Paddling pool at nursery. Is it safe?

[bambino1]

I work at my daughters nursery and today turned up to find there was a paddling pool in the outside area. In the afternoon 4 of the children including my dd went in it. I was stood there thinking this is not right.
I'm going to say something tommorow when I get to work but I just need some back up advice like should there be chlorine to kill bacteria.
I also thought what if one of the children wees and then another put it in there mouth. Quite scary now i am thinking of it.
If anyone knows if this is ok or very wrong please let me know.

would it help if you had parents' permission for their child(ren) to play in the pool? can you get a letter together that they could sign when they drop their kids off to say they're happy to let them do so or otherwise, as long as your letter states they will be supervised at all times, the pool will be emptied when not being used and the water will be changed each time?

And in the meantime can't you ring the council childcare thingy or even ofsted to check if any health&safety rules are being breeched? You've got back-up then if any parents have any queries.

They are both really good ideas which I will talk to my manager about tomorrow. Thank you moomin for your suggestions.

fwiw, we have to sign a suncream-permission form at nursery.

Really can't see the problem and I personally think health and safety is so OTT because of insurance risks that it takes much of the fun out of many enjoyable activies. It also seems to strip people of allowing them to use their common sense in such circumstances.
I am a nursery nurse and have worked in a nursery and I think a well supervised afternoon's play in a paddling pool can only be beneficial for the children. They could pick up more germs concerning urine simply by going to the loo.

Think its fine - but the none toilet trained should be wearing swimming nappies in case they poo in the paddling pool. Like the others - not worried about a bit of wee.

Don't know about the health and safety issues that are specific to a nursery but I would assume it's something along the lines of proper supervision and preotection from sun? I would have no problem about this at all, in fact the children are probably safer in a nursery paddling pool than one at home. My DS1's reception class at school had a beach day last week with sandpit and paddling pool - parents had to sign a consent form to say they were happy for their child to go in the pool. It was such a success they've left the pool up this week (chaning the water daily I hasten to add!) and the kids can take it in turns to go in.

What is it specifically you were uneasy about Bambino1?

I used to work in a nursery and you have absolutely no back up advice to take with you as there are no health and safety legislations to comply with.

Yes a risk assessment should have been carried out and appropriate action be followed. As someone else said, supervision and suncream. Fresh changes of water, children who are untrained could wear nappies/swim nappies to increase the hygiene, but really urine is not harmful anyway.

I think its really sad. When i worked in a nursey we worked our hardest to give those children a fun time just as though they were at home. We didn't see ourselves as solely and education centre or anything else. Purely a homely comfortable environment for children to enjoy themselves in whilst their parents were at work.
This includes doing fun things like splashing in a paddling pool, and painting our bodies head to toe and then hosing each other down, having waterfights and sitting in baths of baked beans.

That's a great attitude Fran. The way I see it is that nurseries are a great place for all those lovely messy dirty fun activities that would create havoc and lots of clearing up at home!

Thanks wordsmith.

Absolutely, thats what a nursery should be designed for!

Of course we had our pre-schoolers there and followed curriculums with them. And of course our plans told ofsted that by splashing in the pool the children were in training to become budding scientists with all the knowledge about water and its effects!

But at the end of the day, we wanted the children (and the staff) to have fun in order to keep a happy atmosphere for all to be in!

I am interested Bambino if you could elaborate on what is "quite scary" about this?

Message withdrawn

I wouldn't be happy about it unless I was there purely because of the drowning risk - eg maybe they would forget to empty it afterwards, leave the door open beforehand etc. Sounds like great fun etc but I would trust very few people to let my 16 month old near 'deep' (I mean enough to drown in) water. I am pretty uptight about it. But very relaxed about other safety stuff, funnily.

I'm not too sure what I find scary about it really. Reading all your messaages has made me realise that I have now made a mountain out of a molehill and feel a bit of a twit! Today I will go into work and discuss my worries with my manager but I will also try to calm down about the whole situation.

Awww bless you, no need to feel like a twit!

Went Into work yesterday and the paddling pool was not there. The manager and owner of nursery had both decided to put it away until all children had permission and health and safety had approved it. So we took the children to the park to enjoy the sunshine!!

sounds like your instincts were spot on then bambino1