Health and safety policy

Coordinator: Carol Richardson

Clophill Preschool ltd has a duty to protect the health, safety and welfare of its children and families, employees and visitors. This involves deciding what should be done to prevent harm and ensuring that the relevant actions are taken and are updated whenever necessary.

Health and Safety law does not expect all risk to be eliminated but that 'reasonable precautions' are taken, and staff are trained and aware of their responsibilities.

We co-ordinate and promote a safe working environment and safe working practices. Good communication between all staff is a vital part component based on shared knowledge and understanding of regulation and preschool’s approach to learning and play outdoors and the care of children with additional needs.

Common sense should prevail.

The setting

• Our setting is a rented hall with an outdoor area for our sole use

• We are responsible for our own outdoor area safety and are insured accordingly as an Outdoor setting, we are also registered with Ofsted

• VHC are responsible for the hall and all its owned contents

• The outdoor environment is owned by the Parish Council

• We communicate freely with the VHC and PC regarding any concerns or issues

The business

• Staff are required to report any health and safety concerns to the management team

• Any major changes to the Health and Safety policy, resources or the environment are discussed with staff

• Staff are supported to feel confident to question any health and safety concerns they may have

• Concerns can be brought up at any time, including during supervisions

A useful document to read: Children’s Play from the HSE

Setting safety            

● Supervision of children

• Children are taught to manage their own risk when playing in the setting

• All doors and gates are locked and cannot be accessed unless staff members allow individuals through

• Parents are asked not to open any gates or doors themselves or allow anyone into the setting whether they are known to them or not

• Adults can only be left unsupervised with children once all relevant checks have been cleared, this includes Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks and references

• All staff are Paediatric First Aid trained

• Ratios - we meet the minimum ratios of 1:5 for 2 year olds and 1:8 for 3 and 4 year olds at all times though we often overstaffed, there is a ratio board which is updated throughout the day

• Children are marked in for the session and out again when they leave

• Staff must be vigilant at all times and report any persons lingering on preschool/village hall property immediately

• Sleeping - children who fall asleep in setting are checked on every 10 minutes and these are annotated on a communication form

• There is a Safe collection policy

• There is a Missing child policy

• There is an Imminent threat policy

● Visitors

• There is a visitor procedure for all to read on the front boards, indoors and out

• There is a visitor sign-in folder

• There is a Visitor Policy

• There are visitor belongings boxes for them to put their things into including phones/tablets

• Staff give a verbal safeguarding chat to every visitor on entry

● Food and cookery

• There is a Food Policy and Food Handling Policy

• We have procedures in place

• We are a no nuts setting

• Food allergies are recorded and taken into account

• Staff are trained in Food Hygiene level 2 and allergens

● Nappy changing

• We have a Toileting, intimate and personal care policy adn procedure

● Animals

• We have 2 guinea pigs and 3 chickens on site for whom risk assessments are regularly carried out and children are taught safety surrounding them

• Individual risk assessments are carried out the instance of an animal coming into setting

• Visiting groups e.g. Animal Edge must provide their own risk assessment

• When we are outside of setting and see animals e.g. on walks or to Chris’s smallholding then staff will make an assessment of the risks as they see them at the time and act accordingly

● Adjustments for children with disabilities

• Risk assessments are carried out by the SEND team with the cooperation of parents and any required professionals e.g. occupational health or physiotherapist or SEND advisory teachers.

● Medical

• We have a Medical policy which includes these subjects

-   allergies – parents are asked for when initial paperwork is completed and a medical

board with a traffic light system is in place

-   existing conditions and how we should deal with them

-   care plans and storage of medication

-   medication and its administering procedure

-   illness and absence of children including sickness and diarrhoea

-   temperatures

• We also have an Accident and Existing injuries policy

• There is a Medical and Safeguarding folder that we store all incident forms in, these are checked half termly for any worrying trends

• Staff information on illness and injury is in the Staff Handbook

• Staff completed Medical forms are kept in their personnel folders

● First Aid

• All staff have to be paediatric first aid trained

• There is an Accidents and existing injuries policy

• There is a green First Aid kit on the office trolley at all times as well as a red First Aid rucksack for use outside in the polytunnel

• There is also a burns kit kept with the fire kit

• The Health and Safety coordinator (Carol) is responsible for checking and restocking the First Aid kits

● Risk Assessment

• Staff safety check the whole site at the start of each day

• Risk assessments are talked about at induction and at regular training, we have a baseline risk assessment of the whole setting

• It is embedded practice at preschool for staff to discuss the setting, how it works, how it is being used and any concerns they may have, every day

• There is an ethos of ‘risk – benefit’ assessment for all activities, this means that when assessing activities, we consider whether the benefit to children outweighs the level of risk

     Things to consider:

1.    Is it dangerous and if so, can we manage or lessen that risk?

2.    Is it wasteful or harmful to the environment?

3.    Are they learning from the activity and if so, what?

4.    Do we need to adapt the activity to improve it?

● Adventure Fridays

• We have an Adventure Friday handbook that includes information on clothing, food and activities

