When Is a School Accident RIDDOR Reportable?

Every school deals with bumps, scrapes and the occasional broken bone. Most never need to go anywhere near the HSE. But a small number of incidents are legally reportable under RIDDOR — the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 — and missing one is a criminal offence with strict deadlines attached.

The rules are different for employees and pupils, which is where most schools get caught out.

For staff (employees)

An injury to a member of staff is reportable if it is:

• A death arising from a work-related accident
• A specified injury — including most fractures (not fingers, thumbs or toes), amputations, serious burns, loss of consciousness from head injury or asphyxia, and any injury requiring resuscitation or 24-hour hospital admission
• An over-seven-day injury — where the member of staff is unable to do their normal duties for more than seven consecutive days (not counting the day of the accident, but counting weekends and holidays)
• An occupational disease diagnosed by a doctor, such as occupational asthma or carpal tunnel syndrome linked to work

Over-seven-day injuries must be reported within 15 days of the accident. Deaths and specified injuries must be reported without delay — in practice, the same day where possible.

For pupils and visitors

The test for pupils is deliberately narrower. An accident involving a pupil is reportable only if both of the following are true:

1. The pupil is killed or taken directly from the scene to hospital for treatment (examinations and precautionary checks don't count), and
2. The accident arose out of or in connection with the school's activities — for example, the condition of the premises, the way an activity was organised or supervised, or equipment failure

A pupil who breaks an arm falling over their own feet in the playground is generally not reportable. A pupil who breaks an arm because a gate collapsed on them is.

Dangerous occurrences

Some near-misses must be reported even when nobody is hurt — including the collapse of scaffolding, failure of lifting equipment, and accidental release of a substance that could cause injury. If something happens on site that could have seriously hurt someone, check the dangerous occurrence list before filing it away.

What good looks like

• Record everything internally, reportable or not. Your accident book is the evidence base for every decision you make.
• Decide reportability the same day. The person making the call needs to know the rules — or know who to ask.
• Investigate before the trail goes cold. Photographs, witness notes and the condition of equipment matter far more on day one than day ten.
• Track patterns. Three similar minor incidents in the same corridor is a finding, not a coincidence.

How Schools Safe helps

Incident reporting is built into the Schools Safe platform. Staff log incidents in under a minute using your school's site code — no logins, no paper forms — and the system automatically flags anything that looks RIDDOR-reportable so the right person can make the call inside the deadline, with our specialists on hand when it's a judgement call.

Not sure whether a past incident should have been reported? Ask us — it's exactly the sort of question a free safety review answers.