Bouncy Castles - risks?

[LemonDrizzles]

Hi everyone, I've been asked to put together a proposal to hire a bouncy castle at a summer event and I'm trying to think of the risks parents might be concerned about as well as things parents would like to see happen to prevent those risks from happening.
So far, I have blowing away? injuries? Not sure why I can't think of more! I'm sure there are. Was hoping the hivemind could help me. It's likely we will only have 1 shot for the proposal to be successful. thanks so much in advance.

www.hse.gov.uk/entertainment/fairgrounds/inflatables.htm

I’d ask the company you will hire from for a copy of their risk assessment which will tell you risks and mitigation

Insufficient tethering
The operator to understand why wind is a factor to take into account
Number of children allowed on at any one time to minimise collision and injuries - timed bounces?
Rules - no tumbling or flips?
Insurance - who? The operator? Would the hire company also be the operator?
First Aid persons on site?
Positioning - away from overhead hazards, easy access for the operator and emergency services.
Safety zone - temporary fencing/stakes and orange plastic getting?
Shoes off area within safety zone or outwith?

This sort of thing ^ ?

Oh my gosh, this is amazing. Yes, child limit I had this in my original notes then thought I must have meant height limit! I couldn't quite tell what I had written before. Thank you guys for your help

Agree with all of the above plus no adults, my child was once on a bouncy castle and an adult got on bounced very high dc was stood still but the force of the adult made dc fall over and he suffered a break to his forearm.

Larger children bouncing on smaller children. Depending on event/target age bracket, might be best to have a small one for under 5s and bigger one for larger children.

No adults allowed (except to support/retrieve their children).

Have someone supervising at all times.

Also, sufficient soft mats at entrance to bouncy castle. Maybe crash mats? Children do bounce off by accident or get pushed off.

No shoes

What you are doing is called a risk assessment. You can find a template online very easily and you also would find a risk matrix useful - this shows likelihood compared to severity and gives a rating. Put simply, you either mitigate each risk, or accept it.

Tethering / not us in windy conditions is the really big one. We used to borrow one for our primary school and DH always took the responsibility for deciding if too windy (very H&S conscious).

Otherwise

• people limit
• age limit
• no mixed sizes
• no shoes
• no food/drink
• no somersaults
• crash mats

We used to ask for a teacher to be in charge of the bouncy castle as children respected them better and they knew the names to shout at them.

Electrical - who will check equipment has been PAT tested, how will you get electricity to the site and how will you protect cables from trips or damage, procedure for power failure (getting kids off and keeping them off)

Access for setting up/packing away and general car parking and separation of people & vehicles

Anchorage points - preventing trips and regular checks of anchors

Fire risk - particularly of blower, nearest fire extinguisher and fire plan

First aiders

Supervision

The hire company should have most of this on their Risk Assessment.

Six young children died in Australia last December when a bouncy castle was provided for an end of school year treat at a primary school. It wasn’t tethered properly and a gust of wind lifted it and kids fell. I know you have already thought of the risk of it blowing away but anyone who reads the news might be understandably nervous.

Will the event be outdoors? I've known bouncy castles to be off limits if it's raining heavily because of the danger of slipping. Weather wise, it's perhaps worth looking at a covered one.

If indoors ceiling height. May have had experience of polystyrene ceiling tiles being dislodged!

@TeenPlusCat

Tethering / not us in windy conditions is the really big one. We used to borrow one for our primary school and DH always took the responsibility for deciding if too windy (very H&S conscious).

Otherwise

• people limit
• age limit
• no mixed sizes
• no shoes
• no food/drink
• no somersaults
• crash mats

We used to ask for a teacher to be in charge of the bouncy castle as children respected them better and they knew the names to shout at them.

Thank you so much, this is a great idea!

It will be outdoors. Sorry to drip feed

@FlibbertyGiblets Thank you so much for your reply

@BookHermitBlack

Agree with all of the above plus no adults, my child was once on a bouncy castle and an adult got on bounced very high dc was stood still but the force of the adult made dc fall over and he suffered a break to his forearm.

Sorry to hear this

The Hive mind is always worth asking !

Also, kids will try to climb up the walls of the bouncy castle and sit on them. Obviously they then roll off and hit the ground.

Most of the risks associated with child behaviour can be mitigated with the assurance of constant supervision by a responsible adult provided with a set of ground rules to enforce. Anyone breaking the rules will be warned once and then removed if they do it again.

The other sort of risks (bouncy castle blowing away, deflating with children inside etc) can be mitigated by hiring a reputable company with a safety record who can tell you what they do to ensure safety (if you need to go to these lengths).

Keeping the thing inflated. DS and I were at a summer fayre where the same person was managing a bouncy castle and a larger bouncy slide. We had queued up the steps to the slide, so about 15ft in the air, when it started to deflate and the guy didn't notice as he was sorting something with the bouncy castle. He dashed back over when he noticed but it had partially deflated (probably about 15% but still terrifying when you're at the top) and adults at the top were trying to get all kids back down as quickly as possible as it deflated slowly under them.

We hired a massive one for dc birthday, the company put it where we asked, in hind site it wasn't the best place.

It was put in a dip in a field, we thought it would be less windy, it was, but it was a suntrap. The heat made it turn into a hot air balloon so it took off, luckily no one was on it at the time.

It ripped a panel, the company wasn't happy said we had moved it, we really hadn't as it was very heavy. They argued that it wouldn't just take off we had done something to it and had to pay for the repair.

Sadly something similar happened which killed a couple of people not long after, we never heard from the company again and didn't have to pay anything.

Hope yours goes well, this was in a very hot spell.

Just one thing, sadly from personal experience - position of the generator - child fell from BC and hit the metal large boxed generator. Thankfully recovered but broken bones were sustained - so perhaps something about the additional equipment needs to be included?