The Reality: Neither ladders nor stepladders are banned. For straightforward short duration work they can be a good option, but you wouldn’t want to be wobbling about on them doing complex tasks for long periods. A large number of workers are seriously injured or killed using ladders and stepladders each year.

So:
Yes – the HSE want people to use the right equipment for the job.
Yes – there are some common-sense rules for using them safely.
No – they are not banned.

The Reality: The main legal duties lie with the employer not the teacher, or even the Head Teacher, unless they own the school and employ the staff. No teacher has been personally sued in the past 5 years for compensation. Over the years a handful of teachers have been prosecuted following very serious incidents, but only where they failed to follow the direct instructions and departed from common sense. Teachers who act responsibly will be on the right side of the law.

The Reality: This is one of the oldest chestnuts around! A well meaning head teacher decided children should wear safety goggles to play conkers. Subsequently some schools appear to have banned conkers on “health and safety” grounds or made children wear goggles, or even padded gloves! Realistically the risk from playing conkers is incredibly low and just not worth bothering about. If kids deliberately hit each other over the head with conkers, that’s a discipline issue, not health and safety.

The Reality: No. The law requires employers to assess risk and take appropriate action. HSEs advice is that, for most office equipment, visual checks for obvious signs of damage or simple tests by a competent member of staff are sufficient.

The Reality: Each year we hear of companies banning their workers from putting up Christmas decorations in their offices for “health and safety” reasons, or requiring the work to be done by a qualified person. Most organisations including HSE and local councils manage to put up their decorations without a fuss. They just sensibly provide their staff with suitable stepladders to put up decorations rather than expecting staff to balance on wheelie chairs.