Health, Safety, and Emergency Management Policy

Purpose

Future School is committed to ensuring that our school is a physically and emotionally safe environment for students, staff, whānau, and all others who engage with our school. Future School acknowledges that health and safety responsibilities extend outside the physical classroom, into online spaces, school-hosted events, and any other location where Future School activities occur. This policy sets out how Future School meets its obligations under:

• Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (‘HSWA’)
• Education and Training Act 2020 (‘ETA’)
• Health and Safety at Work (General Risk and Workplace Management) Regulations 2016
• Relevant Ministry of Education guidelines (including emergency management and digital safety expectations)

Future School prioritises health, safety, and welfare, promotes a culture of continuous improvement, and ensures that health and safety considerations are integrated into every aspect of our operations, including digital delivery, communications, supervision requirements, safeguarding, and emergency management.

Health and Safety Duties

Everyone connected with Future School has responsibilities for health and safety. This includes the Board, everyone in a leadership role including the Principal, all staff members, contractors, students and their whānau, and visitors or other external participants who may attend events.

These duties apply to all environments in which Future School activities take place, including online platforms and Future School-organised physical events.

Duties of the PCBU (the Board)

Under section 36 of the HSWA, the Board of Future School is considered the “person conducting a business or undertaking” or “PCBU”. The Board must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the:

• Safety of workers, by:
  • Protecting the physical and mental health of all workers, including staff working remotely;
  • Ensuring safe digital systems, secure platforms, and appropriate training relating to online risks (e.g., inappropriate content, online harassment, digital safeguarding).
• Safety of others, including students, by:
  • Ensuring that students engaging in education are not put at risk by Future School’s systems, procedures, or decisions;
  • Ensuring safe practices for Future School-organised in-person activities, including events, assessments, or EOTC.

The Board must also, so far as is reasonably practicable:

• Provide and maintain safe learning environments, including secure online classrooms, safeguarding protocols, and moderated communication channels.
• Ensure safe workplaces for staff, including home-based work environments.
• Facilitate and/or provide adequate training in digital safety, safeguarding, emergency procedures, and reporting systems.
• Provide tools that support safe learning (e.g., filtering, monitoring, secure platforms).
• Put in place processes for identifying and responding to risks and incidents.
• Monitor worker health and workplace conditions to prevent injury or illness arising from school operations.

Section 22 of the HSWA states that “reasonably practicable”, in relation to the duty of a PCBU, means that which is, or was, at a particular time, reasonably able to be done in relation to ensuring health and safety, taking into account and weighing up all relevant matters, including:

• the likelihood of the hazard or the risk concerned occurring;
• the degree of harm that might result from the hazard or risk;
• what the person concerned knows, or ought reasonably to know, about the hazard or risk, and ways of eliminating or minimising the risk;
• the availability and suitability of ways to eliminate or minimise the risk;
• after assessing the extent of the risk and the available ways of eliminating or minimising the risk, the cost associated with available ways of eliminating or minimising the risk, including whether the cost is grossly disproportionate to the risk.

Duties of Officers (including the Principal)

As officers under section 44 of the HSWA, individual board members (including the Principal) must exercise due diligence to ensure that the PCBU complies with their health and safety duties and obligations. This means taking reasonable steps to:

• Stay up to date with Future School’s health and safety risks;
• Understand Future School’s operations and associated hazards;
• Ensure adequate resources for safe delivery of tuition, including in an online environment;
• Ensure processes exist for receiving and responding to incident information;
• Verify that systems, processes, and policies are implemented;
• Monitor compliance and address emerging issues.

Duties of workers (all employees, including the Principal, teachers and non-teaching staff, volunteer workers, and contractors)

Workers must:

• Take reasonable care of their own health and safety;
• Ensure their actions do not harm students or others;
• Follow Future School’s instructions, policies, and procedures;
• Use Future School’s platforms safely and professionally;
• Report hazards, risks, incidents, and safeguarding concerns promptly;
• Understand and meet their obligations under Future School’s Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy.

Duties of others (students, whānau, visitors)

Students, families, and participants in Future School activities must:

• Act safely and respectfully at all times;
• Follow instructions from Future School staff;
• Report concerns relating to safety, wellbeing, or harm.

Health and Safety Management

The Board and the Principal work together to manage health and safety at Future School in ways that ensure all duties under the HSWA are met, as well as the ETA requirement that the school is a physically and emotionally safe place for students.

As the PCBU for the school, the Board fulfils their primary duty of care. Individual board members (including the Principal) exercise due diligence as officers to ensure the Board meets its health and safety obligations.

The responsibility for day-to-day health and safety management at the school is delegated to the Principal, with support from the Board. This does not transfer the duties of the Board but takes into account the nature of school operations and the position of individual officers under the HSWA. The Principal may further delegate health and safety tasks.

The Principal ensures that everyone involved with school operations is informed about health and safety matters, including their health and safety responsibilities, relevant health and safety policies and procedures, and updates or changes to health and safety practices.

