Safe Environments, indoor and outdoor

Indoor: An indoor environment in a nursery must be safe and secure for all ages, it must feel homely and be bright, colourful and welcoming. A nursery is like a second home to some children they need to feel happy at nursery, as some children eat and sleep at nursery. In a baby room there needs to be lots of soft toys so that if the toys are being thrown around by the children then they can’t hit and hurt the other children. In a toddler and pre-school room the toys can be different they can start to introduce plastic in to the play times e.g. Lego and stickle bricks, at this stage children are learning about throwing and know that it’s unacceptable to throw. Plug sockets covers and door hinge covers must be fitted so that children to do not electrocute themselves or trap fingers in doors. Child safety catches must be fitted to every cupboard door and draw so that the children cannot get things and chemicals out the cupboards and draws. Desks need to be high off the ground so that children cannot reach things off them like the important paperwork and registers or pens and sprays.

Windows must be higher off the ground or covers up by plastic sheeting so that the children cannot open the windows or fall out of them. Door handles must be higher up than usual so that the children cannot open the doors otherwise they could escape and stair gates must be fitted in baby rooms and top of stairs so that children cannot fall down. Outdoor: an outdoor environment must be fun and full of activities to do there must be lots of space for the children to play in. In an outdoor environment all the toys must be safe and checked for any damages, if it has been raining and the equipment is wet then make sure that the climbing frame and toys are wiped down so that none of the children can slip off and hurt themselves. the floor must be at a even level so that there are no bumps and lumps on the pavement as children don’t look where they are going and could trip up and hurt themselves. make sure that the outdoor environment is safe and secure and that they children can’t get out of the area and run off. Safe activities:

All activities must be safe and include every child they must all be at the right standard for the child’s EYFS development. Some of the activity may need to be differed to fit certain children and some child might find the activity easy. You may need to see what stages all of the children’s developments are at and see if you can add anything on to their development sheet from the EYFS, you could adapt the activity to try and see if the child has met any of the criteria on the EYFS. All toys must be safety kite and CE marked so that we know if they have been thoroughly checked or not. A toy with a kite mark has been independently tested by the British standards institution. A manufacturer pays for their products to be kite marked by the British standards, the kite mark stamps give buyers the assurance that the product is safe and reliable. The CE mark is now required to appear on all toys that are on the European market, it shows that all toys with the stamp on have passed the European toy safety directive.

In my placement I have a child who is and elective mute, she will talk to all of her friends and her parents but will not talk to any of the staff members at nursery. As the child will not speak to her she will not tell us when she needs the toilet or wants a drink. In her basket in setting she has cards that say different things like toilet and drink and she shows us the card when she needs them. We also ask the child a lot of questions to make sure that she is okay. If it is a yes and no question she puts her thumb up to yes and thumb down for no. other examples are if a child had a visual impairment then we would move the child closer to us and they would have bigger cards or stories so that the child can be included as well. Specific Risks:

If a colleague was pregnant her duties of care will be changed to make sure that her health is maintained, she will not be allowed to lift the children or heavy things she may want to work less hour if she is getting tired and she may also need to go off to hospital appointments. If a child was in a wheel chair or had visual or sound impairments and there was a fire in the building they will need help out of the building so that they can be safe and secure the child in the wheel chair may have to go a different way down ramps. If a child has a server nut allergy and cannot be in the room with nuts then the nursery will have to ban nuts from the nursery and make sure that all pack lunches do not contain nuts. Responsibilities

Chef= Cooks, makes sure the kitchen is clean.
Key Workers= Cleans, Childs Development records.
Manager= Arranges lunch breaks, shows new guests round and interviews new staff. Owner = Deals with all payments.
My responsibility: Look after children, clean, do activities like Christmas cards and feed the babies.

H&S at Work act 1974
The health and safety work act is a legislation that covers all health and safety in Great Britain. The health and safety act and other legislations are responsible for keeping people at work safe. Employees have a duty in the work place; to make the work place as safe as possible, to make sure that the health and safety law poster is displayed so that all members of the staff can see it. Employees must work in a way that meets the health and safety at work act, the must work in a safe and secure way and not work in a way that puts other people in danger. COSHH

COSHH requires all employees to make sure that all hazardous substances that are a risk to someone’s health. To find out what the risks are of the hazardous substances a risk assessment should be done of all hazardous substance in the work setting. RIDDOR

RIDDOR is the reporting of injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences regulations 1995. The self employed and those who are required to report injuries must make sure they report all incidence such as, work related deaths, major injuries, 7 day injuries, work related diseases and dangerous occurrences. All these things must be reported to RIDDOR; deaths, major injuries, over 7 day injuries, injuries to a member of the public, work related diseases, dangerous occurrences, road traffic accidents, violence at work, injuries in school, gas incidents, people not at work, suicide or self harm, mental health issues, occupational diseases, construction incidents, incidents involving children’s play equipment, incidents on country side visits, sporting injuries, fairground injuries and catering and hospitality accidents. Occupational diseases are diseases such as; carpal tunnel syndrome, severe cramp of the hand or forearm, occupational dermatitis, hand-arm vibration syndrome, occupational asthma, tendonitis and any occupational cancer Manual handing operations 1992

Is related to lifting and moving heavy or light things in the work place. Injuries are not just caused by lifting or pulling something then can be caused from the amount of times you are lifting something e.g. a child. Fire precautions act 1971

The fire precaution act is to protect services users from risk of fire, every setting must have a fire precaution certificate which shows that the authorities are happy with the fire procedure in that particular setting. Every setting must have fire exit signs and fire doors. Fire procedures must be checked and tested with the staff and the children every so often. Childcare Act 2006

The Childcare Act 2006 was set up to improve the five Every Child Matters outcomes for all pre-school children and reduce inequalities in these outcomes, To secure sufficient childcare for working parents and To provide a better parental information service.