“It’s our polite nudge in the ribs to help you and your team stay organised and on task.”
This week’s subject is Safety checks
Element 3.1.2: Premises, furniture and equipment are safe, clean and well maintained
Element 3.1.2 focuses on the upkeep of the education and care Service. Upkeep refers to the responsibility of services to implement effective maintenance, cleaning and appropriate safety precautions, which also helps prevent injuries and the spread of infectious diseases.
Ensuring consistent monitoring and inspection of the furniture, equipment, fixtures and the premises is a crucial step in ensuring a safe environment for children, staff, families and visitors to the Service.
Thorough and consistent safety checks are imperative for ensuring that the environment, furniture and equipment that children have access to is safe for use, clean and well maintained. Safety checks should be detailed enough to include all fixed and mobile equipment around the premises. This includes furniture, surfaces, gates, fencing, climbing frames, hazards from the natural environment, areas/enclosures for pets, home corner, sandpits and mud kitchens in both the indoor and outdoor environments.
Safety checklists are living documents. Services should continually review and update their safety checks to include any new equipment and furniture into the learning environment. Any equipment, furniture or areas that are deemed unsafe must be removed or sectioned off to ensure they’re inaccessible to children. Ensure these are added to your maintenance record for prompt attention.
Management must ensure that educators conducting safety inspections and risk analysis have been thoroughly inducted and schooled on how to effectively conduct these procedures.
Maintain all documents as evidence of ensuring a safe environment for reference for authorised officers. These may include:
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- safety inspection checklists (indoor and outdoor, opening and closing)
- risk assessments of the physical environment
- detailed cleaning and maintenance records (premises, furniture, equipment, toys, bathrooms, kitchen etc.)
- Equipment and resource audits
- documented evidence of adhering to manufacturers’ recommendations for the correct use, cleaning and maintenance of furniture and equipment
- documented evidence that all equipment, fixtures and furniture meet Australian Standards
- pest inspection records
- electrical tagging records
- registers for laundering of any soiled items
- current/up to date hazardous chemicals register and Safety Data Sheets
Resources:
Kidsafe Family Day Care Safety Guidelines
Hazardous Chemicals Register- Safe Work Australia
ACECQA Risk Assessment & Management
Kidsafe: NSW, QLD, ACT, VIC, TAS, SA, WA, NT
Within System7 go to Quality Area 3/Module 3 to submit self-assessment notes and if required, open a QIP issue if you identify any areas of improvement.
The Childcare Centre Desktop has a range of resources to assist services with upkeep. These include Indoor Cleaning checklists, Outdoor Cleaning and Safety Checklists, Kitchen Cleaning Checklist, Bathroom and Nappy Change Cleaning Checklist, Equipment and Resource Audit, Physical environment Audit, and much more.
Resources, NQS Element, Regulation and System7 links:
Childcare Centre Desktop – Childcare Centre Desktop
National Quality Standard – QA 3/ 3.1.2- Upkeep
National Regulations – 103, 104-106, 109, 112-115
System7 Module – QA 3/ Module 3
If you have any questions send us a note via the Contact page here!
