School accidents: Over £205,000 in compensation is paid out in Leicester and Leicestershire
Nearly £205,000 has been paid in compensation by the city and county councils in the past five years because of school accidents.
The majority of payouts are to children and young people who have slipped and injured themselves while on school premises.
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Other accidents include trapped fingers, being struck by falling objects and burns.
The figures have been released under a Freedom of Information request by the Leicester Mercury.
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Leicestershire County Council has paid the largest amount in the past five years, some £129,244, compared to £75,600 by Leicester City Council. Among the biggest payouts was £17,647 by the county council for a pupil's fall.
A spokeswoman for the county council said: "We give health and safety advice to local authority-maintained schools and to academies that buy back our services.
"There have been incidents which have occurred over the past five years which have required compensation to be paid.
"However, we do offer value for money for taxpayers by robustly defending claims and only paying out compensation where legally liable.
"Given there are more than 90,000 pupils in Leicestershire, this equates to about 30p per pupil per year.
"Heath and safety is included in Ofsted's report criteria.
"We pay compensation from insurance funds. When a school converts into an academy it becomes a separate legal entity.
"A claim for compensation as a result of personal injury where the incident occurred post conversion would be brought against the academy itself.
"Due to the number of schools converting, we'd expect to see a reduction in claims against the local authority for incidents of this nature."
Although the county council has not had to make any compensation payments so far this academic year, Leicester City Council has already paid £12,500 to a pupil who tripped during a lesson.
It, too, has an insurance policy to cover the compensation.
A spokesman for the city council, said: "To put these figures into context, about 48,000 children attend school in Leicester every day – which equates to more than 45 million pupil days in a five-year period.
"Unfortunately, sometimes things do go wrong in spite of everyone's best efforts and results in pupils being injured.
"The compensation rate is very small indeed compared to the benefit to every pupil of being exposed to managed risks."
Comments
by Kohelet
Tuesday, January 08 2013, 9:33PM
“georgeisafish - lost me there”
by georgeisafish
Tuesday, January 08 2013, 9:04PM
“slipped and injured themselves?? started by a woman in the entrance to the shires?”
by Banksider33
Monday, January 07 2013, 9:48AM
“Not good news for council tax payers, but keeps the ambulance chasers in work.”