At Ladybird Pre-School Nursery we take steps to reduce and mitigate risks which contribute towards our Nursery being a safe and healthy place for children, parents/carers, staff and volunteers. By assessing and minimising the hazards and risks our environment enables the children to thrive in a healthy and safe environment. Our risk assessment procedures are part of a continuous process to mitigate against any dangerous incidents taking place. They are the responsibility of the Nursery Manager and Nursery Trustees.
In accordance with our duties under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, the Nursery is required to undertake regular risk assessments and take any necessary action arising from these.
The Nursery Manager and Trustees are responsible for:
- making sure that risk assessments are completed, logged and effectively monitored.
- conducting reviews when there is any change to equipment or resources, any change to Nursery premises, or when the particular needs of a child or other person necessitates this; and
- conducting any necessary reviews or making changes to the Nursery’s policies or procedures in the light of any potential risks that they or other members of staff discover.
- carrying out an annual Health and Safety audit which includes viewing and commenting on nursery risk assessments.
Our risk assessment processes follow five steps:
- Identification of risk or hazard: Where is it and what is it?
- Decide who is at risk and how: For example, Nursery staff members, volunteers, students, children, parents/carers, visitors, cleaners.
- Evaluate the risks and decide on precautions – can you get rid of the risk altogether, if not how can you control it?
- Record the findings and implement them – prioritise, make a plan of action if necessary.
- Monitoring and review – how do you know if what has been decided is working, or is it thorough enough? If it is not working, it will need to be amended, or maybe there is a better solution.
Procedure
Our risk assessment process covers adults and children. It includes:
- checking for and noting hazards and risks in our premises and for activities.
- assessing the level of risk and who might be affected.
- deciding which areas need attention; and
- developing an action plan that specifies the action required, the timescales for action, the person responsible for the action and any funding required.
At the start of each day the Nursery Manager, or in her absence the Deputy Manager, carries out a daily risk assessment check of all areas of the Nursery environment which is recorded on a chart. Any hazards that cannot be rectified are assessed and reported to the Trustees. If the Nursery Manager, or in her absence the Deputy Manager, decide the setting is not safe to open they will inform the Chairperson of the Trustees and the final decision will be that of the Chairperson, the Chairperson will also inform Ofsted.
During a Nursery session, staff members will be vigilant and continuously aware of any potential risks to health and safety arising from:
- the Nursery’s environment, both indoors and outdoors.
- all surfaces, both indoors and outdoors; and
- all equipment used by children and/or staff (or other adults).
On discovering a hazard, staff members will take all steps necessary to make themselves, and any other people potentially affected, safe. They will then notify the Nursery Manager (or the Deputy Manager in her absence) and ensure that a written record is made on an incident form.
The Nursery Manager, in conjunction with the Nursery Trustees, are then responsible for ensuring that any necessary action is taken.
A full risk assessment is carried out each time we attend an activity outside of the nursery premises. The nursery has a complex Epidemic and Pandemic risk assessment which is updated accordingly following the latest guidelines outlined by the Government and Public Health England.