Health and Safety in Daily Practice

Learning purpose: Staff should understand their role in keeping rooms, bathrooms, kitchens and outdoor spaces safe.

JLK practice standard: Health and safety is not just a manager task. Every staff member is responsible for noticing and reporting risk.

Key staff expectations:

• Complete daily checks properly.
• Remove hazards immediately where safe.
• Report concerns to the manager.
• Keep exits clear.
• Check toys and equipment.
• Maintain clean, safe spaces.

Practical scenario: A practitioner notices a broken toy with a sharp edge. It must be removed immediately and reported, not left for someone else.

• I complete daily environment checks properly, not just sign the sheet
• I remove hazards immediately where safe to do so, rather than leaving them
• I keep exits clear and report any blocked access route to the manager

Learning purpose: Staff should understand active supervision and how to assess risk throughout the day.

JLK practice standard: Children need freedom to explore, but adults must position themselves carefully and remain alert.

Key staff expectations:

• Position yourself where you can see children.
• Avoid staff clustering.
• Scan the environment regularly.
• Supervise higher-risk activities closely.
• Know ratios and deployment.
• Act quickly when risk changes.

Practical scenario: Three staff are talking near the door while children are climbing outside. This is poor deployment. Staff must spread out and supervise actively.

• I position myself where I can see the children rather than clustering with other staff
• I scan the environment regularly — not just watch one child or one zone
• I know my room's ratios and supervise higher-risk activities (water, climbing, cooking) closely

Learning purpose: Staff should know what to do when accidents, hazards or near misses happen.

JLK practice standard: Accurate reporting protects children, staff and the nursery. If it is not recorded, it cannot be properly reviewed.

Key staff expectations:

• Respond calmly.
• Get first aid support where needed.
• Record accidents accurately.
• Inform parents through the correct process.
• Report near misses.
• Reflect on how to reduce repeat incidents.

Practical scenario: A child trips over a rug and bumps their head. Staff must comfort the child, seek first aid support, complete the accident record and alert the manager.

• I respond calmly, get first-aid support, then complete the accident record accurately
• I report near misses too — not just incidents where a child was hurt
• I inform parents through the correct process and never delay the record

Learning purpose: Staff should know what a risk assessment is, when one is needed, and what it asks of them in the room.

JLK practice standard: Every room, activity and outing is thought through in writing before children are in it. Our Overall Approach to Risk Assessment policy: “The nursery carries out written risk assessments regularly (at least annually).” And again whenever something changes: new equipment, a new activity, an outing.

Key staff expectations:

• Know what your room’s risk assessment says. Ask your room leader (or manager) to go through it with you.
• Do what it says. The controls in it are what we tell parents and Ofsted happens.
• Tell your room leader before anything new: equipment, an activity like cooking, a planned outing. It needs a risk assessment first.
• Something unsafe right now? Make it safe or keep the children away, then mark it on the daily checks.
• About you: pregnant, a health condition, struggling with the workload? Tell your manager in confidence, so a risk assessment can be done with you.

Practical scenario: A new climbing frame arrives on Monday. A practitioner wants the children to try it straight away. It must not be used until it has been checked and the outdoor risk assessment updated and signed off: our Equipment and Resources policy asks for “Appropriate risk assessments and checks on all resources and equipment before first use”.

💭 Reflection prompt: What is the one hazard in your room that the risk assessment exists to control, and what do you do about it every day?

When is a risk assessment needed? ↗

• I know where my room’s risk assessment is and what it says
• I tell my room leader before new equipment, a new activity or an outing
• I know I can ask for a risk assessment about my own health or circumstances, in confidence