Safety

8.4 Risk Assessment

Policy statement

Our setting believes that the health and safety of children is of paramount importance. We make our setting a safe and healthy place for children, parents, staff and volunteers by assessing and minimising the hazards and risks to enable the children to thrive in a healthy and safe environment.

This policy is based on the Pre-school Learning Alliance risk assessment processes, which follow five steps as follows:

• Identification of risk: Where is it and what is?
• Who is at risk: Childcare, staff, children, parents, cooks, cleaners etc.?
• Assessment as to the level of the risk as high, medium, low. This is both the risk and the likelihood of it happening: as well as the possible impact if it did.
• Control measures to reduce/eliminate risk: What you will need to do, or ensure others will do, in order to reduce the risk?
• Monitoring and review: how do you know if what you have said is working, or is it enough? If it is not working, it will need to be amended, or maybe there is a better solution.

Procedures

• Our risk assessment process covers adults and children and includes:
• Checking for and noting hazards and risks indoors and outside, and in our premises and for activities.
• Assessing the level of risk and who might be effected;
• Deciding which areas need attention; and
• Developing an action plan that specifies the action required the time scale for action, the person responsible for the action and any funding required.
• Where more than five staff and volunteers are employed the risk assessment is written and is reviewed regularly.
• We maintain lists of health and safety issues, which are checked daily before the session begins as well as those that are checked on a weekly and monthly basis and termly basis when a full risk assessment is carried out.