H&S incident at nursery

[NoodleDoodle97]

Today, our DD nursery rang to tell of an incident what had happened. For the last 3 days they have been having a new roof. One of the workers today fell through the roof, taking out a ceiling panel. Luckily nothing fell and luckily the children and him were ok but it could have been very bad. Would you report this to ofsted or somewhere else as I don’t think they should be working on a roof when there is children below. The owner of the roofing company apparently was devastated and said this does happen but he’s really sorry it’s happen in a nursery

*what if the roof is weak etc? Do there need to be anymore assessments? These are answers that you probably won't know the truth to unless someone is breathing down their necks about this. However, if children won't be in area where roof caved in etc, then it may be fine.

Of course it should be reported to the HSE. The man wasn't safe and he was at work. It needs to be investigated so measures can be put in place to prevent something like that happening again, and to determine whether the company was negligent

It’s not a health and safety incident, it was an entirely unpredictable accident.

How could you possibly know that? No one here has any idea if proper procedures were followed or not.

You are completley wrong. This was completely preventable and the leading cause of deaths in uk workplace.

And the consequences could obviously have been so much worse for all involved

OK. So you could report this to the local authority (see guidance below) not the HSE.
https://www.hse.gov.uk/contact/authority.htm

I am not an expert (unlike so many on this thread) but, I don't think this is a RIDDOR reportable incident, meaning the nursery/builders dont need to report it. But I might have misread the guidance.
https://www.hse.gov.uk/riddor/reportable-incidents.htm

Even if it was reportable, it wouldn't necessary warrant an investigation by the HSE. The builders and the nursery should carry out an investigation as others said.

As another poster has said, if you are genuinely concerned about the safety of your child, find alternate childcare.

If not, use it as a moment to build resilience. Sometimes bad stuff will happen to your child, they will be scared. But the roof won't fall on their head tommoro, or the day after, and they can feel better and return to normal after this.

No.

Would you prefer the nursery closed whilst work was being carried out? That would put parents up shit creek when this is an extremely rare and unfortunate accident. You can check with HSE that the contractor has reported it if that will help you.

Are you actually worried that your child is unsafe in this nursery, and you will of course be removing her?
Or do you just want to report because you’re that sort of person?

It was an accident and everyone is OK. Nurseries are on their knees financially, they can’t close to do the roof. I didn’t move out of my house when I did my roof. Just leave it. Why does everyone have to be such a snowflake about everything.

God, my high school was due to be sold off so the council stopped bothering with any repairs for our last couple years. A whole block had issues with the ceiling tiles falling; we’d be sitting in classes and a tile would just fall. I don’t think any parents even considered complaining. It was just a sigh and shake head, and no one ever got actually hurt so who cared.

Move on.

If you were going to report it, it would be the Health & Safety Executive (HSE).

Falls from heights is the bigger reason for workplace deaths in the UK.

There should be absolutely no way they person call fall through the roof to children underneath. Both the nursery and the roof contractor are at fault.

Have you spoken to the nursery manager?

But what if posters repeat 'it was an accident' several more times?

Lack of intent to harm surely means that no risk assessments are ever needed?

This. If there was any risk at all of this happening, the nursery should be closed, or at least the areas where was being carried out should be closed off. I used to be a building surveyor, before I had children, I was responsible for H&S on site. This should have been fully and cautiously risk assessed.

And also this. It’s HSE. I would mention it to the nursery manager and ask whether they intend to report it. You can gauge their response then make a decision about whether to report. I wouldn’t be sending my child back until work was completed or I was satisfied they’d put appropriate safety measures in place.

I think the nursery haven’t risk assessed the situation properly.

this is a safety near miss incident for the children and an actual incident for the roofing company. I would expect the nursery to log it as an internal incident, consider why they had their blind spot about contractors and things going wrong. I’d then expect them to update their policy re contractors during working hours. And update me.

this is what you’d do in a workplace which uses risk assessment regularly. My nursery reviews the risk assessment if something goes wrong and makes changes.

so that’s what should happen. I wouldn’t report to ofsted unless you deduce they have no risk assessment process in place.
near misses should absolutely be reported internally as incidents so nothing happens in future.

It's the Law

Also I’d expect them to review how they selected their contractor eg why on earth are they using a roofing company so say falling through roof happens from time to time….but didn’t advise emptying the nursery first?! Have safety equipment in place?

Not necessarily. Not all work related accidents need to be reported. If the person who fell through the roof sustained what is called a “specified injury” or is off work for 7 days or more, it would be reported. If their injury was not as severe as that, and none of the nursery staff or children were taken to hospital, the roofing firm won’t be obliged to report to the HSE.

It's reportable under RiDDOR as a dangerous occurrence - something that had the potential for significant harm. The guy could have died or killed someone else by his fall.

With this contractor so casual about safety I wouldnt want my DC in a building where they are working tbh. Would you?

Unless it was a reportable incident it wouldn't need be reported under RIDDOR. If the worker wasn't injured I don't believe it would need to be reported to the HSE either (it's been a few years since I was a H&S officer and then it was only in an office).

This.

A fall from height is very likely to be a dangerous occurrence and therefore reportable. It has the potential to have caused significant harm.

You are correct there doesn't have to be an injury.
https://www.hse.gov.uk/riddor/reportable-incidents.htm

I can't see why anyone would think it ok to have children in a room with the roof being worked on, if a worker falling through the roof is just 'one of those things'.

The company shouldn't be back on site with that attitude.

Incorrect.

Both are at fault. The nursery have employed a potential incompetent contractor. They are a business and should have H&S process to ensure the people working on their behalf are competent and trained.

lol.. just stating facts!