CHCCN511A: Establish, manage and monitor the implementation of a safe and healthy environment

Assess and improve the safety of environments

Contents

Assess environments for suitability and safety against relevant criteria and make decisions 3

Assessing the environment for suitability before building a childcare centre 3

Licensing regulations and the childcare environment 4

Assessing the safety of the outdoor environment 4

Assessing the safety of the indoor environment 5

Identify hazards and potential risks in the environment with others involved 7

What are safety checklists? 7

Identify and clearly communicate the level of response required to address a hazard 10

Assessing the level of risk 10

Strategies to manage risks 10

Communicating safety plans clearly 11

Facilitate strategy development among others involved 12

Working with others to maintain the safety of environments 12

Develop, implement and review a plan with others 14

Identifying risks and developing a plan 14

Reviewing the plan 15

Developing a culture of safety 16

2 Diploma of Children’s Services: CHCCN511A: Reader LO 9294 © NSW DET 2010

Assess environments for suitability and safety against relevant criteria and make decisions

As a childcare worker you have an important role to play in making sure the environment is one in which the health, safety and wellbeing of children and your co-workers is assured. This is of course a shared responsibility—service owners and managers have an important role to play too.

Imagine you are interested in purchasing land on which to build a childcare centre. What issues or factors relating to health and safety would you consider before you purchase land to build a childcare centre?

Price is, of course, perhaps the over-riding factor—in the real world. However, suppose you do have sufficient money. You are determined that your service will not only meet the safety requirements set out in the Children’s Services Regulation 2004 but will also provide a model of best practice with relation to health and safety. Remember, you need to meet the safety requirements set out in the Children’s Services Regulation 2004.

Assessing the environment for suitability before building a childcare centrePrice is a very important factor. However, did you think all the following factors should be considered? You are right if you said ‘yes’—and this is just the beginning:

• nature of nearby businesses and infrastructure (eg what do you think about being right next to a busy shopping mall?)

• local council regulations and state laws impacting on the intended usage of the land

• parking and traffic flow near your proposed service• pollution in the immediate environment—which could include noise,

water, soil and air• the position of the building on the available land—ie aspect, drainage, etc

Diploma of Children’s Services: CHCCN511A: Reader LO 9294 3© NSW DET 2010

• size of the land—is it big enough for the numbers of children who will use the service?

Activity 1

Licensing regulations and the childcare environmentThere are regulations including childcare licensing regulations, public health legislation and occupational health and safety legislation that clearly outline the safety standards for childcare services. These standards outline the minimum acceptable standards for maintaining buildings, facilities and equipment to ensure an appropriate level of safety. If we fail to maintain these standards we are not only risking a possible fine but also face the real danger of having legal action taken against us.

It is important then that you are familiar with these standards.

Activity 2

Assessing the safety of the outdoor environmentRemember the high-quality childcare centre you were developing? What factors would you need to consider in creating a safe outdoor environment for this service? Obviously you would look to regulations and the Quality Improvement and Accreditation System (QIAS) principles to guide your planning.

You would also need to consider:

• the number of children you would be able to cater for• ages, abilities and any additional needs of the children likely to attend

your service• purchase of outdoor equipment that was appropriate to the

developmental levels of the children• where families and staff would park• installation of fencing and gates to ensure children remained safety inside

the service and intruders remained out • adequate drainage in the play areas• adequate soft-fall surfaces to protect children from hard falls• protection and shelter from the sun, rain and wind• location and condition of the sandpit and its contents• safety of plants in the outdoor play area

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• provision of appropriate storage for outdoor equipment• layout and design of the outdoor area.

Outdoor environment

Assessing the safety of the indoor environmentSimilarly the indoor environment of your service would require careful reflection to ensure that it too met all requirements and standards.

To optimise the safety of your indoor environment you would need to consider safety factors such as the ones listed below. This is not an exhaustive list—you will probably have other factors to add to the list.

Safety factors• How would we provide large amounts of open space, with wide corridors

kept clear of trip hazards?• How do we place windows and doors in ways that will ensure rooms are

well-ventilated and natural lighting utilised?• Are there smoke detectors in each room? Are there safety guards on all

switches for heating and cooling devices? Are there covers for electrical outlets?

• Are room temperatures comfortable? We might need to install fans, air conditioners and heaters.

• Are walls, floors and bench tops smooth and easy to clean? Are the floors non-slip?

• Are cupboards lockable? • Are there safety railings?• Are furnishings easy to clean?• Are plumbing facilities adequate? Is there a plentiful supply of clean

water?• Are these adequately stored—food, chemicals, toys, medicines and

administrative records?

