To ask what you'd do in response to this?

[HOHOHOvariesBeforeBrovaries]

This is very outing (and very long) but kudos if you make it to the end.

DD fell and hurt herself a couple of weeks ago. Toddlers fall all the time, it's a fact of life, but the reason she hurt herself quite so badly was due to the layout of the park she was on at the time. The park is accessed via an astroturf ramp; this gets slippy, there aren't railings or anything to get up the ramp, and the gate opens outwards so you have to sort of edge around it on the ramp (hard to explain).

DD slipped off the astroturf ramp and cut her forehead open on a jagged piece of metal that hadn't been sanded down, connecting the gate to a fence post. Lots of blood, big panic, stuck back together, she's ok now. The hospital and several other people told us we should get in touch with the shopping centre where the park is - some were saying we should sue, others saying to make a complaint. Once we'd recovered from the shock a little I sent an email over just letting them know what happened, but the letter was polite and I stated, "we don't want this to seem like an official complaint because we love the park, it's made shopping much easier and we don't want to risk it being shut down/removed due to health and safety, we just wanted to let you know in case you can sand it down or move the astroturf ramp to make it safer for little ones going forwards". We acknowledged that she's a toddler, accidents happen, kids fall, it was just this design flaw that made the injuries particularly bad, and made it clear we had no intention of suing because she's a kid, kids fall over, you can't sue someone every time your kids fall over. It's a new park, so it's not as though it's been there for years and years without incident before.

I had a polite response back from the manager quite quickly, saying they couldn't see what had caused the issue, did I have any pictures etc. I sent pictures over of the jagged bit and I've heard nothing since, no acknowledgment etc but I thought maybe they're looking into getting it sanded down before they reply (he said they'd respond once I sent over pictures).

One of our friends works in one of the coffee shops in the shopping centre and knew all about what happened, and told us that he spoke to the manager the other day and asked what was going to happen. Apparently the manager was very dismissive and said "If they took better care of their child, it wouldn't have happened".

DP was right next to DD, watching her, when it happened. She slipped and he just wasn't quick enough to catch her.

If he'd sent me an email saying "There's nothing we can do but thanks for the feedback", fine. If he'd sent an email saying "It looks like it was just an accident", fine. To not respond to our email but criticise our parenting when he didn't even witness what happened? I alternate between being angry and being a bit apathetic really, which is why I'm posting here.

Part of me wants to just shrug my shoulders and say if you want to run your business that way, go for it, and just vote with our feet and not return (we're in a honeymoon/it's almost Christmas/generally happy bubble at the moment which may account for being quite laid back about what is actually quite a horrible thing for a stranger to say) - but part of me is quite hurt and angry, and wants to send an email to say that we're aware of what has been said (but I don't want to drop our friend in it!) and we would appreciate any criticisms of our parenting to be directed to us rather than spoken about behind our backs, particularly when we've been so calm and polite in our email.

Sorry, this is SO long-winded. Please be gentle, I don't want to kick up a fuss but I do want him to realise that it's unprofessional and unfair to say that if you see what I mean?

But you've already put it in writing that you have no intention of suing. If it was me, I'd just sand down the jaggy bit the next time I was there.

If you've sent him a follow-up email, I would wait for a response, and then if one is not forthcoming, I would go there in person to talk to him. At least then you'll be able to clearly point out the jagged metal. Plus, people are a lot less passive aggressive in person. I hate emailing about things like this for that exact reason.

Definitely get in touch with HSE with pictures of dds injuries and park equipment. The managers response is shocking.

This manager has obviously dismissed your complaint and is not going to do anything about the park, I would send an email, advising of your disappointment that despite being advised re the issue that no remedial work has been undertaken, copy the email and original email to health and safety executive.

Speak with a Solicitor regarding the comments made, and request that they make a rather large donation to a children's charity on your behalf.....otherwise you will make it from the resulting compensation.

Now you have written I would give it 7 days for a response. If you don't get a response I would contact HSE and ensure photos of the metal thing as well as the injury were in it.

"Sadly the manager has failed to respond to my first 2 emails, alerting him to this safety issue" could be a phrase to use?

Out of interest, what did your friend say to this manager when he was told how some parents should look after their kids better?

Under no circumstances should you be attempting to fix the problem yourself, with metal glue or sanding. Idiotic idea. If someone else was injured, you'd be the one that would be sued! Some great advice from others though; I'd definitely pursue it.

