Health and Safety in a Childcare Setting

Analyse the working practices that need to be in place in the nursery setting to ensure that children are protected.
In every nursery setting there should be a practiced working pattern and a setting. For example there should be practise of food hygiene, safeguarding and health and safety. These are very important because children will be on the safe side. Health and safety – In this case the managers and staff should make sure that health and safety checks are carried out as required. In case of an accident failure to check equipment have serious connections. Staff and children should know which areas of the building they have access for. The general environment should be clean and safe for example, all COSHH equipment used should be kept in a locked cupboard. Food Hygiene- when giving children food, one should check the expiring dates and check the expiring dates and check the temperatures of the fridges and freezers. Adequate welfare facilities should be available for health and safety. It is important to put on protective clothes especially when you are cleaning the toilets always wear gloves. At nursery should consider safeguarding on children. This is whereby staff should know who is going to drop and pick children, also nursery main doors should always be locked, handles should be fitted where children can’t reach, and CCTV should be at the nursery always because of abuse. Staff should be trained how to give children medication. Also check the risk assessment of the provision that the safeguarding policy and plans work. The gate should always be shut, and use password to open the gate and doors. For toddlers should use small gates. Always lock the confidential information in a lockable cupboard and only management or responsibly person should have access to the keys. Confidentiality is very important. The other thing which need to be considered at nursery is food hygiene, in this case staff should check the expiring date of the food and check the temperatures of the fridge and the freezer, and always cover the food when it is open and put a date when the food has been opened. Tinned food should be eaten and finished once they are opened. Always wash your hands before you touch food. Clean the tables before and after serving the food. As staff should know which food is suitable for each and every child (Allergy). Always clean the dishes after every meal and dry them and put them away. Fruits should be washed before you eat. Should teach children how to wash hands after visiting the toilet. Also staff should cook food properly with correct cooking temperature. With all these aspects I think the nursery will run smoothly.
2. Explain the various health and safety requirements that are necessary for children attending the setting and describe the ways in which these health and safety requirements need to be adopted to cater for differing age groups.
Health and safety in the nursery environment requires adoption for each different age groups of children that are catered for. In the nursery staff should be very careful with sharp objects like knives, forks and razor blades, because these objects can harm children. Therefore should always put them away as soon as you finish using them. Toys should be put back in their irrespective boxes, some toys are sharp so as staff you must be there to keep an eye when children are playing with toys. Select toys which are suitable to each age group. All substances should be locked up in the cupboards. COSHH control of substance hazardous to health. What might you see in the nursery covered by COSHH is cleaning equipment, chemical sharp objects. Make sure children are supervised when they are doing activities. Staff should clean the floors using chemicals which are not dangerous, but should use like Dettol and antibacterial cream. Make sure the floor is dry enough so that children won’t fall down. After serving the food take away knives and out them were they cannot reach. When sharpening the pencils staff should be very careful because some children can be affected with the dust which comes from the pencils. Make sure all plug sockets are covered because when children touched they will be in danger. Windows should be secured because children will be tempted to climb through them. Kitchen and office areas should have safety gates which remain locked to prevent access to dangerous areas. Doors should contain filled safety guards to prevent children from trapping their fingers. With toys always lock the boxes and cupboards should close the toilet and bathroom doors.
3. Evaluate the procedures required to cover good hygiene and explain how this should be implemented in the nursery setting. This can be presented within a table. There are many procedures required to cover good and hygiene of which am going to write some of them in form of a table.

Good hygiene

How to implement

Washing hands before or after food

Make sure sinks are reachable by children

Washing hands after visiting the toilet. Flush the toilet after you use it.

Toilets and chambers should be of small size , so that children will be able to reach

Children should dry their hands after using the toilet.

There should be paper towels in the bathroom always.

Disposal of nappies and waste

Make sure there is correct bins to dispose them eg waste yellow lockable bins.

Cleaning or clearing of plates after eating

Reachable tables for children

Always wash hands before preparing food using soap

Make sure the children are prompted to do this by teachers

Wash fruits before you eat

Make sure the teachers teach children about hygiene and prompt them to do so.

Clean the floors

Use correct mops to clean floors like blue mops for corridors, green mops for kitchen and red mops for bathrooms.

Cut the meat and the vegetables on boards

Use the right boards e.g. for meat use red board, for vegetables use green boards. Bread use white board.

Cleaning the wounds

Make sure teachers follow the proper and correct first aid rules and all the accidents are recorded in the accident book.

Making the mattress and beds for children

Make sure the use clean linen and make sure that all spoiled linen are washed correctly like separated from non spoiled lined and correct washing temperature like Sluice program in the washing machine.

4. Identify and describe what should be included in a first aid kit for a nursery and discuss why paediatric first aid training for nursery staff is important
In every nursery there should be a first aid kit , in the kit it includes 20 adhesive dressings, plasters in assorted sizes, six medium sterile ,two large sterile dressing , one sterile eye pod, six triangular bandages, six safety pins, disposable gloves , two roller bandages , a pair of scissors, alcohol-free wound cleansing wipes , adhesive tape, plastic face shield or pocket mask, notepad and pencil alcohol gel, other useful items blankets survival bag, torch whistle warning triangle and high visibility jacket to keep in the nursery.

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We should have these things in the nurseries because it will help the staff to cater for the first aid needs of the children attending the nursery before they go to hospital for example when children had wounds staff should use gauze pads as swabs to clean around wounds. Use adhesive tape to secure dressings or the loose ends of bandages, staff should notice that if the children are allergic to the adhesive tape can use a hypoallergenic tape. Always wear gloves whenever you dress wounds or when you handle body fluids or other waste materials, use latex-free gloves because some people are allergic to latex. The gloves are necessary for staff to wear when you are dealing with any body fluids; this is to control the cross contamination and good hygiene. Bandages are used to give support to injured joint secure dressings in place maintain pressure on wounds and limit swelling. Pins and clips are used to secure the ends of bandages.They are some useful items which include kitchen film or clean plastic bags can be used to dress burns and scalds. Non-stick dressings can be kept for larger wounds, keep alcohol, gel to clean your hands when no water is available. To prevent cold injuries always wrap on ice pack in a cloth do not leave it on for more than 10 minutes. Scissors should be used to cut bandages. It is important for staff to be first aid trained for the need to know exactly what to do in an emergency whether they are alone or with other members of the staff. So by staff undertaking paediatric first aid course they will have a peace of mind of knowing that they have the knowledge and skills to tackle a medical emergency. Staff who have had first aid training are trained how to attend to children when they collapsed or when they cut themselves using sharp objects. Also staff will be trained how to cope with stressful and physically demanding procedures. First aid certificates should be renewed every 3 years. From the completion date of the previous qualification. In nursery setting paediatric first aid qualification satisfies ousted requirements. First aid certificates are required to be checked by Ofsted during an inspection and will need to be produced for all trained first aiders.