This written in response to the several “Help! I’m a new manager – where on earth so I start?” pleas I have heard recently! This is written from my own experience as an owner / manager / inspector – I don’t assume I have all the answers – this is just what I would do in these circumstances. Please feel free to agree / disagree / comment – all dialogue is healthy! “Safeguarding is effective” In terms of your Ofsted report this is the phrase you need to have. Without it, however good your learning and development is, your setting will be judged at best ‘Requires Improvement’, if the breaches of statutory requirements do not impact negatively on children. If the breaches of statutory requirements do impact on children, you will get an ‘Inadequate’ judgement. The inspector will discuss with senior colleagues and with Ofsted whether your inadequate judgement will be ‘notice to improve’ or ‘enforcement’. What happens next in these circumstance is very clearly explained in the Ofsted publication The next steps: when a provider is judged inadequate or is not complying with requirements. August 2015, No. 120233 A safeguarding issue that doesn’t impact on children negatively might be something like this: you haven’t updated your safeguarding policy and procedure to include details of The Prevent Duty – but when the inspector talks to you about it you understand the requirements and have appropriate measures in place that you are using to ensure that you are meeting the requirements. So, although you haven’t got it written in the right place children are not affected by the omission. Or: it might be that the person who is your nominated first aider has missed the renewal date on their certificate but you have booked her onto the course for next week and so there will be a lapse of less than a month. It is a requirement that there is a qualified first aider – so that she is technically ‘unqualified’ is a breach, but it won’t negatively affect the children if she is only ‘unqualified’ for a couple of weeks. When your inspector writes your report the comment on safeguarding will either be ‘effective’ or ‘not effective’. They do not write anything else – the way you safeguard children will not be “Wholly effective” or “dangerously ineffective”. For inspection purposes you either are, or are not, effective. As high quality professionals dedicated to our roles we all want to protect and keep children safe from harm. This piece is written to try and offer some support to new managers who just don’t know where to start. So, you’re a new manager and suddenly the whole responsibility of safeguarding falls to you – where on earth do you start? If you have been promoted from the staff team you may already have some information and idea of the existing policies and procedures. If you are completely new you will have to get to know what has happened previously ‘from scratch’. My advice would be, whatever your previous experience – start again from the beginning – you have to put your name on the policies and procedures – you have to know they are correct and work for you, your team and the children who depend on you. What would I do first? Safe Premises Go to your setting when it is closed … that way there will be no distractions, you need to concentrate. If you have a deputy or nursery owner, see if they will accompany you, two pairs of eyes are better than one! Take a clipboard and a large pad of paper! Walk through your entire setting and look for what might possibly go wrong … here is an example of what the very beginning of mine might look like. My nursery is on a residential street. Where? Potential hazard? Checked ok? To Do? Done? Pavement area outside the nursery Trip hazards Y Hanging branches from the garden Scratches to face or eyes. Dropping fruit, leaves N Caretaker to trim back Is the nursery fence secure? Children crawling out of garden. People reaching through holes Y Handle to gate Eye level latch Y Continue in this way and walk through every area of the nursery; indoors, outside, staff areas, children’s areas etc. …. When you go through children’s areas go on your hands and knees so you are alert to hazards at a child’s height, not only hazards at adult height. See if you can open any of the cupboards that have got cleaning materials in. Check the first aid kits. Test your smoke alarms. Put a note of the day you checked them and check them weekly thereafter. Check that the emergency exit doors open and close easily and are not blocked. Check that any equipment used if there is a fire is safe and has been checked (check fire extinguishers, blankets etc. annually). If you have systems to use in the event of a fire (whistles, emergency bags, emergency registers) make sure they are complete, up to date and in the right place. Do a fire drill during your first week. Look at everything – it’s your responsibility. Your list will be massive and this will take you a very long time but by the end you will have achieved the following: · excellent knowledge and understanding of your nursery environment, · a clear list of things that need to be included on your risk assessments and health and safety checks for the premises · identified issues for your ongoing self-evaluation / development plan that you want to change or adapt over time. If you have any immediate issues e.g. a broken fence panel you must make sure your Registered Provider addresses them straightway. They hold the legal responsibility for the provision, it is up to them to ensure that the premises are suitable. If it is going to take time to fix you must make write a risk assessment to ensure that while you are managing the setting it is safe to use – so, if there is a broken fence panel through which children might crawl – how are you going to ensure that children don’t get near it? Can you seal that area off? Can you make a temporary fix? How are you going to keep the children safe? Make sure that all staff know and understand what the risk assessment is for, why it is important and what you expect them to do. If you are not happy that the setting is safe, then you cannot let children come in. A couple of examples from my own experience: When we needed to have building work done at the nursery: we needed to have some major tiling work done on our roof – it would mean a week with men working on the outside of our building. Before the work could go ahead we needed to consider the following risks: What if a tile fell on a child when they were in the garden? What if one of the builders was not safe around children? What if one of the builders needed to come inside the building? We already had a risk assessment for ‘small works’ (below) but we needed to ‘beef it up’ for this large project. NURSERY HEALTH AND SAFETY RISK ASSESSMENT ACTIVITY Building and Repair works by staff and outside contractors. HAZARD Accidents arising from ignorance of correct procedures THOSE AFFECTED nursery care staff children parents and other visitors. ASSESSMENT LIKELIHOOD 1-5 SEVERITY 1-5 DEGREE OF RISK LXS MODERATE 1-5 2 5 HIGH 5-10 VERY HIGH 10-25 RISK MANAGEMENT · Whenever possible, works are to be carried out when the nursery is closed · If this is not possible emphasis will be given to issues arising from working where there are children and staff present: in particular; access to the works and /or machinery, tools and materials required for the works. In particular, unauthorised access, fire safety, premises security, · All small hand tools are to be safely secured when works areas are left unattended · All materials are to be COSHH assessed and a record kept for reference purposes · All works involving the employment of outside Contractors are to be risk assessed and working methods agreed prior to commencement · Specific risks relating to health and safety; storage of materials, secure access to the works – ladders, steps, scaffold and the like will be identified prior to commencement and appropriate arrangements made to manage them. · induction training in relevant policies and procedures will be given to all site operatives prior to commencement · Regular monitoring and review of Contractor performance will be carried out by the relevant Nursery manager · Site operatives will be in possession of DBS clearance, or, where agreed, under the charge of an on-site supervisor who has, at all times. DATE OF ASSESSMENT DATE FOR REVIEW SIGNED This Safe Method of Working is designed to promote the safety of children by ensuring that proper precautions are in place to prevent accidents So, when we took quotes for the work we asked the contractors to consider these problems too. We also only saw contractors that we knew had worked for the local authority, for schools. In the end we came up with the following arrangements and they became our shared risk assessment (between us and the contractors) – 1) the children would not play in areas where the builders were working, 2) Staff would always accompany children between the building and the play area (i.e. no free-flow), 3) builders would stop working whilst children moved between the nursery building and the play areas, 3) the scaffolding would go right down to the ground and would include a ‘safe tunnel’ through which children could move from the building to the play area without danger of tiles falling on them, 4) the contractors would provide a ‘portaloo’ so that builders didn’t need to use our facilities. We also met daily with the contractor and reviewed the risk assessment as the job went on to make sure it was still working for everyone. We also notified Ofsted that the work was being done and sent them the plan of works and the accompanying risk assessment. This covered our responsibilities in: Statutory Framework for the early years foundation stage (2014) [p31, aspect 3.77] By the end of this risk assessment process you should confidently know your premises and the immediate environment. This will help you make informed decisions about how you want to manage the setting on a day to day basis. Doing this successfully i.e. thoroughly, noting problems and addressing issues and learning from what you have seen will mean you have gone some way to addressing the following: Statutory Framework for the early years foundation stage (2014) [p27, aspects 3.54 and 3.64] Early years inspection handbook (August 2015) [p33/34, bullet points 5 and 10 in ‘Outstanding’ grade descriptor]
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.