Safe outside area

[EleanorB]

Hi everyone

I am in the process of setting up as a childminder. Can someone tell me if I have to have safe outside area for children to play. I have a middle sized garden and want to know if I have to make it safe.

[sarah707]

Safe = secure fencing and gates, resources appropriate for the ages of children, flooring that is smooth and not a choking hazard ...

Hth

[bunyip]

Hi everyone

I am in the process of setting up as a childminder. Can someone tell me if I have to have safe outside area for children to play. I have a middle sized garden and want to know if I have to make it safe.

Do you mean "safe for the children" or "safe from the children*" ?



*Apart from the occasional deer, children are the UK's largest species of garden pest.

[FloraDora]

I have heard of childminders who are told on reg visit that their garden has to be safe and so not okayed - I have read about childminders who never use their garden yet still make a living.

Personally - I get so much out of my garden both personally and professionally I cannot imagine having one, but not doing it up to be a lovely place to sit / play. It really costs little these days.

Why have a house with a garden and not make it as safe as your home? I can't get my head round this ...I think it is just as important, so I am going to say yes you have to have a garden that is safe, occasionally it might not be safe like today if your fence has fallen down! But having a safe garden says something about you to prospective parents...it says your home will be a safe secure place for their LO, it says that you haven't just done the bare neccesities to get your registration, it says you put safety as high priority, it says you have somewhere nice that their children can play.

But my setting is very much outdoorsy so it is my selling point, difficult for me not to see the outdoors as really important.

[alex__17]

We use our garden so much, for all messy activities as they make so much mess I couldn't even consider doing it indoors and the boys particularly will concentrate and become absorbed in an activity outside they would barely look twice at inside.
I have a toddler anyway so it was quite easy to make ours safe just needed a high bolt on gate we use it most days even though we always do a trip out somewhere outside all morning and over lunch!

[Mouse]

I like my garden to be safe so that I can open the back door and let the children have free access to it. I couldn't do that if there were any known hazards.

Is your garden not safe at the moment? If certain sections aren't fit for use, could you section them off so you have at least some safe places for the children to play?

[Maza]

It depends on what you class as 'safe'. It doesn't have to have expensive special flooring like you would see in a playground. If you have a concrete floor then you probably shouldn't buy high equipment for them to climb on - take them to a park for that instead - that's totally fine. You must make sure that it is child friendly, whatever you have, so no cigarette butts (neighbour has been dropping them in communal part of our garden, grrr), no broken glass, huge stinging nettles, dog mess etc. Don't focus on what you cannot change - some people have 'dangerous' steps leading down to their garden. If the steps are a death trap even for adults then you would have to consider changing them, but if they are only dangerous for certain age groups, eg crawling babies, then just risk assess and watch them like a hawk. You definitely need to make sure that the children cannot escape - I bought a padlock for my gate, nothing fancy.

Some childminders don't have a garden at all, so don't worry about the size of your garden.

[bunyip]

I agree with Maza.

This is all part of the weird view we have in the UK of safety and risk. We somehow expect to be able to categorise everything as either "safe" or "unsafe", in the same way as we are taught to regard all foods as "healthy" or "unhealthy". It really is not that simple, and it does involve some thinking (something else the British public seems to be cr4p at. ) Things tend to be on a spectrum, rather than just black/white.

We've been here before with garden plants. Essentially a plant is either edible or poisonous. But just because it's poisonous does not mean it is unsafe: rhubarb leaves and green potatoes being the typical causes of panic: that is, until you figure out how many kilos of the things you'd have to get yourself outside before they did any actual harm. And potatoes are a great example: every part of the plant is toxic, apart from the tubers.

I recall one prospective client querying the safety of my garden as it contained "too many hard surfaces". Yes, love, they are called a "patio" and "steps" and are constructed of "paving slabs". And yes, I 100% expect your child will fall on them at some point and will hurt himself. He will probably not end up in hospital or on a mortuary slab as a result. These are all things your child will encounter in life should you ever let him beyond the cotton-wool bounds of your own home and car.

[watford wizz]

When we moved to our present home the rear garden was one long steep slope so ofsted would not allow me to use it, even though I said with the ramp up to front door I could open both doors and children could free wheel right through (no sense of humour inspector not impressed). I was still allowed to continue minding just put down that we would regularly visit parks/other outside space and local gym for children's sessions. Two years on the garden has been terraced and made safe and the children love it.

[Gill Brownsword]

My garden is not finished so my inspector asked my intentions and then told me I was over thinking things and made some suggestions. It is completely enclosed so there will be no escaping. My inspector was concerned about 2 very badly built rockeries that have very few plants, she said she was happy with plastic pots forming a barrier until some bushy plants had time to grow. But you can register without registering the garden if you wanted to.
Hope this helps!

[RCTLisa]

We are in the process of having our garden done at the moment (well trying too).

Its only small (33ftx22ft) and current half is taken up by a 16 x 8ft shed. We also have 4 dogs who have a dog flap in to the garden so out plan is to spilt the garden in half.

Where the shed is will become a gated and secured play area for the the children (We have a 2 year old of our own) and the rest will be paved for the dogs and us to enjoy. It isn't much but I hope its better than nothing.

We do have a park less than 2 mins walk away which we can use to run around rather than the garden. Just hope this will be ok

[mumofone]

I spent ages getting my garden safe for my pre reg and did a really in depth risk assessment, it was chucking it down with rain the day she came and she didn't even check! So I probably wouldn't stress about it!

[bunyip]

I spent ages getting my garden safe for my pre reg and did a really in depth risk assessment, it was chucking it down with rain the day she came and she didn't even check! So I probably wouldn't stress about it!

Comforting to know that the inspectre's latest hair do matters more than a thorough safety check.

(with respect to mumofone, maybe the inspectre realised you'd done everything else so thoroughly, she thought she'd trust you on the garden..... )

[hectors house]

Comforting to know that the inspectre's latest hair do matters more than a thorough safety check.

(with respect to mumofone, maybe the inspectre realised you'd done everything else so thoroughly, she thought she'd trust you on the garden..... )

So much for the so called Ofsted saying of "no inappropriate weather, just inappropriate clothing"!

[mumofone]

When Inspectors talk of "large sized gardens" and "small gardens" does anyone know what it's based on? One persons "large garden" may be another's small etc.
Just wondering...!

[bunyip]

When Inspectors talk of "large sized gardens" and "small gardens" does anyone know what it's based on? One persons "large garden" may be another's small etc.
Just wondering...!

Envy?

[mumofone]

Envy?

What mine or theirs?!

[bunyip]

What mine or theirs?!

Theirs. I've always assumed the inspectre thinks your garden is big if it's bigger than their own.

Perhaps we could 'phone and ask Ofsted exactly what they regard as a "standard" sized garden. Actually, forget that: I know they'll just say "refer to EYFS."

[FloraDora]

Well let's hope Monty Don and the gardeners world team don't advise! Joe Swift has been designing small gardens recently that are bigger than my whole cul de sac !