Anyone can raise concerns by following Future School’s Complaints Policy and Procedures.

Visitors

A visitor is any person who is not a student or staff member of Future School and who enters the school site, including parents, caregivers, contractors, volunteers, guest speakers, prospective families, and other external attendees.

All visitors must report to the school office on arrival, sign in, and sign out when they leave. The school maintains an accurate record of everyone on the premises at any given time for health, safety, and emergency management purposes.

Visitors receive a site induction appropriate to the nature and length of their visit, covering relevant health and safety information, emergency procedures, and site rules. Contractors and others undertaking work on site receive additional induction proportionate to the hazards involved and must comply with Future School's health and safety requirements at all times.

Visitors must not have unsupervised access to students. Any visitor whose role involves contact with students must comply with the Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy and, where required, hold a current Children's Worker Safety Check. Staff who have completed Children's Worker Safety Checks supervise visitors in the presence of students at all times.

These requirements also apply to adults present at any in-person event held away from the school site (including EOTC activities, workshops, or examinations), who are treated as visitors and inducted in accordance with this policy and the Education Outside the Classroom (EOTC) and Offsite Events Policy.

Future School may also host guest speakers or presenters who participate in assemblies or classes. These engagements occur in the presence of Future School staff who have completed Children's Worker Safety Checks, and appropriate supervision, privacy, and safeguarding controls apply at all times.

First Aid and Medical Response

The Board and Principal ensure that appropriate first aid arrangements are in place for all school operations, including at the school, in-person events, activities, examinations, meetings, or EOTC programme components. Future School will ensure that:

• adequate numbers of trained first aiders are available for any school activity, and staff are supported to maintain current first aid certification;
• first aid kits and emergency medical supplies are maintained, checked regularly, and taken to all Future School events outside the campus;
• incident and injury reporting occurs, including escalation to WorkSafe where required under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015;
• the school has processes to respond to medical events affecting students, including escalation procedures, contacting parents/caregivers, and emergency services where needed;
• relevant staff are aware of high-risk medical conditions for individual students during any activities and ensure appropriate planning, supervision, and emergency response.

These arrangements complement Future School’s Emergency Management procedures (below) and apply to staff, students, volunteers, contractors, and any other persons participating in school-related activities.

Medication Authorisation and Storage

Future School only stores, administers or supervises medication where the family has provided written authorisation, clear written instructions (from a medical professional where applicable) and the medication in its original labelled packaging. A designated staff member stores medication securely, for example in a locked container or supervised location, separated and clearly labelled by student. Refrigerated medication is stored at the required temperature and kept secure.

Controlled or restricted medicines are handled in accordance with applicable law and any additional local procedure, including secure storage and recording. Medication is returned to the family or disposed of safely at the close of the activity.

Administration and Self-Administration

A designated staff member administers or supervises self-administration at the time and dose set out in the written instructions, confirming the student, medication, dose, time and route before administration. Each administration or supervised self-administration is recorded at the time, capturing the student, medication, dose, time, administering staff member and any reaction. Where a student is authorised to self-manage, this is recorded in their health information and the student retains the medication as agreed.

Emergency Medication

Emergency medication remains accessible at all times and may be carried by the student where clinically appropriate. Designated staff know which students require emergency medication, where it is kept and how to assist.

Health and Safety Monitoring and Review

The Board monitors and reviews health and safety throughout Future School’s school operations to ensure that health and safety practices are effective and to continuously identify areas for improvement.

• The Board will set strategic or annual goals for health and safety at Future School, or specific objectives in relation to particular aspects of health and safety, and ensure these are reviewed regularly to assess what might be needed as next steps.
• The Board may also set and review performance indicators to assist with monitoring the effectiveness of health and safety at Future School.
• Future School conducts audits of health and safety to ensure policies and procedures are being implemented effectively and updated as and when needs change.
• Health and safety is a regular agenda item at the Board’s meetings, so that individual officers of the Board can keep up to date on knowledge of health and safety matters to meet their due diligence.
• The Board participates in scheduled health and safety policy reviews, and other members of the wider school community are encouraged to provide feedback on health and safety matters.
• The Board, through the Principal, ensures there is regular communication about health and safety with workers (e.g., in team meetings, at professional development days) so that workers have regular opportunities to raise health and safety concerns and solutions.
• The Principal reports to the Board regularly on health and safety matters. This includes worker engagement, risk management, any implementation issues, and reports on health and safety incidents of accident, injury, and illness.
• The Board, in consultation with stakeholders, investigates any incidents and issues as needed.

Emergency Management

Future School maintains emergency management procedures to protect students, staff, and visitors and to ensure we can continue teaching and supporting students, as far as is safely possible, during and after an emergency.

An “emergency” in this context includes (but is not limited to): natural disasters, fire, security threats, pandemics, serious ICT outages or cyber incidents, and any event that significantly disrupts our ability to operate safely at any physical site used by Future School.

