Health And Safety Persuasive

Evaluate own practice in promoting balanced approach to risk management. It is important you have a balanced approach towards risk assessments. You must always make sure that children are not at any risk but sometimes you may give them the freedom to do something knowing they won’t hurt their self but will learn from it. For example if a child was walking along a balancing beam that wasn’t very high with a soft surface underneath then they wouldn’t be at risk of any danger, they may fall but it wouldn’t cause any injury. When children are doing a new activity or using a new area it can create a dilemma between the duty of care and the children rights. As a practitioner I should always do risk assessments on the activities and the environment. There is a mix of adult led and children led activities throughout the nursery. Children need to explore their own levels of risk-taking but in safe environments. If we try to over protect children and prevent them from taking risks they will seek their own risk-taking when adults are not around. The EYFS states that we need to conduct a risk assessment and review it regularly, the guidance on play includes the advice ‘through play, in a secure but challenging environment with effective adult support, children can take risks and make mistakes’

Analyse how helping others to understand the balance between risk and rights improves practice.

Evaluate the health, safety and risk management policies, procedures and practices within the work setting. The health and Safety at Work Act 1974 is the primary piece of legislation and is responsible for enforcing the act and a number of other acts relevant to the working environment. It also states that all staff should take reasonable care of themselves and others around them and for their safety. Risk assessments have to be done regarding all types of work we do or the equipment we use to see if it’s safe to do so. All our legislation and policies and procedures are kept in folders in the manager’s office so we know where they are at all times and are relevant and up to date. We have health and safety, COSHH, RIDDOR, Safeguarding, Manual handling operations. The main Health and safety policies and procedures agreed with the manager are to make sure all staff and residents are safe and away from danger at all times. All members of staff should be aware of these policies and procedures and are responsible for carrying out good practice according to these policies.

Identify areas of policies, procedures and practices that need improvement to ensure safety and protection in the work setting. As I have only worked with this company for a few months I feel that their policies and procedures for new starters need to be improved. When I first started I didn’t have any form of an induction with the manager, I was just thrown straight in. I wasn’t given any policies to read or any induction pack with the policies in. At first I was very unsure of the way the company worked and I had to ask a lot of questions. My work colleagues had to tell me the basics of the important polices such as fire and evacuation procedures. As a result of this I didn’t feel very safe at work and if it wasn’t for my work colleagues and me asking lots of questions I would still be unsure of what to do in an emergency.

Recommend changes to policies, procedures and practices that ensure safety and protection within the work setting. I think that new starter policies should be improved to ensure safety and protection within the work setting. New starters should have a formal induction with the manager and be given an induction pack which includes a copy of policies and procedures that have to be signed by new starters to say that they understand and will follow the policies. Also a tour of the home should be given so that employees are aware of where all the nearest fire exits are and where everything is located within the home. Following the induction new starters are placed on a six month probationary period and I think that there should be regular meetings/ updates with the manager to make sure that they feel safe within their job and there is no concerns that need to be addressed.