Policy: Safety Checks

In this article we review our approach to risk assessment and some of the important safety checks managers and room leaders need to undertake on a weekly basis to meet compliance requirements

Key Points:

• Room leaders and managers need to under take daily room and site wide risk assessments / inspections as part of their on-going H&S compliance. These reports should be filled out in laminate, photographed, shared with the manager on slack and then migrated to the schools Health & Safety folder>Risk Assessments by the manager
• Managers also need to do monthly checks of the medication cabinets and evacuation bags
• All risks highlighted during the day / week or month need to be highlighted to the staff team in the weekly staff meeting
• All principal risk assessments of our furnishings and infrastructure / operations must be updated annually and retained in the Health & Safety folder>Risk Assessments on the school's team drive, signed and dated by the author. These should be shared with the central team and your central risk registers updated on the MIP
• It is a legal duty as part of the HSE Legislation to ensure that all appliances and systems within the school are operating compliantly. Managers must book in regular annual checks for all critical infrastructure as part of their on-going compliance work, using Google Calendar and agreed suppliers from their MIP to diarise repeating task obligations
• All staff should have completed their risk assessment training within the first 3 months of employment on Educare and / or Citation
• All dangerous substances must be locked in the COSHH cupboard

Safety Checks

At Hatching Dragons we make sure the nursery is a safe environment for children, parents, staff and visitors by carrying out safety checks on a regular basis in accordance with the timescales set out in the nursery checklists. These include daily checks of the premises, indoors and outdoors, and all equipment and resources before the children access any of the areas. The checks are recorded to show any issues and solutions.  

This policy should be read in conjunction with the fire safety, risk assessments, visits and outings and the equipment and resources policies.

All staff should be aware of potential hazards in the nursery environment and monitor safety at all times.

Risk assessments

Risk assessments document the hazard, who could be harmed, existing controls, the seriousness of the risk/injury, any further action needed to control the risk, who is responsible for what action, when/how often will the action be undertaken, and how will this be monitored and checked and by whom.

The nursery carries out written risk assessments at least annually. These are regularly reviewed and cover potential risks to children, staff and visitors at the nursery. When circumstances change in the nursery, e.g. a significant piece of equipment is introduced; we review our current risk assessment or conduct a new risk assessment dependent on the nature of this change.

All staff are trained in the risk assessment process to ensure understanding and compliance.

All outings away from the nursery are individually risk assessed. For more details refer to the visits and outings policy.

Hints and tips

Please refer to the Health and Safety Executive’s ‘Five Steps to Risk Assessment’ located [insert location here] for further support with the risk assessment process The Five Steps to Risk Assessment publication and risk assessment templates can be downloaded from the Health and Safety Executive’s website at www.hse.gov.uk

Electrical equipment

• All electrical cables are kept out of the reach of children wherever possible and shielded by furniture where they need to be at floor level
• Electrical sockets are all risk assessed and any appropriate safety measures are in place to ensure the safety of the children.

Mains information 

Dangerous substances

All dangerous substances including chemicals MUST be kept in locked areas out of children’s reach. All substances must be kept in their original containers with their original labels attached. Safety Data Sheets (Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH)) and risk assessments must be kept for all substances and the appropriate personal protection taken and used e.g. gloves, apron and goggles. 

Hot drinks and food

Hot drinks must only be consumed in the staff room. No canned drinks, sweets or crisps are to be kept or consumed in the nursery rooms.

Transport and outings

The nursery has a comprehensive documented policy relating to outings, which incorporates all aspects of health and safety procedures including the arrangements for transporting and the supervision of children when away from the nursery.

Room temperatures

• Staff should be aware of room temperatures in the nursery and should ensure that they are suitable at all times and recorded on the appropriate sheet. There is a thermometer in each room to ensure this is monitored
• Staff must always be aware of the dangers of babies and young children being too warm or too cold
• Temperatures should not fall below 18°C in the baby rooms and 16°C in all other areas
• Where fans are being used to cool rooms, great care must be taken with regard to their positioning.

Water supplies

• A fresh drinking supply is available and accessible to all children, staff and visitors
• All hot water taps accessible to children are thermostatically controlled to ensure that the temperature of the water does not exceed 40°C.

Gas appliances

• All gas appliances are checked annually by a registered Gas Safety Register engineer
• Carbon monoxide detectors are fitted.

The checklists used in nurseries include: