Support Children and Young Peoples Health and Safety

It emphasises the important principles to be followed when working with children and young people: settings must provide a safe and secure environment, if any children are identified as suffering from abuse or likely to suffer the appropriate action must be taken.

It is important to take into account the health and safe requirements of all pupils before planning or starting any activity, ensuring that the environment is free of hazards and the children can play and learn safely.

Security: Any outside area used by children should be secured and boundaries regularly inspected, to ensure the safety of all pupils.

Unit 027, 1.1 - Describe the factors to take into account when planning healthy and safe indoor and outdoor environments and services.

Children and young people should feel happy, safe, respected and included in the school or early years setting environment and all staff should be proactive in promoting positive behavior in the classroom, playground and the wider community. Policies and practice which make sure the safety and wellbeing of children should already be in place and it is this legislation develop through many years and experiences, and mistakes, that underpin the working practices that are used today.

The extent to which children can be allowed to take responsibility for themselves will vary according to the age and abilities of each child, but by allowing an adult to monitor this process, it will facilitate in some cases children being able to play a part in their own Health and Safety. An example of children playing an active role, is where for instance one child notices another child about to embark upon a dangerous endeavour such as climbing up a fence, or running on icy ground. The child who notices this situation can then report back to an adult of the impending danger, and that adult can then take appropriate steps to remove the danger. In this

* Ensure that the environment is safe, secure with high quality of hygiene practices for staff, children and their families and any member of the public while using the premises.

If pets are present then children’s play areas must be free of pet food and waste

Factors to take into account when planning healthy and safe indoor & outdoor environments & services.

Every kid and person must be respected and protected as an individual with his/her own specific needs and characteristics, who at the same time will be socialising with other individuals and their needs and personalities. Thus, when all being together we have to ensure that we are supporting them as individuals as the same time we offer them a comfortable environment to develop their socialising skills

Risk assessments should be carried out regularly to make sure that there are no safe guard threats towards the children in the setting. Childcare settings need risk assessing for example is there entrances and exits to the building that an unauthorised person could use? Could a child leave the setting without anyone noticing? Could a child get seriously hurt due to a broken piece of equipment?

It is important that children and young people are allowed to exercise their rights and choices, whilst health and safety requirements are maintained. This can lead to a dilemma when children and young people wish to undertake a task that you may feel is not within their capabilities, or that is not safe for them to do so

It is very important to let children asses’ danger for themselves in a secure environment. It is not good for them to be cooped up and have somebody tell them that one thing is bad and will hurt them and another will keep them safe they need to identify these things for themselves to enable them to live a positive life as an adult and to gain confidence in themselves and their own abilities. At the same time the children need to be given this chance in a safe and secure place whereby I as the carer know they will not come into any danger.

Children love to play and explore. For example while in a park a child will want to climb a ladder to go on a slide. Natural reaction may be to hold or even pick up a child and put them up. Children learn best when trying and experiencing things themselves. There is a risk of a child slipping and falling of the steps but a child also has a right to experience facilities to aid their development. Children need to learn how to predict and avoid dangerous situations.Another potential dilemma may be confidentiality. I must ensure that all personal information is kept confidential and is not shared with anyone else unless permission form is signed. But if there is a case of concern that a child’s welfare may be at risk social services have to be informed.There is also a possibility of conflict with parent’s wishes due to their culture and religion.

The main health and safety and security requirements that apply to a play environment are that the facilities are clean and