A school is a place of learning, and whether you are a staff member, pupil, parent, or guardian, you expect students and staff to be safe as they go about their day. Unfortunately, this is not always the case, and schools can be a place where assaults occur. A school has various legal responsibilities to staff, pupils and visitors, and this can extend to preventing people from being physically assaulted. You may have been the victim of an assault at school, and you may be able to claim compensation.
This guide explains when you could claim for an assault at a school. We cover teachers’ rights when assaulted by a student, what to do if you have been assaulted at a school, as well as providing examples of compensation payouts and a look at how such claims work.
For more free advice and information on claiming for an assault or an accident at work, please contact our team;
- Call us on 0800 073 8801
- Send our team a message to start a claim online.
- Use our online support chat to speak to a member of our team.
Jump To A Section
- Can I Make An Assault Claim As A Staff Member In A School?
- How Does A Pupil Make An Assault At School Claim?
- What Should I Do After An Assault At School?
- How Much Compensation Could I Receive For An Assault At School?
- Should I Make A School Assault Claim On A No Win No Fee Basis?
- More Resources About How To Claim Compensation
Can I Make An Assault Claim As A Staff Member In A School?
Employers have a legal duty of care to ensure the reasonable safety of their staff in the workplace. This duty of care is set out in legislation such as The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. This means that legally, they must protect you from deliberate acts of workplace violence, such as assaults. If you have been assaulted in the workplace by a colleague, a pupil or a member of the public, your employer may be liable for your injuries.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) defines workplace violence as incidents in which someone is assaulted, threatened or abused at work. Employers may have been negligent if they knew (or should have known) of the risk of an assault and failed to take reasonable steps to prevent you being harmed.
In the following sections, we will look at different circumstances in which someone may be physically assaulted in a school and for which the school may be liable.
Making A Claim As A Teacher
As a teacher, you could be assaulted at work by an aggressive pupil, another member of staff or by a member of the public. Examples of when a school may be liable could include;
- Where the school (as an employer) has ignored previous violent behaviour by another member of staff, a pupil, a parent or another person towards a teacher.
- A violent student is transferred to a school but no steps or measures are put in place.
Your claim as a teacher may be made against the school if you sustained physical injuries or damage to your mental health as a result of the incident. However, you will need to prove that these injuries suffered in an assault at school occurred due to a breach of the duty of care.
Claiming As A Caterer Or Member Of Staff
If you work at a school as a caterer, cleaner or other worker, you are entitled to be kept safe and free from harm at work. This duty may extend to ensuring that you are not the victim of an assault at work.
You may be able to claim for an assault at work where:
- Understaffing at work caused your injuries. You were left working alone and a known violent person, such as a violent pupil, attacked you.
- Where you were working as a classroom volunteer and were not provided with appropriate training to diffuse a situation with a potentially violent parent. As a result, this violent parent assaulted you.
Claiming As A Teaching Assistant
Other members of staff, such as teaching assistants, administrative staff or other workers should all be kept safe in the workplace. An assault at school could occur where:
- Behaviour policy is not correctly implemented. For example, if policies are not enacted to correct unruly behaviour from a class, a teaching assistant could be assaulted.
- Members of staff are left as a lone worker or understaffed and are left vulnerable to a known violent parent.
If you have been injured as a result of being assaulted at work or violence in a school, our team could help you to claim on a No Win No Fee basis. Please contact our team today.
How Does A Pupil Make An Assault At School Claim?
If your child has been assaulted by another pupil you could take legal action against the school on your child’s behalf. Legislation such as the Children Act 1989, states that professionals (adults) must treat a child as if they were their own. In line with such legislation, teachers and other members of staff should ensure the safety of pupils and keep them safe, secure and free from harm.
- Negligence on the part of a teacher could lead to a pupil being left alone with a known violent pupil who has previously made threats against them.
- Where a pupil was assaulted at school and staff had failed to spot the warning signs an incident may happen and failed to prevent the assault.
Victims of assaults at school, whether by other pupils, teachers or members of staff, who are under the age of eighteen are not able to bring a claim on their own behalf. To take legal action to recover compensation, those aged under eighteen will need to use a Litigation friend to help them do so.
A Litigation friend is a suitable adult who is appointed by the court to act in the best interests of the child. They could make personal injury claims at any point prior to the child turning eighteen. If you do need to make a criminal injury claim, time limits and claims procedures may vary.
Contact us today if you or a child have been the victim of an assault at school.
What Should I Do After An Assault At School?
Next, we look at what to do if you have been assaulted by a pupil or other person whilst working at a school. If you have been involved in any type of accident at work, you should follow your employer’s accident at work procedures. This may include guidelines on how to report your accident and injuries.
Following this, you should also ensure that you get any medical treatment required. You must also report the incident to the police. Whether you intend to claim directly against the school, or through a criminal injury claim, the police report is important evidence. You will also not be able to make a claim through the CICA without having reported the incident to the police.
Next, you can collect evidence which could help to show what caused your assault at school and why the school was liable for the harm caused to you. You could collect further evidence such as:
- The contact information of anyone who witnessed the assault take place. This will allow for them to be approached for a statement at a later date.