Diploma of Children’s Services: CHCCN511A: Reader LO 9294 5© NSW DET 2010

• Are light switches and fan switches placed at heights that will ensure children and staff are not at risk of injury caused from stretching or climbing to turn switches on, etc?

• Have security devices been installed—ie, alarms and monitors and security locks on doors?

• Where are the phones and fire extinguishers? Are they accessible to all staff?

• Is the environment too noisy? If it is, we need to consider noise reduction strategies such as carpets, sound-reducing materials in ceilings, rubber capping or felt on chair and table legs, etc.

• Are there flyscreens to prevent insects and other pests from gaining entry to the service?

You would need to consider each of these factors as you set up your childcare service. After that it would be critical for you to consistently adhere to the regulations, occupational health and safety legislation and the policies and procedures of your service to maintain the safety of the childcare environment over time. Obviously this is best done as a team.

As caregivers, it’s essential that we develop the practice of automatically assessing every environment we encounter from a safety perspective. We need to consider the opportunities each situation offers as well as the threats it poses.

Indoor environment

Activity 3

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Identify hazards and potential risks in the environment with others involved

The identification of hazards in the childcare setting is best carried out in a regular and systematic way. Safety checklists ensure that environments are assessed thoroughly and a plan to minimise the risks is implemented.

What are safety checklists?Safety checklists are simply a tool that makes checking for hazards or risk easier. They usually are made up of a list of possible risks, a column for indicating wether it is indeed a risk in the particular environment you are looking at and then an action column where you would indicate what is going to be done about the risk.

Safety checks should be done regularly. Each childcare service should have a policy that indicates how often these are to be carried out.

While you can develop a safety checklist simply enough, and many services will indeed have created their own safety checklist tool, Workcover NSW has developed the HAZPAK risk assessment tool which includes the Hazard rating chart below. http://www.workcover.nsw.gov.au/Documents/safebusiness/pdf/Hazpak_228.pdf

You will have the opportunity to work with this risk assessment tool in a later activity.

Diploma of Children’s Services: CHCCN511A: Reader LO 9294 7© NSW DET 2010

WorkCover hazard rating chart

WorkCover NSW

The Workcover HAZPAK risk assessment tool is a useful resource that we can use to assist us in evaluating risks and planning to improve the safety of environments. It was developed to be used by any work site to assess risks but is also a valuable tool for services to use to manage the safety, heath and developmental needs of children.

The risk assessment approach includes:

• identifying the risks inherent in childcare services• identifying the potential safety impacts on children • prioritising the risks in terms of high and low risk.

For each risk in a service you need to determine the likelihood of the event occurring, the potential safety impact on a child if the event occurred and a risk priority rating which describes the degree of urgency to address the management of the risk.

Who should be involved in the identification of hazards?Whatever tool is used to identify hazards, carrying out the safety checks as a team increases the effectiveness of the approach. You can understand the benefits of having many pairs of eyes looking objectively at an environment. It is much more likely that the risk identification process will be carried out in a thorough way.

Asking people who are directly involved in a certain task or activity or use of a particular piece of equipment may be more aware about the associated risks and dangers than someone who is not involved in these work practices or who has no need to use certain equipment as they carry out their work.

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Imagine asking the lady who cares for the grounds of your childcare service to identify the risks in your nappy-change area. Because she doesn’t use this area on a daily basis she may not be aware that the bench height is too low, that to reach the rubbish bin you have to twist to your right and that the shelves where the nappies are kept require staff to stretch on tip-toe to access them.

Of course the opposite can sometimes be true too—because you use this nappy-change area day in and day out you may have become used to the sore back at the end of a day caused by leaning down and stretching awkwardly on a regular basis. Sometimes having objective eyes looking at an environment can be helpful too.

Activity 4

Now of course keeping an area safe does not end with a simple identification of a risk or hazard. This information must then be communicated clearly to all relevant people to ensure that everyone is aware of the possible danger and the safety plan to deal with the risk or hazard.

Diploma of Children’s Services: CHCCN511A: Reader LO 9294 9© NSW DET 2010

Identify and clearly communicate the level of response required to address a hazard

Once risks have been identified, the next step in the risk management process involves the childcare team determining the level or severity of the risks identified.

You need to assess how serious or dangerous a risk is so that you can make decisions about which hazards you need to do something about and how quickly you should be responding.

Assessing the level of riskTo determine the level of risk you need to consider each of the following:

• What is the likely outcome from being exposed to the hazard? Ask yourself what would happen if …Would the outcome be death, major injury or a minor injury or is it perhaps something that needs only a band-aid?

• What is the likelihood of harm occurring if a child or staff member was exposed to the hazard? This could range from highly likely to very unlikely.

