Department For Education
There are 5 steps to take in meeting the core requirement for day-to-day asbestos management in your school or college:
A management survey undertaken by appropriate professionals indicating the location and type of identified occurrences of asbestos should be recorded in an asbestos location register.
An assessment of the risks posed by each identified occurrence of asbestos.
A plan for actively managing and reviewing the risk from asbestos in your school or college the asbestos management plan (AMP).
Arrangements to ensure that all staff (teaching and non-teaching) are aware of asbestos documents and management plans and have appropriate training.
Regular review of the AMP and asbestos location register including associated remedial actions.
You should implement further measures if maintenance or construction work is taking place, which may disturb the fabric of the building. Further details are in the asbestos management during maintenance or building works section.
Each school or college must have an up-to-date survey of the buildings to identify the presence of asbestos materials, unless all the structures on site were wholly constructed since the year 2000. The survey should:
- establish the location, type and condition of asbestos materials
- provide a current and accurate picture of the presence and condition of asbestos materials within accessible areas
- identify the inaccessible areas within buildings where the presence of asbestos is presumed or cannot be ruled out
- include representative photographs to make it easier to measure any damage or deterioration to asbestos materials
A management survey is the standard survey. The survey should be conducted in accordance with HSEs survey guide, HSG264 and undertaken by an accredited or certificated surveyor.
Select an organisation accredited by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS). The survey should include the material assessment score or category (high, medium, low or very low).
You need to do this for all structures constructed before 2000, including new buildings with residual elements of pre-2000 buildings. The information collected within the survey should then be used to produce an asbestos register. The register should include building diagrams showing the asbestos material locations.
Some parts of school or college buildings will be largely inaccessible for the purposes of conducting a management survey (for example, behind fixed panels or in roof voids). These should be clearly indicated on the survey. The survey should also indicate areas of presumed asbestos where it is likely that asbestos is hidden. Recommendations should be made for the management of any inaccessible or hidden asbestos. The requirement to include these aspects must be included in the instruction to the asbestos surveyor.
This is especially true of system buildings and columns, as detailed in the managing asbestos in system built schools guidance, under System buildings.
System buildings typically:
- are prefabricated timber or light weight steel framed buildings, although they are sometimes concrete
- have flat roofs
- were constructed in the late 1940s to the early 1980s
Consideration must be given to those asbestos materials which are hidden within the structure of the building. They may include asbestos under floors, above ceilings and within walls and columns.
A management survey is only suitable for managing asbestos during the normal occupation and use of your school or college. When maintenance or construction work is taking place, a refurbishment or demolition survey may be required. See asbestos management during maintenance or building works for the requirements in these cases.
When commissioning a survey, schools and colleges may find it helpful to arrange for the surveyor to meet staff to brief them on the survey once it is completed, advise them on the risks presented by the materials and how they should be managed. These meetings can be included within the surveyors terms of appointment.
If any occurrence of asbestos is deemed high-risk, the surveyor may recommend removal. In these cases, the dutyholder should not ignore these recommendations.
Schools and colleges that already have a survey(s) should review their current document(s) to ensure they are adequate and remain current. Some review questions may include:
- was the survey undertaken by a suitably qualified UKAS accredited surveyor?
- does the survey cover all relevant buildings/structures associated with the school/college and include all areas which are considered as accessible?
- is the survey coherent and complete? All information relating to asbestos should be held together, clearly understandable, and any gaps in the information should be understood and filled, where possible
- does the survey include details of hidden asbestos particularly if the building is a system building? (A description of system buildings is included in a box within step 1
- does the survey clearly identify any areas that were not surveyed and why? What are the implications of this? Are any other limitations or caveats within the survey considered and planned for?
- does the survey clearly identify the location (including accessibility), quantity, type and condition of the asbestos materials identified and what they look like?
- does the survey clearly identify genuinely inaccessible areas where the presence of asbestos is foreseeable or cannot be ruled out and as such must be presumed?
- is the survey document regularly updated or annotated to accurately reflect the current locations and condition of the asbestos materials?
- does the survey remain a current and relevant basis for risk management arrangements?
Case study 1: understanding survey limitations
Recent interventions in schools by the HSE found that some schools did not understand the limitations of the surveys that had been undertaken. In one case the school had failed to recognise that the management survey did not extend to include the void above the ceilings, yet had undertaken work within the ceiling voids. An additional survey should have been commissioned prior to the start of any intrusive works above the ceilings.
Key resources
Further information on management surveys can be found in:
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