Collaboration of OSH and PH in education in the aftermath of the pandemic - side event to the XXII World Congress

The ENETOSH meeting "Collaboration of OSH and PH in education in the aftermath of the pandemic" was held on 24 September 2021 as a side event to the XXII World Congress on Safety and Health at Work 2021 in Toronto.
The event was conducted online in a dialogue format and was a great success.
More than 30 participants from 13 countries around the world took part in the discussion. The event focused on the collaboration between safety and health at work and public health in education. This topic was discussed by representatives from OSH, public health and education policy.

Four short presentations highlighted different aspects and provided an opportunity for discussion:

• Annamária Somhegyi, Hungarian national coordinator of the WHO Foundation "Schools for Health in Europe Network" (SHE), gave an insight into holistic health promotion in Hungarian schools
• Sarah Copsey from the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) described in a spotlight the differences and cross-cutting issues between OSH and public health in prevention among children and young people
• Gerrit Schnabel from Unfallkasse NRW, Germany, presented a systematic and step-by-step approach for better school development through a culture of prevention, including the "Good Healthy School" award in Germany
• Martina Di Ridolfo & Sarah Lyons, European Trade Union Committee for Education (ETUCE), gave a concrete example of successful OSH-PH cooperation in a trade union project in the UK on ventilation in schools, referred to the successful cooperation with EU-OSHA in developing the OiRA tool, and outlined the way forward for the European social partners in education to take more account of psychosocial risks in the context of the new strategic framework for OSH in Europe.

Please click here to access the presentation that lead through the event (file will open in a new browser tab).

The presentations triggered very fruitful discussions on different aspects of the topic, both directly face to face and via the moderated chat. Each participant had the opportunity to speak and discuss with everyone else, which led to some interesting conclusions.
All participants agreed to continue this discussion in different ways - some discussed directly further and ENETOSH will continue to work on this topic, bringing experts together and keeping the discussion alive.