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Accident reporting


tinkerbell1403
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Hi All and hope you all had a lovely Summer break for those of you that got one,

 

So first day back and one of our children manages to break their arm!! Good start to the new term.

 

Anyway, I have reported this to OFSTED and they have said I need to submit a report and they will log this on the system. However, does anyone know if I need to report this to HSE or not? I am looking at guidance but there is little specifically for Early Years provision.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

TIA

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Hi - oh how awful - are you looking under RIDDOR?

 

Yes Sunnyday, our H&S officer and I are looking in the CIEH guidebook she received on her level 3 training but it is more of a blanket cover for employees and it doesn't give a clear cut yes or no answer. It doesn't specifically refer to education provision either

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Just found a factsheet from HSE which states that

 

"What about accidents to pupils in a playground?
Most playground accidents due to collisions, slips, trips and falls are not normally reportable. Incidents are only reportable where the injury results in a pupil either being killed or taken to a hospital for treatment. Either scenario is only reportable if they were caused by an accident that happened from or in connection with a work activity.
This could include, for example, incidents arising because:
the condition of the premises or equipment was poor, eg poorly maintained play equipment; or
the school had not provided adequate supervision, eg where particular risks were identified but no action was taken to provide suitable supervision."
After reading this we are both in agreement that the accident did not occur due to faulty equipment or premises and there was indeed adequate supervision (3 qualified staff in the area at the time!) I am concluding that this is not reportable to HSE but will print this out and keep it handy with the report so I can refer to it if we get any backlash!
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A child at my setting had an accident in February and had to go to hospital with a broken bone in foot. We phoned Ofsted a for advice and to inform them as it involved a hospital visit. On their advice we had to submit form F2508 to HSE which is just an electronic report of injury (sorry don't have link but you could search for the form number which I have looked up we have the notification response still) . Like you it was just one of those freak accidents and we heard nothing back from Ofsted or HSE. We redid risk assessments etc.

We were lucky that the parents were really supportive and the child returned with no problems. I feel for you as it really shakes you up

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  • 4 months later...

I wish I had seen this nearer the time ... We had a little girl break a leg at pre-school, [last year now] - just a freak accident, equipment fine and child well supervised. I reported accident to Ofsted who told me 'not to worry, I had followed correct procedure by informing them just had to put details in writing'. A short while later I had an unexpected Ofsted inspection when I was told that as I had not reported accident to Local Safeguarding Board within the required 14 days I could only receive a 'satisfactory', as I had not followed the correct procedure.

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  • 9 months later...

[...] a factsheet from HSE which states that

[...] Incidents are only reportable where the injury results in a pupil either being killed or taken to a hospital for treatment. Either scenario is only reportable if they were caused by an accident that happened from or in connection with a work activity.

This could include, for example, incidents arising because:
the condition of the premises or equipment was poor, eg poorly maintained play equipment; or the school had not provided adequate supervision, eg where particular risks were identified but no action was taken to provide suitable supervision."
After reading this we are both in agreement that the accident did not occur due to faulty equipment or premises and there was indeed adequate supervision (3 qualified staff in the area at the time!) I am concluding that this is not reportable to HSE [...]

I'm going through policies and got stuck with the same question - do we have to report accidents to children to the HSE (RIDDOR). You concluded 'not' (but perhaps changed your mind later.) To me it looks like 'yes' because of the first paragraph - the child had to go to hospital. The second paragraph only has examples.

However, this is the text I got from the HSE web site (the one that seemed most relevant to early years) and now I think 'no':

Are accidents to pupils sustained in PE lessons reportable under RIDDOR?

A. No, most are not.

Such accidents only require reporting if:

  • the pupil is killed or taken to hospital for treatment to an injury (ie not as a precautionary measure) and
  • the accident was work-related in that it arose out of or in connection with the work of the school or college, rather than as a consequence of the normal risks associated with participation in physical activities. For example, if the accident was caused by faulty equipment or inadequate supervision
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You need to report to ofsted (and do a RIDDORreport) on any serious injury. Now until recently ofsted have not quantified what a serious injury is but i found it on their website a few months ago (will have a look for it) but it generally covers the same format as your insurance (who also need to be told!) so death,head injury causing loss of consciousness etc ...the hospitalisation bit is the tricky bit though as it is usually classed as an injury that leads to a stay in hospital....it doesn't say how long the stay is !

It doesn't surprise me that the LCSB is informed but i would doubt they would get involved unless there were other reasons.

Having had a previous accident that led to an inspection (the child had cut his lip...was fine but the parents went to the hospital to get it checked as they couldn't be bothered to wait for a doctors appointment) i did not deem this serious but ofsted said because he had gone to hospital it was. I had a serious discussion with ofsted regarding this and our judgement was upheld. We now tend to report on anyone who has gone to hospital to ofsted and do a riddor if it falls in the serious injury catagory

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Either scenario is only reportable if they were caused by an accident that happened from or in connection with a work activity.

I thought RIDDOR was for adults in the work place.

In our policies I have that serious injuries to children have to be reported to the Health and Safety Executive Incident Contact Centre over the phone, but obviously got it wrong.

Edited by Wildflowers
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HSE is the body RIDDOR is the reporting system all pupils need to be treated as a member of the public having an accident on your site. They should give you an accident number which is then passed on to ofsted. Either body may then contact the parents to ask if they are happy with the way you handled the case. HSE are an advisory body ...you can always call them for advice.

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