The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has amended the guidance surrounding work experience to highlight the fact that interns or young workers must be treated as ordinary employees are.
Plus, the guidance now stipulates that if businesses have undertaken specific risk assessments for work experience staff, then they will not have to repeat the assessment each time they take on an intern or similar, out-law.com reports; once they’ve done it once, this should be taken into account during any internal auditing procedures.
Judith Hackitt, the chair of the HSE, commented: “Our revised guidance makes it clear – and easy – for employers and work experience organisers to understand what they need to do.
“There is no need for lots of paperwork or an over-cautious approach. Employers who are already managing the risks in their business effectively for employees are unlikely to need to do anything n addition for work experience.”
The point of the change is that employers will now have more control over hiring work experience staff. The HSE said it shows that businesses themselves are “best placed to assess” what needs to be done to accommodate interns. For the schools and universities sending out students on work experience or for intern positions, the prep process may become more efficient too.
Learning institutions should “simply ask sensible questions, in proposition to the level of risk”, the HSE concluded on hse.gov.uk.
