Risk Assessments

[bezi123]

Hi, I am in the process of writing my risk assessments, I have done one for each room in my house, garden, large play equipment, walks, car, but when it comes to outings such as the park do I have to to a seperate one for each park? there will probably be 6 different parks/country parks I will use does each need a seperate risk assessment or can I just do one for parks in general and the equipment eg slides, swings etc?

Also my bedroom will only be used for sleeping babies in a travel cot, so they wont have access to the room unless in the cot for a nap, do I still need to risk assess everything else in the room?

Thanks in advance for any advice

[Penny1959]

The advise you will get on this will vary greatly.

Some will say you need a written RA for every single thing - some will say you only need some generic RA's and that is actions not bits of paper that keep children safe. Some will be somewhere in the middle.

All of these different ways of approaching risk assessment have been awarded the full range of grades - so you can see that there is not a 'right' answer.

Personally I have the few generic ones

But it is up to you to decide how you keep children safe - and to have the confidence to explain how whatever you have in place works for you.

So to answer your question - if you think you need a written RA for each and every little thing - do them. If ou think you don't think about how you will explain this to inspectors and parents.

Penny :)

[mummyme]

buy sarahs e-book. it has helped me soooo much.

[EmmaReed84]

I have a few that go in to detail and some general one.

Although the whole of my house is registered they only time mindees are upstairs is when 18 month old sleeps in travel cot in DS's room. I have a breif RA for the room, nothing too OTT.

Mrs O asked what I do when I put LO down and simply said I RA the room there and then ensuring the cot is in the middle and there is nothing that mindee can reach and because it is my Son's room things are always changing and it would be impossible to have a written RA each time. I visually do that every time and remove any risks.

[sarah707]

In a sleep room you need to check things like choking hazards, electrical sockets, climbing out of cots, temperature control...

hth :D