Minimum Room Temperature

[Guest]

I personally think that children being in any building that is very cold (0-10 maybe) for a few hours at a time isnt good. You can plan physical activity for some of the day but not all of it and all the children are different anyway some will want to join in and some wont. We are there to provide a warm room as some parents wont tog their children up whatever we say. Our bathroom is very cold and i wouldnt want to change a nappy in there.

 

I would also shudder at the thought of taking the kids outside togged up to them come into a room thats barely making a temperature above zero!!

 

I know we take things too far at times but sometimes togging up and jumping around doesnt always resolve the issue but then im sure we all have very unique situations.

[Annie-pops]

Hi have been reading this thread with interest as our first day back in work after snow break today and we had to decide not to open owing to room temp and difficulty in finding clarification as to what constitutes the statutory minimum 'acceptable'temperature! As it was below the 16 degrees (just scraping 13 in the less draughty spots) suggested on HSE site we thought we'd better double check if their was a specific figure for children but we can't appear to find one!

[Guest]

The minimum room temperature for a place of work is 16C, therefore you cannot insist your staff work if the room is not going to heat up to this temperature, if this means you would have to close then that's what you have to do.

 

There doesn't seem to be a specific law about what temperature childcare settings must be, so if all staff are willing to work in the colder conditions then I suppose it's just about using common sense, unless anyone knows any different?

 

It seems silly to me that there isn't a minimum temperature since the children don't have a choice about being there; if their parents choose to leave them in the cold then they have to stick it out whether they like it or not. The minimum working temperature is there to protect adults who don't have much choice about going into work so you would think that really there should be one for childcare settings as well.

Edited January 11, 2010 by Guest

[Guest]

Surely if anything below 16 is too cold for adults then its too cold for children?

[Guest]

We were told by a local authority bod that it was 18c for children and it needed to be that before we opened. She was very helpful and told us the information came from a parliamentary question and answer (Hansards). She laos volunteered to come and speak to our building managers if we needed her to. We don't reach that temperature from about October to March but we use our common sense in deciding to open or not. Ofsted have commented in the past but an April to July, September to October pre-school doesn't really sound a viable proposition!

[Sue R]

not sure for pre-schoolers but classrooms in schools should be 18

 

We are closed due to our village hall being too cold, been a battle with committee though. This is very much a hot subject for us at the moment!

 

HSE definately state 16 for adults but nothing is mentioned about the children. Our temp at the moment is well below 16!!

 

I would be interested if anyone can find an exact temp for under 5s so I can relay the information to the committee.

 

 

I realise others have made similar remarks, this just caught my eye.

Our heating recently broke down - Manager attempted to ascertain minimum temp for children, only to be told there wasn't one ( ) but minimum for adults was 16.

 

Heating was fixed quick when Directors realised NO staff = NO children!

 

Sue

[lynned55]

There is no min/max temp for EY's children, There is however one for classrooms- 18 degrees. Not sure on the max though