Planning and Preparedness

The Board is responsible for ensuring that Future School’s emergency planning is current and effective. This responsibility is delegated to the Principal, who provides assurance to the Board at least twice a year that:

• emergency management plans and procedures (including lockdown, evacuation, pandemic, ICT/cyber incident, and traumatic incident procedures) are up to date and accessible;
• emergency contact lists for staff, students, and key agencies are current;
• staff are familiar with emergency procedures relevant to their role and location (home office, central office, community learning space, or off-site venue);
• an adequate number of trained first aiders are available for any in-person school activity, and staff are supported to maintain current first aid certification;
• if applicable, evacuation and lockdown drills have been carried out for any Future School-controlled physical locations;
• business continuity arrangements for online learning (e.g., platform redundancy, alternative communication channels) have been tested or reviewed.

Printed or offline copies of key emergency procedures and contact details are kept at the Future School office and made available to key leaders in case of power, network, or system failure.

Future School’s planning is informed by relevant New Zealand legislation and guidance, and by Civil Defence, emergency management, and Ministry of Education advice.

Risk Scenarios – Online and Physical Contexts

Emergency planning at Future School covers both:

• Events affecting physical locations, such as:
  • incidents at the Future School campus;
  • Education Outside the Classroom (EOTC) activities, exams, or gatherings held off site.
• Events affecting online delivery, such as:
  • widespread power or internet disruption;
  • cyber security incidents or data breaches;
  • a civil defence emergency affecting significant numbers of students or staff.

For each setting, Future School identifies likely risks and documents clear procedures for:

• evacuation, lockdown, or shelter-in-place (where relevant);
• care and supervision of students who are physically present with Future School staff;
• safe shutdown of systems and protection of student and staff information (for ICT/cyber incidents);
• continuity or suspension of teaching and support services.

Roles and Responsibilities in an Emergency

During an emergency, the Principal (or delegate) acts as Incident Controller and is responsible for:

• initiating appropriate emergency procedures;
• ensuring immediate safety of students and staff in Future School-controlled settings;
• deciding whether to suspend, modify, or continue teaching;
• liaising with emergency services, Civil Defence, and the Ministry of Education as required;
• approving public and media communications.

Key staff are assigned specific roles (e.g., H&S Lead, ICT Lead, Communications Lead, EOTC Lead) and are trained in the procedures relevant to their role and location.

All staff are responsible for:

• following emergency instructions promptly;
• prioritising student safety over lesson continuity;
• reporting incidents, injuries, near misses, and ICT/cyber concerns through Future School’s incident reporting process.

Communication During an Emergency

Future School maintains a communication plan that sets out:

• who is authorised to communicate on behalf of the school;
• how staff, students, and parents/whānau will be contacted (e.g. SMS, email, learning platform announcements, website, social media, phone);
• how we will communicate with emergency services, Ministry of Education, and other agencies, where required.

During an emergency:

• information is shared as quickly as practicable, with clear instructions about safety, attendance, and any changes to learning arrangements;
• parents/whānau are asked to follow the instructions provided by Future School (for example, regarding collection from an off-site venue or the safe supervision of students at home);
• staff and students are discouraged from posting unofficial information about the event on social media to minimise misinformation and protect privacy.

Emergency Closure and Continuity of Learning

The Principal, in consultation with the CEO, Board Chair, and relevant agencies where appropriate, may decide to:

• close the school for instruction, or
• move to modified learning, where this is safer or more practicable.

In making this decision, Future School considers:

• the nature of the emergency;
• the safety and wellbeing of students and staff in their home or local environments;
• the integrity and security of the school’s online platforms and data;
• any government or emergency-management directives.

Where feasible and safe, Future School will prioritise continuity of learning through alternative platforms, asynchronous activities, or adjusted expectations, recognising that student and staff wellbeing takes precedence over academic continuity.

Support and Recovery After an Emergency or Traumatic Incident

Following an emergency or traumatic incident, Future School:

• monitors the wellbeing of students and staff and provides appropriate support or referrals (e.g., school counselling, external agencies, Ministry Traumatic Incident team);
• considers cultural needs and practices, including Māori and Pacific perspectives, when planning support and memorial or healing activities;
• communicates with the school community about the return to normal or modified operations, taking care to respect privacy and any legal constraints;
• audits and updates any physical or digital emergency resources as required.

Review, Reporting, and Continuous Improvement

After each significant emergency, drill, or incident, the Principal ensures that:

• the event and response are documented, including any injuries, near misses, ICT/security impacts, and lessons learned;
• any notifiable events are reported to WorkSafe or other authorities, where required by law (see https://www.worksafe.govt.nz/notifications/notify-worksafe/ and https://www.worksafe.govt.nz/notifications/what-events-need-to-be-notified/);
• emergency plans and procedures are reviewed and updated in light of the experience;
• key changes are communicated to staff, students, and whānau as appropriate.

Emergency preparedness and recent incidents form a regular part of Board reporting so that officers can meet their due diligence obligations under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015.

Version Control

NB: This policy supersedes and replaces all prior policies and procedures relating to its subject matter, regardless of their date of approval.