• How many people are likely to be exposed to the risk? The more people that face the hazard, the more likely that someone will be injured.

There are many ways to work through the risk assessment process. The next activity will provide you with the opportunity to become more familiar with the approach the Department of Community Services uses when they implement the risk assessment tool for centre-based and mobile childcare services.

Activity 5

Strategies to manage risksOnce you have worked through this risk assessment then you can begin to look at strategies to manage the risks. This stage should involve as many people as is

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possible and effective. Once again more ‘heads’ involved will mean more critical thinking and more possible solutions, from which the safety plan can be developed.

Involving other staff also serves to reinforce that shared responsibility philosophy to maintain workplace safety and will also increase the likelihood of compliance with the safety plan.

Of course, not everybody can be involved at this stage. It will be necessary though, at a later stage, to consult with staff not involved in the original decision-making.

Communicating safety plans clearly So how and when does this communication of safety plans happen? Who is responsible for ensuring information is communicated to all relevant people?

Although everybody is responsible for the environment's overall health and safety, as a qualified childcare worker you have additional responsibilities.

You need to ensure that:

• correct safety procedures are followed and help and advice are given to others about their occupational health and safety obligations

• people are made aware of problems or hazards in a timely manner; you might do this via staff meetings, memos or warning notices near the hazard

• regular OHS checks are undertaken and that all staff are involved in this process

• hazards are documented appropriately; all services are required under the Children’s Services Regulation 2004 to record incidents and accidents

• you encourage staff to monitor safety and suggest improvements in an ongoing way; including discussion on safety and health issues at every team meeting is a useful strategy to ensure this happens

• safety procedures and policies are reviewed regularly, changes are made where necessary and are communicated clearly to staff and families where necessary.

Activity 6

Diploma of Children’s Services: CHCCN511A: Reader LO 9294 11© NSW DET 2010

Facilitate strategy development among others involved

Assessing the environment and monitoring its suitability and safety is something you will do on an ongoing basis. As you walk through the childcare service you will stop to pick up some wooden blocks that have made their way into the hallway; you might notice that the supplies of liquid soap and gloves are running low in the nappy-change area and get some additional supplies out of the store cupboard.

However, it is not always possible or desirable to act on our own.

Working with others to maintain the safety of environmentsAll staff need to be actively involved in both identifying hazards and managing them. The first step in involving staff in managing the safety of the environment is to communicate effectively about the identified hazards and seek their ideas and opinion on how best to manage the risk.

The importance of collaboration and consultation with your co-workers is an important part of OHS legislation and also helps to promote a sense of ownership and shared responsibility for maintaining a safe workplace.

Formal methods of consultationFormal methods will be required when the hazard is:

• structural, ie related to the design and layout of the service or rooms• caused by the behaviour of others, ie staff, children, families and students• likely to be an ongoing concern• likely to impact on a number of people or affect the delivery of

programmes.

The use of questionnaires and surveys, holding meetings to discuss health and safety issues and developing policy and procedures to manage a health and safety issue are all formal methods of collecting information and opinions from staff and families and other professionals or experts.

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Informal methods of consultationInformal strategies can take place when the hazard can be addressed quickly.

Seeking quick verbal feedback from co-workers about an arrangement of equipment they feel might be unsafe is an example of an informal method of seeking feedback and involving staff in workplace safety.

Whatever the technique used, it is important that all staff contribute to identifying and managing health and safety in the workplace and that their ideas and suggestions are actively sought and considered.

Developing and communicating the safety planWhenever we are faced with a hazard of any description we need to think of all possible options—beginning with total elimination and ending with personal protective equipment, procedures and protective strategies to lower the risk.

Then once we have decided on our plan to manage the risk we need to communicate it clearly and concisely (and often repeatedly) to ensure our message gets delivered to all involved.

A clear strategic plan for ensuring that workplace safety issues are identified, addressed and developed with all staff will involve the following measures.

• Set clear time frames for occupational health and safety checks to be completed—once every six or 12 months is fairly usual.

• Identify regular routines and procedures for checking and servicing equipment.

• Organise relevant health and safety training for all staff on a regular basis.• Put together a list of reliable and efficient tradespeople to fix things when

they go wrong.• Develop clear steps to follow in relation to hazard identification and

control. Who do staff report their concerns to? How do they record their concerns, etc?

• Set in place clear lines of authority for initiating actions and making decisions in emergency situations. Clear policy and procedures will be invaluable here.

• Encourage and support team members to take on responsibility for a particular area of the service for maintenance. Perhaps you are passionate about outside play environments and so you volunteer to make sure this area and the equipment within it is monitored for safety and equipment is maintained appropriately.