• The Adventure Friday handbook details risk assessments and safety measures and environmental factors

• We offer visits to our Adventure Friday sessions three times a year to show parents what to expect

● Individual rooms

• kitchen – only accessed by adults, external access door kept locked from the inside

• ladies toilet - for children only to use, hand driers turned off, no child to use unattended

• disabled toilet – for changing children, on change mat on the floor only and when not in use for children can be used by staff and visitors, hand driers turned off, there is an emergency pull cord, no child to use unattended

• men’s toilets – can be used by adults

• Catton room – used by staff or for meetings with parents or professionals

• entrance hall – to be kept clear at all times for emergency exit, exit has handle lock on it, no key required (staff are taught how to use the lock)

• main hall – used every day by SEND team, emergency exits clearly marked, cross signs on doors to inform children, no child left unattended

• cupboards – those we don’t use are all kept locked by the Village Hall Committee, our cupboards are usually locked unless in use, no entry to children

● Outings

-          Permissions are asked for at induction to go into the wider grounds of the village hall

-          Other outings require additional permission

- Risk assessment is carried out

● Fire safety

-          Fire drills are carried out every term for a week at a time and recorded

-          There is an evacuation procedure on the back of the window board

-          We have an Emergency evacuation and lockdown policy

-          There are fire extinguishers in the building which are the responsibility of the Village Hall

Committee

-          There is a fire blanket in the kitchen

-          The fire exits in the building are clearly marked and kept clear

-          The fire alarm is tested regularly by the Village Hall Committee

-          Staff are shown what to do in the event of a fire or event requiring us to evacuate the

building at induction

● Reporting of incidents

We use:

• Accident forms

• Existing injury forms

• For all other incidents we use Communication forms

● Reporting Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences - RIDDOR

The law requires the following work-related incidents to be recorded:

-          Death

-          Major injuries

-          Over 3 day injuries, that is where an employee or self-employed person has an accident and the person is away from work or unable to work normally for more than 3 days.

-          Where a doctor notifies that an employee suffers from a reported work-related disease

-          Injuries to members of the public where they are taken to hospital

-          Dangerous occurrences, where something happens that does not result in a reportable injury but which could have done

-          Gas incidents

In the case of any of the above it will be reported as soon a practicably possible and in any event within one working day. This can be done online but a telephone service is also provided for reporting fatal/specified incidents only - call the Incident Contact Centre on 0345 300 9923 (opening hours Monday to Friday 8.30am to 5pm).

Out of hours you can use also use the correct online form found at: https://www.hse.gov.uk/riddor/report.htm
The Incident Contact Centre will forward details of incidents to the relevant enforcing authority, which is the environmental health department of your local authority. 

The HSE is not the enforcing authority for independent preschools, this is our local Council Health and Safety department however, in light of a lack of information from them, we have made the decision to complete a RIDDOR form in the event of an accident whose level of seriousness requires us to do so.

A copy of any serious incidents is kept in the Dropbox Vault.

● Control of substances hazardous to health - COSHH

• Preschool only uses household chemicals for cleaning, primarily Milton and all products come in their original packaging to ensure we understand how it should be safely stored and used. All substances are stored out of children’s reach.

• Other more toxic cleaning products are provided by the VHC and not used by preschool, the VHC keep these chemicals in locked metal storage in a cupboard in the kitchen.

● Electrical Equipment

• Village Hall Committee carry out PAT testing on the electrical good they supply e.g. fridge, kettles etc

• We have a printer, laptops, karaoke machine, MP3 player and various charging plugs for cameras and speaker we also have a number of battery-operated toys

• All of our equipment is monitored for safety or damage

• If anyone is in any doubt over the safety of electrical equipment, stop using it and report the concern to a manager, who will investigate take the necessary action

● Personal safety

• If staff feel that a visitor is being abusive, they should stay calm, stay back and inform a member of staff, if the person is not already in setting, do not allow them through the gate, be polite but firm, if they are in setting,, notify other members of staff calmly and remove any children from the immediate area

• In the event of staff feeling the situation is unsafe the police may be called

• The member of staff should make a written record on a communication form of the incident

• Anyone being abusive to anyone on site may result in parents being asked not to set foot on preschool’s site or in extreme circumstances they may be asked to withdraw their child from preschool

  Abuse of staff will not be tolerated

● Festivals and events

• In the interests of public safety, events must adhere to guidelines for numbers for hall capacity

• Health and hygiene rules are adhered to, all staff have level 2 Hygiene certificates

• The hall maintenance and cleaning is organised by the Village Hall Committee

• We have business and public liability insurance

• Visitors are asked to not post photographs onto social media of other people’s children who may be in shot with their child, without the parents express permission

Please see the posters in setting on the back of the window boards that give instruction on:

• Health and Safety at work

• Manual Handling – also see Manual Handling policy

• Emergency evacuation and lockdown – also see Emergency and lockdown policy

• Reporting a concern – also see Dealing with disclosures and concerns procedure

• Visitor information

Feb 24