safety in nurseries,worried about which nursery to take your child to ?

A safe and secure environment is essential for children in an early years setting and to maintain this there are legislations and regulations put in place to enforce this, all early year workers must have knowledge of a range of the relevant regulations and legislations. These include;The Health and Safety Work Act 1974 (HASWA), this Act requires an employer to appoint a person of their employees to be an appointed person and this person will maintain the health and safety of the workplace and the maintenance of the first aid box and accident book this is where accidents and treatments are recorded.The Control Of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH), the regulations in COSHH are mainly highly dangerous substances, these substances should carefully be used and checked that they are stored appropriately for the safety of others.Food Hygiene regulations 1995, this regulation is put in place which relates to anyone selling or providing food, and the regulation is enforced by the environmental health officers.The Moving and Handling regulation, being able to pick up a large object using the appropriate way to avoid injury to yourself and others, (bend at the knees and keep your back straight).The Risk Assessment legislation is a way of identifying potential hazards with in the workplace. Risk assessment should be carried out at regular intervals and every early year's worker should ensure that risks are identified and risks are minimized.The Adult to Child Ratio legislation that is enforced means that you can only have a certain amount of children to adults depending on their age e.g.                                                               1 adult to 3 children aged 0-2 years1 adult to 4 children aged 2-3 years1 adult to 8 children aged 3-5 yearsThe Act of Reporting of Injuries, Disease and Dangerous occurrences Regulations 1995 require all workplaces to record any dangerous occurrences, accidents injuries or disease. Every workplace must have an accident recording system for this regulation.Fire Precautions (workplace) Regulations 1997, this regulation requires all workplaces to have a successful system that allow the evacuation of service users and employees to be safe, systematic checking of all fire exits to make sure that they are not blocked and locked, All fire equipment to be easy and accessible and to have the correct signposting of all fire exits is essential.