By law, all nursery schools must undertake an assessment of the risks related to the regular and occasional activities of all staff, children, parents and any other visitors to the nursery.

To meet this requirement all nurseries are obliged to provide a written policy concerning the health and safety at work of everyone who uses the nursery. This requirement covers all aspects of the nursery including safety within the classroom, the children's toilets, play areas, the administrative area and the immediate environment. Within the policy specific risks and hazards have to be identified and assessed, and there has to be a statement of the ways in which these problems are dealt with.

To meet the legal requirements, both general and specific risks have to be identified and effective controls must be put in place. Information and instruction to staff must be prepared and supervision requirements of children need to be considered. It is as important to consider the potential of a child touching an electrical socket as the chance of an estranged parent picking up a child against the primary carer's wishes. All these requirements are laid down in the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the subsequent Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations.

Risk Assessment Documents for Nursery Schools contains a series of check lists to allow you to check hazards and risks around the nursery premises, and then to measure the risk severity, in terms of the hazard, frequency of exposure to the risk, the risk itself and the consequences. Risks are then rated from trivial to intolerable which helps classify action.

Risk Assessment Documents for Nursery Schools is available as a copiable book, so that the documents can be re-used when assessments are re-considered each year and when changes in procedure are monitored. It is also available on CD Rom in a form that allows the nursery to modify the text and incorporate the templates into the nursery's own risk assessment reports.

Cat No: 978 1 86083 746 3