Three East Kilbride primary schools needed follow-up inspections from the Health and Safety Executive to ensure they were COVID-secure
Maxwellton and Our Lady of Lourdes primaries, and Greenburn School, were three of eight South Lanarkshire schools that were required to be seen by the HSE following an initial inspection.
Strathaven Academy was also required to be inspected again.
In August and September, HSE contacted 500 schools from 16 local authorities in Scotland to check compliance with the Scottish Government’s school reopening guidance.
In total, 80 per cent of schools had a “good understanding” on being COVID-secure but where compliance was “less certain”, follow up visits were arranged.
Head of personnel services for South Lanarkshire Council, Kay McVeigh, said no action was required.
She added: “We will of course continue to monitor and review the situation in all our schools and take note of any guidance issued by the Scottish Government which would change our current approach.”
No recommendations were made by HSE following the visits and South Lanarkshire Council have said they will keep COVID protocols at schools under review.
All the HSE inspections at schools across Scotland were completed by the beginning of October.
No formal interventions were made at any school visited and any areas of concern were dealt with by verbal advice.
Harvey Wild, head of HSE’s transport and public services unit, said: “In our view the Scottish Government’s school reopening guidance was very good quality, and was viewed positively by schools in what can only be described as very challenging circumstances.
“It appeared to be flexible enough to be implemented appropriately in different settings and adapted to local circumstances ensuring most schools we contacted were COVID-secure.
“The majority of schools in Scotland reacted very quickly to implement new measures. For those schools where compliance was less certain, formal spot inspections were carried out by a team of HSE inspectors.
“This enabled the inspectors to go to the schools and see what COVID-secure measures were in place so they could then offer formal advice and guidance where needed.”
Other schools affected included Spittal Primary School and Stonelaw High School in Rutherglen, St Blane’s Primary School in Blantyre, as well as Larkhall Academy.
