The Education Review Office says:

"In its regular reviews of schools the Education Review Office (ERO) will seek assurance that the Board of Trustees of each school is meeting the requirement under National Administration Guideline 5 to 'provide a safe physical and emotional environment.'

For ERO to make the judgement that the requirement is being met, the school needs to provide evidence of how it knows about the safety of its environment and what it does to check and maintain its safety. Such evidence could include summaries of surveys of student and parent opinion about safety matters, written policies on safety matters (such as student behaviour management, bullying, complaints and education outside the classroom), procedures that the school follows to address and eliminate unsafe practices and to promote safe practice, the course content of staff training on safety issues and classroom programmes that promote student safety."

Education Review Office 1999