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

There absolutely should have been a risk assessment.

Depending on the age of the building they are also required to have an asbestos survey/management plan. I'd be concerned this hasn't been considered and works may lead to potential exposure.

HSE. Dh is a commercial contractor. Often works on live buildings - hospitals, schools, offices, retail- etc. Always does work at height when building closed to users, or area they are working in closed to service users.

It will achieve:

The roofing company will be made to undertake better risk assessments on its jobs.

The nursery will be made to undertake better risk assessments when getting work carried out above an area where young children are.

It will be formally documented, so that if another H&S incident happens again for either party it can be properly dealt with.

Report, for sure. As you stated a child or staff member could have been seriously injured. Management have a duty of care and it’s seeiously lacking.

Snitch

Our child's school has recently had a whole new roof. It was done in stages and classes were moved when work was taking place above them. I'm very surprised it was allowed to happen above an active setting.
I'd certainly have questions but I know that those were the terms laid down by the contractors not the school.

No. Poor guy. How on earth is this the nursery fault...roofing company if anything. Yabu...

Nothing for you to do, HSE and insurers will investigate. Just reassure your child that sometimes accidents happen.

It's not like she got the wrong main course and wants to not pay for any of the meal

A man fell through the ceiling into a room with young children in 😱 it's not an example of people complaining unjustifiably ffs

Of course it should be reported, by the roofing company themselves from a H&S angle. I’d be concerned that the nursery are not taking their duty of care seriously enough though - children could have been injured and it sounds like adequate risk assessments and safeguarding procedures were not in place. You could contact Ofsted and see where it gets you, though the nursery may well have done this themselves.

I'd interpret it as a floor ... the flat horizontal structure between the room the kids were in, and the roof, collapsed.

There are so many people on this thread who seem to have no concept of the fact that the nursery has an owner and a manager who are capable of reporting this as necessary, and to the right people. Since when have parents run the place?

These people are professionals, they'll be appalled at what happened and they will be taking action. It's not up to Suzy's mum to do it.

Frankly no parent is in a position to report this because they weren't there and have no clear knowledge of what happened and how, other than the bit they were told.

The man fell through the roof do you honestly think it OP didn’t complain nobody would notice and not do anything

it will be dealt with there’s no need for parents to chip in

I don't know the exact age of the building but I would say maybe 70s or 80s? Just based on the design, wooden beams inside etc

This is how terrible accidents happen multiple times... by everybody assuming somebody else has raised it 🤦🏼‍♀️

If that's the case they should definitely have a register showing location/type etc... I think it's commercial type properties before 2000 from memory.

You can often find the registers online. They should be shared with any contractors carrying out work. There are heavy fines if they don't follow the regs.

Seriously!

Given the nursery is open all year, and building firms tend not to work weekends, when do you think work is going to be done? Maybe nursery should shut for a few weeks. Love to see parents’ reaction to that! (And don’t be reporting anything to Ofsted. Nursery hasn’t done anything wrong!)

Did she? Why?

”Someone said”, can you not make your own mind up?

No. Don't report it to anyone.
Contractors have their own means of reporting accidents.

They would have to report the incident to HSE and their insurers. No need to report. I would expect the contractor and the nursery would put extra safeguards in place to reassure staff and parents.

Yes you can report it to the HSE - heath and safety executive. They have a number / email for reporting. No the roofing contractor should not have fallen through the roof and next time it could be way more serious not just for the children. Something has gone wrong here and there should be some safeguarding checks, especially as there is the additional situation of the children beneath. There is no requirement for the contractor to report it to the HSE if there were no injuries.

Not unless the guy was injured and has sustained a specified injury, if he walked away fine and was back to work the next day, they don’t have to report it.

Over the years I've heard of a few people "falling through" roofs when what actually happened was they'd just put a foot through the ceiling from the loft and sent a bit of plaster down. It's like people saying someone "cut their head open" or their television "blew up".

If the workman had fallen right through the roof down onto the floor I imagine he would be injured in some way, which suggests that this incident might have been far less dramatic than it sounds.

I'd get the facts straight OP and perhaps ask to see a photo of the damage before doing anything. Perhaps the nursery felt they needed to say something even if it was quite minor.

Did they actually fall or did they just put a foot through the celing, if the roof is being done and someone was in the loft space checking rafters etc etc then it is not unknown for them to slip and put a foot through ceiling.