Activity 7

Diploma of Children’s Services: CHCCN511A: Reader LO 9294 13© NSW DET 2010

Develop, implement and review a plan with others

You will be well aware by now of the importance of working together to develop a safety plan to manage identified risks in the workplace. It is equally important for staff to work together to consistently implement the controls that have been identified and to be involved in the review of any action plan.

When hazards occur or issues arise that threaten the overall safety of our environments we need to:

• identify and discuss the concern with others involved• decide on an appropriate course of action• communicate that action clearly to all concerned• review the action plan and amend if necessary.

Identifying risks and developing a planThe following scenario will illustrate how important the planning process is to effectively manage risks in the childcare environment.

Imagine you are the team leader of a small preschool.

Your service is about to enrol a three-year-old child with severe anaphylaxis (see glossary). The family has advised you that the triggers for the anaphylactic reaction are cow’s milk, eggs, nuts and fish. The child would require an injection of adrenaline should an anaphylactic reaction occur in the centre. The adrenaline injector is usually referred to as ‘epinephrine’ or by the brand name EpiPen.

While the staff and families of the service are supportive of this child beginning at your service, you know that careful planning is required to ensure the safety of the environment.

You have chaired numerous meetings to identify the risks in the environment for this child and to develop a safety plan to manage these risks.

The following concerns have been raised over these meetings:

• The child may eat someone else’s food.• Foods that trigger this child’s anaphylaxis may be brought into the centre.

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• Staff may not know what to do in an emergency situation or may not realise a child is having an anaphylactic reaction.

• Future staff might not be supportive of accepting this child and meeting the additional health needs.

• Staff may not feel comfortable administering the epinephrine (EpiPen) injection or may not want to volunteer for training.

• The other families may not support the changes to policy and procedure.• The EpiPen medication may be stored incorrectly or may become useless

because its expiry date has passed.• The child may have an anaphylactic reaction while in the service.

Having identified these risks and concerns, the next stage of the planning cycle is to develop strategies to manage these risks. Because the enrolment of this child involves many people in the service, you realise it is important that every one of them is consulted to develop the safety plan.

You have worked with all staff, all children and families (not only the new family and child) and of course medical professionals involved in the care of the child, to seek information, advice and ideas.

As a result of your planning meetings, the service has developed a clear action plan to manage the child’s anaphylaxis. All staff have received anaphylaxis prevention, recognition and management training which involved training in the administration of injectable adrenaline (EpiPen), which is used to treat the anaphylaxis.

The service has obtained a range of resources to support the planning and management stages; written material and a video that can be used to educate other families in the service and a support worker to monitor the behaviour of the child and ensure that they remain safe while in the service.

Finally the service has developed policies and procedures with families and staff to manage the food risks in the service. Certain foods can no longer be brought into the service on certain days when the child is in attendance and the importance of thorough hand washing on arrival into the service for all has been promoted through posters and newsletter articles.

Reviewing the planHaving worked through the risk identification and planning stage so thoroughly, both staff and families should be feeling confident about the service's ability to provide a safe environment for this child.

Is this the end of the planning stage?

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Not at all! Careful review of the safety plan is essential for continuous improvement to ensure the environment remains safe for this child.

The monitor and review stage would involve looking at any anaphylactic event either in the service or outside the service to determine any procedures that needed to change and that the people nominated to assist the child, remain willing and confident to take on this role.

If there had been no anaphylactic event and no change in the child’s medical condition then the plan should be reviewed every six months, again to determine if staff remain confident and willing to undertake the care of this child and to stay up to date with the child’s medical status.

As you have seen in this case study, the team approach to managing safety is integral to both the success of the service to manage risks effectively and for the service to continuously improve its safety practices.

Developing a culture of safetyA sense of ‘team’ and a commitment to ongoing improvement of safety and health practices in the childcare service will not just happen!

The team leader has a critical role to play in fostering positive attitudes, beliefs, actions and behaviors as well as encouraging the creativity of staff with relation to health and safety in the workplace.

Creating a ‘culture of safety’ not only serves to enhance the service's image and appeal to families but will also have a positive impact on the overall health and wellbeing of all workers in the service.

A useful resource for this subject is: Tarrant S (2002) Managing OHS in children's services : a model for implementing an Occupational Health and Safety Risk Management System in your children's service , Lady Gowrie, Australia.

When all staff strongly believe in the importance of a safe environment for both children and staff, you will see a decrease in:

• accidents and injuries in the service• the number of days staff are absent from the service • the costs associated with workplace injury.

Activity 8

Of course this all takes time to happen in a service and is certainly never finished! The culture of safety will need to be promoted when new staff and families enter the service and continually reinforced with existing workers and families.

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