School Asbestos Dutyholder and Governance Policy

This policy applies to maintained and academy primary and secondary schools in England where asbestos management responsibilities may be shared between the employer, governing body, premises owner, academy trust, local authority or another responsible body.

Purpose and principles

The school will identify the individual or corporate bodies responsible for asbestos management at its premises and record those responsibilities in the asbestos management plan.

Responsibility may be shared. The arrangements will reflect the local circumstances of the school and will recognise that there may be more than one dutyholder.

Identifying dutyholders

The asbestos management plan will name each dutyholder for the school premises and describe the premises, buildings, areas or access arrangements for which each dutyholder is responsible.

The plan will record the basis for each responsibility, including the relevant contractual, tenancy or control arrangement: [dutyholder responsibility basis].

The recorded dutyholder arrangement for the premises is: [asbestos dutyholder arrangement].

Where responsibility is shared, the plan will state how responsibilities interface, who receives relevant information, and which person or body is the escalation point for unresolved issues: [asbestos escalation point].

Governance responsibilities

The employer will support the governing body and school leadership team in maintaining suitable arrangements for managing asbestos materials within the school.

The governing body and school leadership team will ensure that the identified arrangements are understood within their respective areas of responsibility and that matters requiring action are escalated through the agreed route.

The person or body responsible for maintaining the asbestos management plan is [asbestos plan owner]. The plan will be kept current when dutyholder, premises, contractual, tenancy or control arrangements change.

Delegated roles

Delegated asbestos responsibilities will be assigned to named staff or other authorised role-holders. The delegated role, scope of authority, premises or areas covered, reporting route and escalation route will be recorded.

The named person responsible for coordinating delegated asbestos management activities is [delegated asbestos coordinator].

Staff with delegated asbestos responsibilities will be suitably trained to undertake their role. The training arrangement for each delegated role is recorded at [delegated role training record].

Delegation will not be used to obscure the responsibilities of the employer, governing body, premises owner, academy trust, local authority or other responsible body identified in the asbestos management arrangements.

Monitoring effectiveness

The employer will regularly monitor the effectiveness of the asbestos arrangements to ensure that the risks are controlled.

Monitoring will consider whether dutyholders remain correctly identified, responsibilities remain clear, delegated roles remain assigned, relevant staff remain suitably trained, and escalation routes remain usable.

The monitoring and assurance record is maintained at [asbestos governance monitoring record]. Issues identified through monitoring will be assigned to [asbestos issue owner] and escalated through [asbestos escalation route].

Communication and review

The school will communicate the relevant asbestos governance arrangements to the governing body, leadership team, dutyholders and staff with delegated responsibilities.

This policy and the related asbestos management plan will be reviewed when the local circumstances, premises, dutyholder arrangements, contractual or control basis, delegated roles or escalation routes change, and otherwise in accordance with the school’s governance review arrangements: [policy review arrangement].