A SCHOOL has been criticised for “inadequate management” after a caretaker died while working there.

David Mobsby, a groundsman at Blatchington Mill School in Hove, was cleaning a bike shed when he fell about two metres off a ladder, landing on his head.

The 71-year-old died three days later in the Royal Sussex County Hospital from catastrophic head injuries.

He was described as a dedicated and considerate member of staff by the school.

But his colleagues in the facilities team said he was someone who had his own routine and a personalised list of tasks to do.

Mr Mobsby, who had been working at the school for about 20 years, rarely listened to advice from colleagues and went about tasks in his own way, an inquest heard.

The 11 members of the jury at the inquest, held yesterday in the Jurys Inn, Brighton, said Mr Mobsby’s undocumented and personal jobs list was a sign of “inadequate management” in the school and “poor communication and direction” within the team.

They said no management training had been given and no one at the school had clarified staff’s individual responsibilities.

The inquest heard important information about health and safety in the school was not shared with the rest of the facilities team.

This included a health and safety newsletter, which highlighted a similar incident that happened before, and the “vital discovery that training for working at a height was critical to safety”.

The jury spokeswoman said: “While training for those working at heights was recognised – post May 2018 –no interim precautions were implemented, nor was the risk assessment log updated to reflect that working at heights was a high-risk activity.

“This reflected that risk assessment and record keeping was generally unsatisfactory.”

She said Brighton and Hove City council health and safety audits in 2014 were “silent” on the risks and training requirements regarding working at height.

The medical cause of Mr Mobsby’s death recorded at the inquest included cardiac arrest and a severe head and brain injury from falling from a ladder.

The jury confirmed Mr Mobsby fell about two metres from the ladder at Blatchington Mill School on August 3 last year and sustained catastrophic head injuries, from which he died three days later.

The jury spokeswoman said: “The culture of the facilities team was relatively informal and as a consequence Mr Mobsby was left to his own devices, working to an undocumented list of tasks with no recorded risk assessments.

“The majority of his jobs were undertaken away from the rest of the team, unobserved and unsupervised.”

Brighton and Hove coroner Veronica Hamilton-Deeley thanked the jury for their service.

She said: “I would like to offer my condolences to Mr Mobsby’s friends and family and his colleagues at Blatchington Mill School.

“I am sure they have been very affected by what has happened.”