I agree with others, you should definitely take this further as other kids could be seriously hurt (and because it would seriously piss me off that the management had responded so poorly!). I'm glad your DD is ok, sounds really distressing for her and your DP too.

IME businesses only take these things seriously when it starts to cost them money. Sue. Give the money to a children's charity if you want but the only way to be taken seriously is to hit them in the pocket. And they will definitely try to low-ball you, making it cheaper to go away than fix the problem.

10 yrs ago I slipped in the toilets at work. The sinks had been replaced and the new worktop and position of taps was allowing water to flood on to the floor. The issue had been reported for several months without action. Then I slipped. Bruised bum, nothing major but I filled in the accident book. The building owner who was responsible was informed of the accident the same day. Nothing was done.

8 weeks later a colleague slipped, landed badly and broke her spine. She was paralysed and never walked again. Nor did she manage to return to working. Of course she got a payout, and an additional fine was given because it was an entirely preventable and known risk. I always wonder if I did enough. If I had made more of a deal about it, maybe her injury would have been prevented. I'm now a right cow for shit like this, I can't let it go and sleep at night. What if the next child is not so lucky with their head injury?

I would write back and say:

"You seem to have misunderstood my previous communications, thinking that because I reassured you in my original letter that I wouldn't be leaping to pursue a legal route, that I therefore absolve you of responsibility. This is not the case. Obviously I agree that I, as all parents do, have responsibility for supervising children under my care. You, however, have responsibility to ensure that there are not blatantly dangerous hazards that could be easily mitigated. Now that you know that there is a jagged piece of metal positioned such that someone could easily hurt themselves badly on it, if you fail to take action you could be held criminally negligent. If I see no evidence that you are taking this seriously, and taking reasonable steps to prevent future incidents, I will have no choice but to report it to appropriate authorities."

Miroka - very good wording. I'd send that op.

Yep, Miroka worded it nicely.

Thanks for all the replies, will have a read through now (we've been out today). I had a reply from the manager today, saying "We are looking into what we can do to make it safer" (I'd have thought it takes maybe ten minutes to have a look, say "right we'll sand it down" and make a decision, but hey).

How long is reasonable to give them to fix it before going down the HSE route? I don't want to rush down that route now they've said they'll look into it but I feel like that might be a response just to placate me, so I'll go back and check in a couple of weeks and then go to HSE if that's the best route?

I definitely don't want to let it go because I'd be heartbroken if another child got hurt, but I don't want to bother them so much that they say "Well fuck it, we're not going to do anything", forcing me to go down HSE/legal route which would take longer - if there's a chance that they'll get it sorted in the next couple of weeks, it's preferable.

If it was a council run playground they would tape/rope off the offending area within 48hrs once they had agreed there was a danger to the public. The are responsible for the public spaces and have teams of contractors on call, including for emergencies. Whilst this isn't an emergency, it's not unreasonable to get a contractor to review the equipment following an accident with a child,that required hospital treatment, within 48hrs and then agree a plan for remedial work. They should also make it temporarily safe until they can fix it properly.

Our school just got new play equipment fitted over the summer. One part of it simply had a sign on saying not to use it. The non-slip rubber bit to go on top of the beams was not delivered in time to the manufacturer, so the contractor built everything else over the summer as that suited the school. Then they came back during half term to fit the non-slip topper. Kids still played on the equipment but parents were all aware of the risks. The school had done there part to manage risk.

This company cannot ignore the risk for weeks and take no action. HSE will guide you on a reasonable timescale to remedy before they would get involved.

I really hope this gets sorted out. I personally would do whatever it takes to get the manager to understand his responsibility in this. Was there CCTV that he should review to see how easily it occurred? and remove doubts of neglectful parenting

What your friend told you the manager said is hearsay. You weren't there so don't know exactly what was said. Because of this I'd not refer to it.
But I would definitely follow up my complaint and wouldn't be so polite about it.

Ooh there must be CCTV meh.

Yeah I left any mention of that out in the email I sent dead, I trust our friend but I didn't want it to turn into "well so and so said _".

I can't find the post but to the pp who asked what our friend said, he couldn't say anything because he was at work and had a queue of people to serve but he just ended the conversation as quickly as he could.

Enforcement for this activity (undertaking) will likely fall to the LA rather than HSE (shopping centre with a playground facility?), if you contact HSE they will have to pass to the relevant LA anyway, which will simply delay it. If you want to pass to HSE anyway, notify the LA at the same time so they can get things moving.