Writer: Eve Saunders
If you’re a parent, no doubt you’ve had the dreaded phone call from school to say your child has been hurt or injured, whether a bump to the head caused by a child’s own ‘clumsiness’ or as a result of a shove from another child.
One day I received two calls in one day, and arrived to find my beautiful little girl looking like she’d done two rounds with Mike Tyson.
A hospital trip followed along with a trip to the dentist and despite the schools obvious concern, I felt my child had been neglected by the people who I entrusted to look after her.
Needless to say, the article published in the Manchester Evening News today came as no big surprise.
More than £1.5m has been paid out in compensation to children in the last five years injured as a result of basic health and safety failings in Greater Manchester schools.
Of the ten boroughs in the region, Manchester was responsible for the bulk of the successful claims – 190 – which cost a whopping total of £943,848
Examples of these claims include a child at a Rochdale school being struck by falling goal posts, a child from another school in the town was hit on the head by a crossbar that fell. A total of £10,000 paid out in compensation.
A child who was hurt after being pushed by another child at a primary school in Tameside received £9,494.
Another in Bolton included £671 paid to a child who was injured slipping on ice and leaves and the largest payment was for £24,383 for a claim over ‘classroom supervision’.
The list goes on.
The figures were obtained under a Freedom of Information request by the Eccles-based safety experts, Employment Law Advisory Service.
Pay outs by Manchester included slips and trips in playgrounds, fingers trapped in doors and behind radiators, children falling of climbing frames, and accidents involving defective school equipment.
In total there were 255 successful personal injury claims across the county against schools – more than Greater London and Birmingham combined.
Personal Injury Specialist at Abacus, Robin Torr comments “Clearly not enough is being done to protect children in schools from what are most probably preventable accidents. When you drop your child off at school in the morning you trust they will be safe in the care of the school and these figures are really quite shocking. “
If your child has been injured at school and you would like to speak to Robin about pursuing a claim for compensation, call him on 0161 833 0044 and he’ll assess the situation and advise you on the next step.
Read the article in full here: http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/greater-manchester-schools-pay-out-6942274