the regulations employers will not only reduce the incidence of work related stress in schools but they will also protect themselves from claims for psychiatric injury that may arise from breach of the regulations irrespective of negligence.
With regard to the ‘work-life balance’ of staff, the Head is responsible for the work-life balance of the staff and the Governing Body is responsible for the work–life balance of the Head.
The Governing Body has overall responsibility for agreeing and reviewing the Health and Safety policy, including issues relating to staff stress. On a day to day basis, the Head has responsibility for taking requisite measures to deal with and alleviate where possible any work-related stress.
There is clear obligation on the Governing Body in acting as the employer in the case of a Community or Voluntary Controlled school, to liaise and take consideration of any advice relating to the specific situation from the relevant department within the Local Authority.
Local Authorities usually provide Occupational Health Services which schools can access to help with general stress management initiatives in schools as well as support for individual members of staff as and when the need arises.
In the case of a Voluntary Aided school or a Foundation school where the Governing Body is the direct employer - although our strong guidance would be to secure HR advice on the matter - the Governing Body in essence carries all responsibility.
Therefore, in schools where the Local Authority is the employer, there is effectively joint responsibility to both take pre-emptive action to assess the risk of stress to employees and also to take specific action in dealing with the matter when such instances arise.
Ultimately, to ascertain "responsibility" would be down to the courts. Because every case is different, the general assumptions on the day to day responsibility of the Governing Body to ensure correct policies, procedures and working conditions are in place to prevent stress would suffice in most cases, but not in every case.
The House of Lords ruled in the case of Barber v Somerset County Council, 2004 that the Local Authority as employer was negligent in failing to take adequate action to deal with the workplace stress of the employee, a teacher. Guidance issued with the judgement indicated a direct responsibility on the employer to ascertain where possible through risk assessment, stress issues affecting the employee.
To conclude, there is a joint responsibility overall for both the Governing Body and Local Authority to act responsibly and with duty of care to its employees. However, the interrelation of the respective responsibilities and the numerous possibilities and scenarios relating to stress make a definitive breakdown almost impossible.
There is more detailed information on school’s health and safety responsibilities on Teachernet and on GovernorNet.
This guidance was last updated in August 2009.
Call GovernorLine on 08000 722 181 or you can e-mail us from this site.
