to complain about the temperature!

[adultcat]

NC for this...
I work in a boarding house with teenagers. The school are very tight (shall we say) with the heating. We have been complaining for days that it is so cold but nothing is being done about it. The current temperature is 11.1 degrees celsius. Children have complained to our on site doctors and the head master. What else can I do??

That is ridiculous and well below the NHS guidelines.

Do you have a union who could become involved?

Can you subtlety suggest to the students that they complain to parents?

Complain to the health and safety executive? I think the minimum working temp in a sitting down role (office job) is about 16 degrees. Slightly less if it is a physical role.

www.hse.gov.uk/temperature/law.htm

yes, I would. If the HT won't act then escalate up to the governors. And encourage the children to let their parents know.

www.hse.gov.uk/temperature/law.htm wonder if you can contact the hse for help?

Get the heating on

Thanks for the quick replies. Parents have complained and are told it's 'being sorted'.. If only it were as simple as putting the heating on!

‘Being sorted’? That implies something needs fixing. That’s fair enough but if it isn’t done quickly then there’s an obligation to provide alternative heating.

It’s the middle of winter! There’ll be some po-faced whiner going on about how they used to scrape off the inside of their windows, but this is 2019 and people are paying for basic shelter and warmth.

Not good enough.

Schools are excluded from that directive but I don’t know about boarding schools.

it may well be 'being sorted' but what are the school doing in the meantime? Heading down to Argos to get a job lot of portable heaters?? Because they should be.

There must be some regulations for workplaces that are also residential, so boarding schools, care homes, prisons etc?

Anything here

From Government Guidance.

'Boarding houses and other accommodation provided for boarders is appropriately lit, heated and ventilated, cleaned and maintained, and reasonable adjustments are made to provide adequate accessible accommodation for any boarders with restricted mobility.

No-one would ever agree that 11 C is 'appropriately heated' so they aren't meeting this standard.

Does the school have a complaint's procedure? And is there a regulator (such as the BSA?) that will be interested in failing to meet minimum standards?

If i was paying to send my child to school and they were 11' inside i would be LIVID.

My Dd is a weekly boarder. If she told me she was living in temperatures like that I would be very angry.

Hopefully the parents will keep on at the school. It's not acceptable

(Hoping you are not Mrs E from DDs boarding house)

Nothing broke, just a very old building that's expensive to heat apparently!
I'm here with four layers on and still cold but it's not acceptable for the children to live in!
Thanks for the advice everyone

@bookwitch no, that's not me :)
I think parents think their kids are exaggerating and there seems to be this thing that it's acceptable to have cold areas, just part of it... But it's not!

Where my DD goes to boarding school they're going to have highs of -13 and lows of -23 later this week. It's a state-funded school on a pretty small budget in a crappy old building and they still manage to keep it warm. We do put up with a lot of building issues (the library ceiling is currently caving in) but there's no excuse for keeping a school at 11C.

Can you contact parents directly to let them know your worries?