Dcypw_Level_3

3.4: Support children and young people’s health and safety Chris Chapman 12-10-2011 Task 1> Understand how to plan and provide environments and services that 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. While it is necessary to provide activity’s and equipment for children within your setting to encourage and promote their development it is also important to ensure that health and safety in place. Ways in which we as practitioners can ensure safety for all is by remembering and carrying out certain procedures, and remember some important factors whilst doing this, such as: * When planning room layouts, it is important to remember that all children are individuals with different needs depending on their age and ability. If a certain activity requires a vast use of physical movement then you must take into consideration that perhaps some children may be limited in their movement or based on their age may be less able to perform this certain task then one of an older age. * Would have to also consider children who have sensory impairments, such as a child with limited hearing would struggle to comprehend what was being said when being educated on the explanations of safety. * The safety and well-being of children is paramount when planning activities within a setting. Therefore you must consider and ensure that duty of care for each any every child and staff member is in place. * Ensure whether indoors or outdoors, that all activities provide appropriate space, is safe and suitable. This could be accomplished via risk assessments. An example of appropriate planning would be in the instance of a climbing frame or balance beam. When setting up this activity, factors such as is the apparatus near any obstructions, is the apparatus appropriate to age and needs. 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. Within my setting there are various ways in which risks and hazards are monitored and maintained these being: * Risks assessments are carried out every morning before children arrive by staff to ensure there are no potential risks or hazards. If for any reason there are any risks or hazards then it is recorded upon the risk assessment form, and all members of staff are notified of this. * Policies and procedures regarding safety at work are issued to all staff at the beginning of employment and are kept in the office available to all to read at any given time. * All students who are doing their training within the setting are issued with a policies and procedure hand out on what is to be expected of the student whilst at the setting. With regards to health and safety this is monitored and maintained by certain factors. An instance being when providing children with food from the snack table. A list of all children’s names is in a folder with all allergies displayed next to their name. This is available to all staff to see ensuring that no child accidently consumes or drinks something that will initiate there allergies. Another example of health and safety being monitored and maintained is by following and enforcing COSSH this is done by having all cleaning chemicals and products locked away in a cupboard in a room away from children. In terms of safety the entire setting is safeguarded in various ways: * Safety fence and gate disallowing access for children when out in the play area * Safety plugs are in all electrical outlets * All doors that provide entry or access are locked and door handles unobtainable to children’s reach * All visitors be it Ofsted or other must sign in and present identification if from a governing body. 1.3 Identify sources of current guidance for planning healthy and safe environments and services Although my setting has the latest documentation regarding the latest legislation and guidance as well as their own policies and procedures, there are also relevant and resourceful sites obtainable via the aid of the internet. These being: * Health and Safety executive: www.hse.gov.uk/ * Child Accident Prevention Trust: www.capt.org.uk/ * Department for Education: www.education.gov.uk * Department for Education in Northern Ireland. www.deni.gov.uk * England and Wales-www.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/eyfs/site/requirements/index.htm * Scotland-www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/04/12103332/33329 1.4 Explain how current health and safety legislation, policies and procedures are implemented in own work setting or service. Within my setting we follow the current legislation act which is the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. This is overall the main responsabilty of the manager, but also gives certain roles of responsibilities to the employee’s also. The policies and procedures based on the Health and Safety at Work Act in which we use as childcare practitioners are: Toys (safety) Regulations 1995- All toys within a childcare setting are checked by staff. Things in which we would look for would be * BSI tags- this stands for the British Standards Institution. Any toy /item that have this marking has been independently tested and confirmed that it complies with the relevant standards and is safe and reliable. * Chips/cracks, loose parts or missing parts- Any toy or item with a default would be immediately discarded. Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations (COSHH)-This is implemented by having all cleaning chemicals and substances locked away in a separate room from where the children play. We also do not use bleach when mopping the floor as a child could drop food on to floor that may still have traces of bleach on from previously mopped floor and become ill, or worse. * Health and Safety(First Aid) Regulations 1997- All members within my setting are fully trained and competent in administering first aid and have a fire marshal also who is responsible for all fire drills and fire safety checks. All staff are aware of all fire exits, As well as all children knowing where the fire exits are, they also know the correct procedures to follow when fire drills are carried out. * Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995(RIDDOR)-This is used within my setting by staff by Recording any accidents or injuries within an accident/injury folder that contains information about the child’s name and the accident/incident that occurred and how it was dealt with, e.g. child was comforted and cold compressor was applied. Any signs of a disease such as chicken pox is made aware to all staff and parent is informed also. Task 3 Understand how to support children and young people to assess and manage risk for themselves 3.1 Explain why it is important to take a balanced approach to risk management With any given activity given to a child, there are bound to be various possibilities that could present a potential hazard or risk, even something as facile as painting could hold hidden risks. The secret to a successful activity then is to be able to balance the risk of an activity against the benefit to and safety of the child. Having said this is also important for a child to face certain risks and challenges throughout their development. Such things as attempting the balance beam for instance. Possible risks are presents and hazards could occur, but unless the child was to attempt this task no learning of how to prevent this ricks or hazard will happen. If child was to fall from beam because of not holding on to safety rails, the child would learn from this and hold on the next time. As long as activities for the children are in a safe environment and have been risk assessed, then with correct supervision the likelihood of hazards or risks should if anything be to a minimum, Knowledgeable understanding of the children’s stage of development and their required needs will benefit in providing the right amount of risk in activities. An example being having a creative activity that would allow children to cook and put food into the oven by themselves would not be age appropriate. 3.2 Explain the dilemma between the rights and choices of children and young people and health and safety requirements. Children should be given the right to learn by trying out new experiences and to make choices in order for them to develop into adults and protect themselves from harm. The UN Convention solely believes in this, but this is not always the case and can be a dilemma between what is essentially right for the children and the choices they make against the health and safety requirements implemented within all childcare settings. In other words children do not have the required skills and judgement to always make the most safest of choices. This then does not mean that the children should not be allowed to do various activities, but instead we as practitioners should be able to identify potential hazards in any situation and to judge when it is safe to allow children to undertake an activity or make a choice. If we were never to allow children to take risks then how are they to learn from their mistakes. Some children may need to may need more freedom to explore risks than others. A disabled child for instance may not be given much opportunity at home to take risks or make choices for himself where as in a well-controlled childcare setting the child would be allowed to just the opposite and be encouraged to explore risks and try out new skills. 3.3 Give examples from practice of supporting children or young people to assess and manage risk. Within my setting we are constantly supporting children in assessing and managing risk. Staff are aware of any risks by carrying out risk checks every morning, and mange the prevention of risks by having a plan lay out of the setting that practitioners follow when setting the setting. This plan has been devised as to avoid risks by illustrating where each item should go allowing enough space for movement, as well as having what activities to have out based on what areas of development will we developing on this particular day. Children are also given the opportunity to assess and manage risk also by the setting having its own rules the children follow to ensure minimal risks occur. An instance being children should walk instead of running. If we are to see a child running instead of simply telling them not to run, staff stop the child running then ask what it is they think they are doing wrong and what could happen if they continued to run, child then is asked how they can prevent hazard from happening. Although parents and childcare practitioners have a duty of care and are constantly safeguarding and risk assessing etc, it is also important to let the children have fun by exploring and sometimes a little mistake or accident is beneficial ad a learning curve improving and further progressing the Childs cognitive, and physical development. An example being a child cycling manically and crashing into a wall. Child falls off bike and hurts himself, By child doing this he has learnt to drive sensibly and stop the bike or at the most slow down before approaching obstructions such as walls or children 4 Understand appropriate responses to accidents, incidents emergencies and illness in work settings and off site visits. 