The termly safety walk is the workhorse of school premises safety. It is not the fire risk assessment or the asbestos survey, which need their own specialists, but the routine sweep that catches the loose slab, the blocked fire exit, the frayed cable and the propped-open fire door before any of them becomes an incident. The walk is only as good as the record it leaves, because when something does go wrong, the question is always the same: was anyone looking, and can you show it?
Guide · Education
School health and safety audit checklist for the UK.
A practical guide to running the site safety audit in a school or academy trust, what the walk should cover, who holds the duty, and how to keep a record that stands up to the DfE, Ofsted and an insurer.
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The point
A checklist does not make a school safe.
Acting on what the walk finds does. The audit's job is to catch the hazard before someone gets hurt, and to leave a record that shows the duty holder was looking. A good tool means the safety walk gets completed properly, not ticked off from memory at a desk.
What the audit covers
The main areas of a school safety walk.
Buildings and grounds
Access, surfaces, structure
Paths, steps, handrails, floor surfaces, glazing, fencing and gates, checked for trip, fall and access hazards across the site.
Fire and escapeDoors, alarms, routes
Fire doors, extinguishers, alarm points, signage and escape routes under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.
Services and hazardsElectrical, water, COSHH
Electrical safety, water systems, stored chemicals under COSHH, and known asbestos-containing materials in older buildings.
Who holds the duty
The school is the employer under the 1974 Act.
The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 puts the duty on the employer: the local authority or governing body for a maintained school, the trust for an academy. The caretaker walks the site; the responsible body carries the legal duty. The record is how it shows it was looking.
Run the safety audit on WhatsApp
No app install. No training.
Site staff use the phone they already have. Text, voice note or photo. The audit report generates itself, and the trust sees every site on one dashboard. Setup to first live workflow usually takes under a week.
The short version
- The school safety audit is a routine walk covering buildings, grounds, fire, services and stored hazards. It sits under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974.
- The school is the employer and duty holder. The DfE's Good Estate Management for Schools sets the expected standard for how the estate is run and recorded.
- The audit does not replace specialist assessments: fire risk assessment, asbestos survey, legionella risk assessment and the annual playground inspection each need a competent person.
- The value of the audit is the record and the action that follows a finding, not the tick itself.
- Per-report pricing lets a trust add every caretaker, site manager and central team member for free, and see every site on one dashboard.
The point
What the safety audit is for
A school health and safety audit is a routine, structured walk of the site that checks the everyday hazards a school carries: trip and fall risks on paths and floors, obstructed fire exits, faulty electrical fittings, unsecured chemicals, damaged fencing, and the condition of known asbestos-containing materials in older buildings. It is the general safety net that runs between the deeper, specialist assessments.
The audit does not make the school safe. Acting on what it finds does. A checklist that gets ticked and filed changes nothing; a finding that gets raised, assigned and closed out is the whole point. The tool's job is to make the walk easy to complete honestly on site, and to make the finding impossible to lose. This is general guidance, not legal advice; check the current DfE and HSE guidance for your setting.
Who holds the duty
Employer, responsible body, competent person
The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 places the primary duty on the employer to protect staff, pupils and visitors. For a maintained school the employer is usually the local authority or the governing body; for an academy it is the trust. The site manager and caretaker carry out the audit, but the legal responsibility for a safe estate sits with the responsible body, which is why the record has to be as reliable as the walk.
The DfE's Good Estate Management for Schools, known as GEMS, sets the expected standard for how a school estate is managed and what records the responsible body should keep. A school is also expected to have access to competent health and safety advice, whether in-house or bought in. Quickler captures the audit and its findings and gives the trust a live view; it does not provide that competent advice or carry the duty.
Where the audit stops
What still needs a specialist
The safety audit is deliberately broad and shallow. It flags that a fire door is wedged open or a stairwell is cluttered, but it is not the fire risk assessment required under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. It notes damaged material in a known asbestos location, but it is not an asbestos survey under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012. It checks that water outlets look and run as expected, but it is not the legionella risk assessment.
Each of those is a distinct duty needing a competent person, and safeguarding under Keeping Children Safe in Education is a separate matter again, distinct from premises safety though often managed by the same people. Quickler records the routine audit and its actions, and can hold the routine checks that feed a written scheme. It does not perform or replace any specialist assessment. Treat those as the responsible body's to commission.
The record
Findings, actions, evidence
An audit is only useful if a finding turns into a closed action. The record needs to show what was checked, what was found, who was told, what was done and when. Timestamp, staff member, location and a photo of the hazard turn a vague note into evidence, and evidence is what an insurer, the DfE or an Ofsted inspector looks for when they ask whether the estate is being managed.
Quickler captures each finding as the walk happens, with a photo at the point of observation, and surfaces open actions on the dashboard so nothing sits forgotten in a folder. The site manager still does the walk and still decides what matters; the tool just makes sure the finding, and the fact it was closed, cannot quietly disappear.
Pricing
Per report, not per seat
Most audit apps charge per seat. For a school or trust that is the wrong shape: the business manager who reads one audit a month pays the same as the caretaker who files four a week, and every site you add costs more.
Quickler charges per report, with unlimited users on every bundle. Bundles run from Quickler 50 at 50 pounds a month for 50 reports, up to Quickler 500 at 500 pounds a month for 500 reports. Add as many caretakers, site managers, central estates staff and admins as you like; you pay for the audits you file, not the people who could file them. Pricing is approximate and shifts, so check the current pricing page before you commit.
Questions, answered
What should a school health and safety audit cover?
A school safety audit should cover buildings and grounds (paths, steps, surfaces, glazing, fencing), fire safety (doors, alarms, extinguishers, escape routes), services (electrical and water safety), stored hazards under COSHH, and the condition of known asbestos-containing materials in older buildings. It is a routine walk under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, distinct from the specialist assessments each of those areas may also require.
Who is responsible for health and safety in a school?
The employer is the duty holder under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. For a maintained school that is usually the local authority or governing body, and for an academy it is the trust. Staff carry out the audit, but the legal duty for a safe estate sits with the responsible body. The DfE's Good Estate Management for Schools sets the expected standard.
Does the audit replace a fire risk assessment or asbestos survey?
No. The safety audit is a broad routine walk. It does not replace the fire risk assessment required under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, the asbestos survey under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012, or a legionella risk assessment. Each of those is a distinct duty needing a competent person. The audit flags issues in those areas; the specialist assessment addresses them.
Can I run a school safety audit over WhatsApp?
Yes. Quickler's audit workflow runs over the WhatsApp Business API. The site manager receives each question in their existing WhatsApp chat, replies with text, a voice note or a photo, and the completed audit report generates automatically. No separate app or login is required, and Quickler manages the WhatsApp Business API account on the school's behalf.