- Footage from any school CCTV cameras which caught the incident happen.
- Photographs of your injuries (if they are visible).
- Evidence of your financial losses.
A No Win No Fee solicitor from our panel could help you gather the right evidence to support your claim. Contact us for further information.
How Much Compensation Could I Receive For An Assault At School?
If you have been the victim of an assault at a school where you worked, you could have suffered physical or mental injuries. If your claim is made against the school, your settlement may consist of general damages and special damages.
General damages are awarded on the basis of the pain and suffering that was caused as a result of the assault at school. To value these, parties involved with a compensation claim, such as a No Win No Fee solicitor may refer to the Judicial College (JC) guidelines. The JC lists guidelines on compensation for different types and levels of injury.
In the table below we have included examples of different injuries for which you could claim compensation with guidelines from the JC on compensation. The first row in the table illustrates what you could claim with a combination of general damages and special damages. It is not taken from the JC guidelines.
Compensation Table
| Injury | Severity | Guideline Compensation | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multiple serious injuries | Serious or severe | Up to £500,000+ | A variety of severe injuries and significant financial losses. |
| Back injuries | Severe - A - ii | £90,510 to £107,910 | Nerve root damage, loss of sensation and impaired mobility. |
| Arm injuries | Injuries resulting in serious disability - B | £47,180 to £73,050 | Serious fractures of one or both arms. |
| Hip or pelvis injuries | Severe - A - iii | £47,810 to £64,070 | Fractures with degenerative change. |
| Shoulder injuries | Severe - A | £23,430 - £58,610 | Damage to the brachial plexus with significant disability. |
| Wrist injuries | Injuries resulting in significant disability - B | £29,900 to £47,810 | Permanent disability with some useful movement. |
| Hand injuries | Severe finger fractures - F | Up to £44,840 | Finger fractures that are severe and result in deformity. |
| Elbow injuries | Less severe - B | £19,100 to £39,070 | Impairment of function but no need for major surgery. |
| Knee injuries | Moderate - B - i | £18,110 to £31,960 | Dislocations, torn cartilage with minor instability. |
| Ankle injuries | Modest injuries - D | Up to £16,770 | Minor or undisplaced fractures. |
In addition to general damages, you may also be awarded what are called special damages. Special damages are awarded to compensate claimants for the financial impact of an injury.
In order to claim for special damages, you will need to provide proof of any costs you have had to meet or losses incurred. You can use evidence such as receipts and bank statements to do so.
Costs and losses you could claim for under special damages may include:
- Loss of income and earnings. If you had to take time off to recover from your injuries, you could recover these losses. You may also be able to claim for lost pension contributions and similar losses.
- Medical costs, such as physiotherapy, medications, prescriptions and related costs.
- Care costs. If you have additional needs for care (whether provided by as a professional service or by a family member) the costs of this may be recovered.
- The cost of travelling to and from medical appointments.
Can I Claim Using The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority?
Whilst in this guide we have looked at making claims against a school as an employer, there may be instances in which claims for an assault at school may be made via the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA). The CICA is a government agency. It administers the Criminal Injury Compensation Scheme 2012. Similar to the JC guidelines, this sets out how much compensation may be awarded to violent crime victims (such as an assault at school) for different injuries.
We should note that compensation for a criminal injury awarded under The Scheme tariff may be different than that awarded under the JC. The Scheme also contains fixed tariff amounts rather than guidelines.
For more information on CICA payouts and for advice on claiming against a party directly, please contact our team today.
Should I Make A School Assault Claim On A No Win No Fee Basis?
If you have been the victim of an assault at school we could help you. One of our No Win No Fee solicitors could help you to make an assault at work claim. They may be able to do so on a No Win No Fee basis using a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). This is a type of No Win No Fee agreement through which you could hire accident at work solicitors.
The benefits of taking legal action for an accident at work through a CFA include:
- Not being charged anything upfront for your solicitor’s work on your assault claim.
- No charges for their work during the claims process.
- Not having to pay for the solicitor’s work if they claim does not succeed.
However, if the claim for assault does succeed, a success fee becomes payable. This amount will be taken from the compensation that has been awarded. Because the percentage is limited by a legal cap, you will get to keep the majority of your award.
To find out if you could claim with a solicitor working on a No Win No Fee basis, please contact our team today:
- Phone our team on 0800 073 8801
- Send a message to start a claim online.
- Talk to us using the live support chat below.
More Resources About How To Claim Compensation
Below we look at further resources related to compensation claims.
- In this guide we look at how to claim compensation if a colleague injured you whilst at work.
- If you were harmed by an unsafe work area, find out if you could claim compensation in this guide.
- Our guide on temporary workers rights covers when and how your employer has a duty to ensure your safety at work.
References
- Using this resource you can report a serious child safeguarding incident.
- If your child has been the victim of bullying at school you can find out more in this government resource.
- Find out how to report a crime incident using this police report.
Thank you for reading our guide on how to make a claim following an assault at school.