4.1 Explain the policies and procedures of the setting or service in response to accidents, incidents, emergencies and illness Children in any childcare setting will undoubtedly have accidents on a regular basis, but it cases of real accidents and emergencies that all staff should know how to professionally and correctly handle and carry out. The first port of call would be to remain cal and be confident with your actions when tending to child who is wounded or other. This is the prime aim of first aid, which is to preserve life and to prevent effects of the injury becoming worse than necessary. This is why all members of staff should be first aid qualified, to handle efficiently and effectively any cases of accidents, incidents, emergencies or illness. In the event of an injury occurring these steps should be followed in order to maintain a calm and professional manner when dealing with said incident: Taken from CYPW level 3 written by Penny Tassoni et al published 2010 This injury once dealt with would then be recorded in an accident and injuries folder, explaining the cause of incident and what was done to treat the injury. The parents would of course then be notified upon arrival of collecting child at end of school day via this folder of accidents/injuries. If the injury was on a more serious scale then the Childs emergency contact would be notified via the documentation that was completed by child’s parent/carer. The emergency contact would be notified of incident and injury as well as what action is being taken, if child is to be taken hospital manager would supply address of hospital. The manager or Practitioner who tended to Childs injury should also go with child in ambulance. This will reassure the child and make him feel a little less apprehensive of going to the hospital without his parents being with him, Will also act as representative to child’s parents when explaining in depth to cause of incident and be the point of call to the parents when arriving at the hospital. AMBULANCES When contacting emergency services, always have to hand the details of the accident and injury. This can be found within the accident and indent folder, which is used to record all incidents and or incidents of harm. The age of the child should be acknowledged and given to emergency services as well as where the injured child is. In cases of serious bleeding or restrictions of breathing an ambulance should be summoned as soon as possible, whilst first aid is being administered via staff. FIRST AID KITS All childcare settings should be aware and have a fully equipped first aid box. A designated person should also be given responsibility to check and stock first aid box on a regular basis. RECOGNISING SIGNS OF ILLNESS Although children may seem happy and fine they may later in the day become ill or give cause for serious concern, in the very extreme may even result in an illness that becomes life threatening. In this type of situation parent(s) would be notified immediately so they can take their child home and or to the doctor if needed. It is of great importance for practitioners to be aware and be able to recognise when a child is seriously ill in order for immediate action to be taken. If any of the following should occur medical help should be seeked immediately: * Difficulty in breathing * Floppy or unresponsive * Unconscious * Suspicion that the child may have meningitis Bullet points extracted from penny tasouli cypw level 3 MENINGITIS The signs and symptoms staff within a childcare setting need to be aware of where meningitis is concerned is: Cut and copied from Google images EMERGENCY PROCEDURES WITHIN A CHILDCARE SETTING The health and safety act of 1974 states that all childcare settings that have a capacity of 5 or more staff-will have a safety policy. This policy will cover such things as emergency procedures in the event of a fire, accident or other emergency. There are many different variations that class as an emergency and it is important fall all members of staff to know the procedures on each, especially for fires, security incidents or if a child goes missing. EVACUATION PROCEDURES There are numerous reasons in which a childcare setting may need to be evacuated immediately, instances being, fire, gas leak or bomb scare. All staff must know what procedures to follow in the event of an evacuation, as well as children being educating on evacuation procedures via carrying out evacuation drills. This should be carried out on a regular basis with signs and notices clearly displayed, such as fire exits clearly labelled and free of obstructions. IN CASE OF FIRE * Close all doors and windows * Do not stop to put out fire(unless fire is small and manageable) * Do not leave children unattended * Call the fire brigade by phone as soon as possible as follows: Lift the receiver and dial’999’; give the operator your settings telephone number and ask for ‘fire’ when the brigade replies give the address of your setting with a referral to nearby buildings such as pub or shopping centre. Do not hang up until address is repeated back by the fire operator. FIRE PRACTICE Drills should be carried out every three months and all members of staff as well as the children should know what to do in the event of a fire. The procedures in which my setting follow in the event of a fire are: * Fire has been spotted, three loud short rasps on whistle indicates fire has been discovered * Children then make their way to the nearest fire exit * Children hold onto a blue rope and led out to the meeting point which is located away from setting * Names are then called out and recorded as present on the register Staff should also consider these points when carrying out a fire drill: * If there are problems with the procedures repeat the drill and seek advice from a fire officer. * Reassure children a practice by staying calm and explaining what is happening * Praise children and thank them for their help in carrying out their evaluation * Provide an absorbing activity such as reading a story or playing a game to help calm the children and settle down. MISSING CHILDREN As long as all doors are locked or inaccessible for children to escape through then all children within a setting should not go missing. When children are collected at the end of the school day, they must only be collected by parents or authorised cares or relatives. On outings the child to practitioner ratio should be adequate. In the event of a child going missing an alarm should be raised immediately notifying all members of staff. The relevant procedures of my setting would be followed which include: * Making sure all other children are safe and present * Making any external exits are secure * Informing the person in charge * Starting a systematic search, based on where the child was last seen, and with whom, and make sure all areas are covered * Informing the manager * Informing the child’s parents * Informing the local police