What is a Risk assessment

**cherry** · 27-10-2008, 05:39 PM

I came across this and thought it might be useful.

What is a risk assessment?
A risk assessment identifies potential hazards in your home if you’re a childminder or on the premises of your childcare facility. It is a legal requirement, as you need to be able to show that you are aware of any risks and that you have plans in place to control and minimise these risks.

Risk assessments take into account a large number of everyday things that may appear harmless or go unnoticed but could be dangerous if not recognised. Risks assessments should take into consideration a range of areas from the condition of toys and equipment to hygiene and cleanliness to

How to complete a risk assessment?
There are five main steps to assessing the risks in your childcare setting:

Step 1 - identify the hazards
You need to walk around your home or setting and look at what could reasonably be expected to cause harm. Are there electrical wires within grasping distance of a child in your care? Are there toys left around to form trip hazards? Do you have pets who may cause allergies?

Step 2 - decide who might be harmed and how
For each hazard, you need to be clear about who might be harmed to help with identifying the hazard. Think about how they might be harmed and what type of injury they might sustain. For example If a child who isn’t used to being around animals comes into contact with a pet cat they may be allergic to the fur and react.

Step 3 - evaluate the risks and decide on precautions
Once all your hazards are spotted you need to decide what you are going to do about them. The law does not expect you to eliminate every risk but you are expected to do everything that is ‘reasonably practical’ to protect the people on your premises from harm.

You need to look at what you are already doing or the precautions you already have in place. Compare this with good practice and see if there is more you need to be doing to bring yourself up to standard. You need to consider:

can I get rid of this hazard altogether?
if not, how can I control the risks so that harm is unlikely?
You also need to ensure that what you propose to do wont introduce any new hazards and will work in practice.

Step 4 - record your findings and implement them
When writing down your results, keep it simple, e.g. name of hazard identified; what you’ve done about it; whose been informed; whose going to act on it and how often?

Risk assessments are not expected to be perfect but they must be suitable, sufficient and reasonably practical. You must show that:

a proper check was made
you asked who might be affected
you dealt with all the significant hazards, taking into account the number of people who could be involved
the precautions are reasonable and the remaining risk is low
you involve you staff, children and parents where applicable in the process
You need to prioritise and tackle the most important things first. As you complete each action, tick it off on your plan. You also need to consider:

who will be responsible for drawing up the risk assessment document?
who has responsibility for ensuring safety in the different areas?
how will your risk assessment be displayed and accessed?
how will it be implemented?
how will it be monitored and when will it be reviewed?
how will you link it to and health and safety policies, training and induction sessions?
Step 5 - review your risk assessment and update if necessary
Some risk assessments will be done by you on a regular basis, i.e. checking the outside play area before children use it, however risk assessments will need to be done when you buy new equipment, go on a day trip or introduce new procedures that could lead to hazards. Review what you’re doing on an on-going basis and carry out a formal annual review. Make sure you are still improving or at least maintaining current standards. If there is a significant change, don’t wait. Check your risk assessment and change it.