£3m-a-year payouts

£3m-a-year payouts for pupils who slip and trip

ACCIDENTS and mishaps in schools are costing £16,000 a day in compensation payments to pupils. Playground falls, slipping on ice and knocks during PE, which may once have been seen as part of the rough and tumble of school life, last year cost councils almost £3 million. In Derbyshire, £35,000 was awarded to a pupil injured after a collision during a games lesson. In Barnsley, playground slides have cost the council £13,000. One pupil who suffered a head injury while on a slide received £5,500; another received £7,500 for breaking a collar bone after falling off a slide. Hertfordshire Council paid a settlement of £4,000 to a student whose injury was blamed on an inadequate warm-up session before a PE lesson. A student in Norfolk received £2,800 after breaking a hand against a piece of wood held in a vice. And cheerleading cost Middleborough Council £4,250 after a pupil fell over during practice.

The cases emerged after 131 out of 150 local education authorities responded to a survey, revealing payouts totaling £2.8 million in the 2008-09 financial year and £2 million in 2007-08.

Susie Squire, campaign manager at the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'While no doubt some of these claims are legitimate, it's bonkers that many kids are getting cash just for falling over in the playground. Each claim needs to be more carefully evaluated.'

Other compensation payouts included:
• £4,250 for an injury sustained after a pupil in Warrington was made 'to wear inappropriate footwear';
• £6,000 to a pupil hurt after tripping in a playground pothole in Bexley, London;
• £800 to a pupil from Hammersmith who suffered dental injuries when a teacher threw a lollipop that rebounded off a desk and struck the pupil's face;
• £6,000 in Suffolk to a pupil who broke a toe playing basketball barefoot — and £9,000 to another Suffolk child who was hit by a calculator and broke a tooth.

Professor Frank Furedi, a sociologist at Kent University, said that the 'claims culture' could weaken standards in education. 'You end up not doing things in the best interest of the child but in such a way as to minimise legal action,' he said.
The Department for Children, Schools and Families said: 'Schools are generally safe places but accidents happen, and deciding whether compensation is due will be a matter for the courts if and when cases are brought.'
By Helen Dowd Mail on Sunday 2nd August 2009

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