Support Children and Young People’s Health and Safety

1.1: Describe the factors to take into account when planning healthy and safe indoor and outdoor environments and services. There are a lot of factors to take into account when planning a healthy and safe indoor or outdoor environment and service. These will include the needs and requirements of the children/young person firstly. The service should meet the needs of the children and young people, such as changing the service to suit the children and young people’s individual needs, age and abilities. ( outside environment- padding on the floor, padding around bars(climbing frame) gates surrounding the area preventing the children and young people from getting out and preventing potential unauthorised adults having contact with children and young people.)

Take into account the children and young people’s specific needs, such as; sensory impairments learning difficulties, disabilities and pregnancy, but also taking into account the needs of the children and young people’s carers. Check the function and purposes of the environment and services offered (ensure the venue you are using is suitable for the activity you are planning by checking equipment and staffing is efficient) and ensure the duty of care is being met by all staff involved with the service offered. Think about the desired outcomes of the activity, and about what you are trying to achieve. If the activity is something the children and young people can progress in, ensure there are progression steps they can make to better themselves and their learning.

1.2: Explain how health and safety is monitored and maintained and how people in the work setting are made aware of risks and hazards and encouraged to work safely. Health and safety is monitored and maintained in the workplace by following; the Health and Safety at work Act 1974, the guidelines of COSHH, and RIDDOR, following the Childcare Act 2006, Food Hygiene Legislation and all workplace policies and procedures. Staff have access to these documents upon induction of the workplace. In my workplace we have an accident book that is used whenever a student or staff have an accident; this is monitored to help us as a organisation prevent it from happening again. To promote health and safety in the classrooms we have posters encouraging the young people to keep their workplace clean and tidy by cleaning up after themselves and respecting the building they are using.

All wires and electrical equipment is safely stored in cupboards or tucked away from the young people’s reach. We also have a signing in book that all visitors, staff and young people have to use upon arrival to the building. This is used for fire safety reasons (if there was a fire in the building we would have access to knowing how many people where in the building at the time and could record how many got out) and also for health and safety reasons (if a stranger came into the organisation we would be able to find their name in the book). All staff in the building are advised to wear name badges to make the students and visitors aware of who is staff and who isn’t.

1.3: Identify sources of current guidance for planning healthy and safe environments and services. Sources of current guidance for planning healthy and safe environments and services are – Health and Safety at work Act 1974, Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH), Reporting of injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences regulations (RIDDOR), Childcare Act 2006, Food Hygiene Legislation 2006, Workplace policies and procedures. These’s are all policies and procedures that should be easily accessible I the workplace and introduced to you upon induction. The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 is the primary piece of legislation covering occupation health and safety in the United Kingdom.

The Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) is the law that requires employers to control substances that are hazardous to health. The Reporting of injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences regulations (RIDDOR) is the regulations that require responsible persons to report deaths at work, major injuries causes by accidents at work, injuries to persons not at work that require hospital treatment, injuries arising from accidents in hospitals, and dangerous occurrences in the workplace. The Childcare Act 2006 measures the important strategic role local authorities play, through a set of duties. Food Hygiene Legislation 2006 focuses the responsibility on food business operators to produce food safety. It states that the methods you use to ensure food safety is maintained should be effective and proportionate.

1.4: Explain how current health and safety legislation, policies and procedures are implemented in own work setting or service. In my work place we ensure the safety of our staff and the young people who attend the college by following The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, it is the employers duty to put policies and procedures into place to ensure that our setting is meeting the standards of the Health and Safety at Work Act. We follow this act by ensuring the building and environment around the building is well maintained, clean and safe for the young people and staff to use.

We have systems in place to ensure the safety of the young people and staff that attend the building, such as the Fire Alarm system (which is tested once every two weeks), the signing in book (all visitors, staff and students must use the signing in book when they arrive in the building and when the leave the building, it consists of; the name of the person, the date, the time they arrived and the time they left the building, their car registration (if applicable) who they are visiting and what company they have come from (if applicable)) and we also have a policy that all staff have to wear name badges (this is for the safety of the young people at the college to ensure they know who is a member of staff and who isn’t). We provide adequate facilities to suit the needs of all young people and staff, all staff are qualified and CRB checked and are also giving relevant training that would be used in the centre (first aid, fire safety etc.)

3.1. Explain why it is important to take a balanced approached to risk management. It is important to take a balanced approach to risk management because risks are important to a child’s development. Without being introduced to certain risks a child would develop into a adult that has never had to deal with things themselves and problem solving. Certain risks help children and young people to understand and relate to other risks in the future. If the child or young person wanted to do a activity where there is a risk but not something that will cause significant harm, then the child should be allowed to do this so they can learn from the dangers if something did happen. For example, if a child or young person went on a jungle gym in the local playground, the risk would be that the child could fall off and hurt themselves. To lower the risk of the child or young person from hurting themselves the member of staff or parent should try and make the jungle gym safer to play on, maybe by adding padding around the bars and laying a padded floor on the bottom, this would then still give the child the risk of falling off and hurting themselves, but they are also in no real harm as the floor is padded.

3.2. Explain the dilemma between the rights and choices of children and young people and health and safety requirements. Any activity involves risk, however if the activity is well planned and organised and the possible risks to children/young people partaking in the activity are identified and deal with in the best possible way then the likelihood of an accident happening is minimal. Staff need to balance the risk of an activity against the benefit to and the safety of the child. Risks and challenges are important to a child and young person’s development, just as a teenager/adult learns from the mistakes they take in their lives a child/young person will take the experiences they have with Play and various other activity’s and use them to develop their understandings. Avoiding risks and challenging themselves would result in a young adult who would lack in everyday skills and abilities, this would also make then unaware of risks and dangers to them.

Children and young people need to explore and take a risk every now and again to learn from things and develop. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child identifies the rights of children and young people to learn and develop into adults and be protected from harm, therefore it is our duty to ensure that children and young people in our care are able to take risks and experience new things as long as the professionals who are working with them can say that the area and the activity they are about to do is going to be a safe learning experience to them and will not in any way be a significant risk to them.

3.3. Give a example from own practice of supporting children or young people to assess and manage risk. In my work setting we work with young people aged 16-19, this means a lot of them have an understanding of risks and dangers around them. As a fund raising activity for the young people to go on a trip at the end of their course they decided to plan and prepare a buffet for all staff, because this meant the group had to prepare food we gave them a few Food Hygiene tips for them to go by (mixing of meats, washing hands, utensils) part of the buffet was a fruit salad. One of the girls who prepared the fruit salad had been given the job of cutting up the fruit. I explained the risks of using a knife i.e. cutting self, always keep the blade pointing outward, don’t swing it about while you’re talking… she understood this and prepared the fruit salad with no accidents. 4.1: Explain the policies and procedure of the setting or service in response to accidents, incidents, emergencies and illnesses.