Is it me, or is the latest bandwagon for ‘compensation culture’ myth-peddlers that schools and schoolchildren are no longer able to undertake activities and trips that we all enjoyed when growing up?

It is not unusual for claimant personal injury lawyers to feel that the whole world is against them (I am sure that at some point we will be blamed for the recession), but recently I have noticed an awful lot of attention being paid to personal injury claims on behalf of children who have been injured while at school or on school trips.

The result is, and I speak as a father of three very lively boys, that both we as parents and indeed schools wish to put a large piece of cotton wool around children to protect them from these perceived problems.

Is that really the fault of claimant personal injury lawyers? Myths have been reported as fact by the media and picked up by headline-seeking politicians in their conference speeches. I speak, of course, on such matters as health and safety law which prevents teachers being able to put a plaster on a child’s knee, children having to wear goggles when playing conkers, and schools not being able to use egg boxes in art lessons for fear of salmonella poisoning. In this respect, I would refer you to the excellent Myth of the Month section of the Health and Safety Executive’s website.

Given the 8.2 million or so children of school age in England, 399 payouts for compensation during 2007/08 is arguably not a significant number, with the average payout equating to the fairly modest sum of £4,400. Where are the stories, I wonder, about the vast majority of children who go to school safely each day and on school trips without incident, whose schools and parents have managed risk responsibly and proportionately?

It would appear that the government has also acknowledged the problem. Schools secretary Ed Balls recently commented that ‘it is time that the fear of compensation culture is consigned to history once and for all’. This was in response to the recent outbreak of press stories about schools being sued. He and his department have taken matters further by creating the Out and About scheme, which aims to give schools guidance on safe outings. Dare I say it, but Mr Balls also used the analogy of cotton wool.

The concept of health and safety has taken on a life of its own, but it is not the lawyers or the law driving the phenomenon or putting a stop to children’s activities. If schools are using health and safety reasons to stop an everyday activity altogether, then chances are they have misunderstood the law.

It is only right that health and safety legislation exists as a framework to safeguard our children but it must be remembered that risk assessment is about protecting lives and not stopping them. Many local authorities are to be commended for recognising this and signing up, earlier this year, to the Health and Safety Executive’s campaign on sensible risk management.

Risk assessment is not difficult – we all do it subconsciously everyday, for example when crossing the road. Neither does it require mountains of paperwork. There is nothing wrong with exposing children to well-managed risks, provided that these have been thought through and all reasonably practicable steps have been taken to ensure children’s safety.

The scaremongering that ultimately forces schools and teachers into imposing excessive caution has to stop, and both claimant personal injury lawyers and the insurance industry must play their part.

Jonathan Clement is the personal injury team leader at Kent-based Thomson Snell & Passmore