Health and safety

All early years providers have a responsibility and duty of care towards those who work in, receive a service from, and visit their setting. Therefore, providers must comply with health and safety legislation, including fire safety and hygiene requirements.

You must ensure that not only the premises and equipment in use are safe and suitable for children, staff, and visitors alike, but that you have procedures for identifying, reporting, and dealing with accidents, hazards, and faulty equipment. Having a comprehensive set of policies, procedures and risk assessments in place is the key to achieving this aim.

A provider’s health and safety policy should contain reference to the procedures that the setting has in place.

The risk assessment is a primary management tool in ensuring the health and safety of everyone. Whether you’re wondering how to complete a risk assessment or are unsure of their relevance within childcare, read on to discover everything you need to know.

The definition of a risk assessment is a systematic process of identifying hazards, evaluating any associated risks within a workplace, and then implementing reasonable control measures to remove or reduce them.

The types of risk assessment required within any workplace should be proportionate and relevant to the operational activities being undertaken. In many industries, there are specific legislative requirements that apply.

Some common types of risk assessments include:

• Fire risk assessments: fire safety management procedures are required to be established in all workplaces including a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment.

• Manual handling risk assessments: should be conducted in any workplace where an employee may be at risk from injury and/or ill-health through the need to lift, carry, move loads.

• Display screen equipment (DSE) risk assessments: these are required to be completed in workplaces where employees (and others) are using computers, laptops, and tablets.

• Reporting Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences (RIDDOR) events

• Outings/outdoors

Carrying out sufficient suitable risk assessments is the primary management tool in effective risk management. It’s a legal requirement for any employer and must be documented wherever five or more people are employed.

A risk assessment is a straightforward and structured method of ensuring the risks to the health, safety and wellbeing are suitably eliminated, reduced, or controlled.

The HSE has recommended a five-step process for completing a risk assessment. This provides a useful checklist to follow to ensure that the assessment is suitably comprehensive. It involves:

1. Identifying potential hazards – It’s important to firstly identify any potential hazards within a workplace that may cause harm to anyone that encounters them.

2. Identifying who might be harmed by those hazards – It should also be noted how they could be affected, be it through direct contact or indirect contact.

3. Evaluating risk (severity and likelihood) and establishing suitable precautions – After identifying any hazards and who might be affected, it’s important to evaluate the severity the risk may present (should it occur), and establish suitable, effective controls to reduce this level of risk as far as is ‘reasonably practicable’. This means that everything possible is done to ensure health and safety considering all relevant factors.

4. Implementing controls and recording your findings – If a workplace employs five or more individuals, any significant findings within risk assessments are required to be kept either electronically or in writing. Recording your findings on a risk assessment form is a straightforward way of keeping track of the risks and control measures put in place to reduce the identified risk.

5. Reviewing your assessment and reassessing if necessary – Settings should periodically review the assessment and, if necessary, reassess any controls in place. Forgetting to review your risk assessment is easy, especially when trying to run a business, but don’t wait until it’s too late: set a date to review your risk assessment while you’re conducting it and remember to add the review date to your diary.

All staff should have training on your setting’s health and safety procedures, as well as provided with health and safety policies that include details of your hygiene regime. They should also be trained in the evacuation procedures in the event of a fire or other emergency, receive first aid training, and made aware of signs of illness. They must be trained to use all equipment correctly and safely.

Ongoing training should be undertaken, as this will give everyone an opportunity to keep up to date. Remember, individual employees are ultimately responsible for reading and absorbing policies and procedures to ensure their own health and safety, in addition to that of others.

Accidents can occur even in the best-run settings, but with an effective health and safety policy – backed up by a thorough staff training programme – the risks of serious illness or injury can be greatly reduced.

The HSE has issued guidance for the education sector that covers many issues, ranging from tackling violence to coping with contractors working on the premises and organising farm visits.

As an Alliance member, you have access to Law-Call's 24-hour legal advice telephone service, which can help you navigate through the process. Contact details can be found in the Alliance member benefit overview section of EYA Central: bit.ly/U5Law-Call.

The Alliance also has many relevant publications – including Managing Risk, Good Practice in Early Years Infection Control, Accident Record and Incident Record – that can be found on EYA Central.