FEATURE FOCUS: HEALTH & SAFETY
Fulfilling your school’s obligations regarding playground safety
deliberately put children in harm’s way, but a lack of understanding about playground equipment safety, inspection regimes and qualifications may unfortunately be doing just that. They are also leaving themselves open to significant damage through legal action.
What educators may not be aware of is that there are many manufacturers and installers of playground equipment who, knowingly or unknowingly, are providing equipment that doesn’t meet the British Standards and are providing inspectors who are not qualified to do the job.
They will also not realise that staff at schools should be properly trained in how to conduct a routine, weekly inspection of playground equipment.
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n our first look this month at health and safety in schools, Andrew Wood, Managing Director of leading playground designer and manufacturer ESP Play, explains how health and safety checks for playground installations are almost redundant unless they are carried out by independent qualified inspectors and that school staff should have training to carry out routine checks.
All school managers know that their first priority is the safety of their children whether in the classroom or on the playground. Nobody involved with a school would
According to Jon Dalton, Managing Director of the Play Inspection Company, these are among the most common missteps made by schools and academy trusts when commissioning new playgrounds or playground repairs. Jon, who is also Vice Chairman of the Register of Play Inspectors International (RPII), said: “The two biggest mistakes that schools make most often are in buying equipment that doesn’t conform to the standard - and not having qualified inspectors involved for either the post- installation checks or annual inspections. “There are many examples of playground equipment installed in school settings that do not conform to the British & European Standards (BS EN 1176).
“There are also occasions where schools are 30
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saving money by purchasing equipment that is meant for domestic use - rather than a heavy-use situation such as a school or public play area. “When it comes to safety inspections, the installers are frequently inspecting their own work without qualified, independent inspectors taking responsibility for signing off the installation. “Most school staff are also not trained to carry out the regular inspections of play equipment and all of these factors leave schools in a potentially dangerous position regarding liability.” Sadly, it is only when an accident happens that some organisations start to look into understanding the rules, regulations, guidelines and laws around playground safety. This is obviously too late for the person who has been injured and too late for the school to offer any defence.
The standard that all playgrounds should adhere to is BS EN 1176 - which outlines good practice for designing, manufacturing, installing and maintaining school playground equipment in public spaces.
The standard covers a range of measures but the key elements are:
Structural strength
School playground equipment should be strong and stable enough to support children of different ages and abilities. It should also be able to cope with large groups of children using an item simultaneously. Adults should also be able to access the equipment in order to help a child.
April 2024
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