Children at work
From time to time there may be occasions where children are on your work premises, whether they are accompanying their parent who is a staff member, a pupil / student (including work experience), there for a particular event or if in a public place just passing through. Many family friendly businesses welcome children on site, but what do you do if they have an accident?
In general, although not strictly a requirement, it is still a good idea to prepare for first aid being required by visitors including children. Of course in regulated environments like the education sector they have their own specific requirements and, in these situations, – it is a requirement to have provision in place, and the level of risk would certainly have an impact on what provisions are made available.
Safety tips:
- Always conduct a suitable and sufficient risk assessment of children being on site, and specific ones for particular activities (a sports day for instance).
- Company policy should outline that children must be accompanied / supervised at all times, this includes in the event of them receiving first aid treatment – they should be supervised.
- Make sure high-risk areas, particularly those with machinery, are off limits where practicable.
- If children are on site regularly then paediatric first aid training should be considered. This may be a legal requirement if your business’s main activity is childcare.
- If an incident does occur, no matter how minor, you must keep a record of it. The amount of data required will largely depend on the severity of the incident, but everything should be recorded and investigated.
- UK law allows children who were accident victims to make claims for three years following their 18thbirthday – this is not commonly realised by many. Don’t fall foul of this.
- Know the requirements under RIDDOR. It's noteworthy to point out that it's usually only reportable if related to your workplace activities – accidents emanating from children’s horseplay, or from sporting activities for instance is often not reportable under RIDDOR.
Let us help with training your people on effective accident / incident management and investigation. We can audit your site and support you with tips on creating suitable and sufficient risk assessments and other policies and procedures. Don’t forget we provide an advice line too for our clients, so you can get advice anytime on managing the risk. Contact Quest here.
