Health and safety

[bedubabe]

Hi everyone

I don't live in the UK and have recently had reason to be concerned about health and safety at my children's nursery/pre-school.

Can anyone direct me to something that summarises what the requirements are for UK (or any of the countries!) nurseries from a general health and safety and a particular fire safety perspective? I want to take a sense check on whether I'm being paranoid or whether there really is a problem.

Thanks

From the legal requirements of the EYFS
"? Providers must take reasonable steps to ensure the safety of children, staff and others on the premises in the case of fire, and must have a clearly defined procedure for the emergency evacuation of the premises.
? Providers must have appropriate fire detection and control equipment (for example, fire alarms, smoke detectors, fire extinguishers and fire blankets) which are in working order.
? Staff should understand their roles and responsibilities in the event of a fire.
? Fire exits should be clearly identifiable; fire doors should be free from obstructions and easily opened from the inside.
? Regular evacuation drills should be carried out and details recorded in a fire log book of any problems encountered and how they were resolved."

But surely the setting only has to comply with the legal requirements of the country it's in?

Thanks insancerre.

Do you, or anyone else, know whether nurseries are allowed to be on more than one floor (i.e. can there be children on the second floor of a building)? Probably a very obvious question but I have never visited a nursery in the UK so just don't have a clue.

Also, if there was a fire anywhere on nursery premises would you expect all parents to be informed of the incident? There was (apparently) a very small fire, quickly put out, at my son's nursery last summer. I wasn't informed at the time. Should there have been a letter home? My thinking is yes but not sure if I'm over reacting in the current circumstances.

I have a meeting set up with the nursery to go through their standards today and need to get an idea what they ideally should be doing. Sadly until a tragedy last week, I hadn't even thought to check - just assumed it was ok.

I know they only have to comply with the legal requirements of the country I live in. I have reason to doubt that those legal requirements are sufficiently strict! I'm paying a lot of extra money for a nursery that has (for example) lower staff ratios than the legal minimum and want to check their health and safety is also top notch.

Nurseries can be on more that one floor in the UK - I imagine its all about having more than one way down - and making sure that all exits are open and signposted
Personally I think you need to find out what they do in practice - and what if any learning they took from the fire

Yes nurseries can be on more than one floor
I'm not sure what good a letter home about a fire would do, except to panic all the parents.
The most important thing is that all the staff know what to do in the event of a fire, that's why fire drills are so important. It's about awareness rather than prevention- it's unrealistic to assume that a fire will never happen but it is realistic to have staff training on what to do to evacuate the building safely.

Thanks everyone. I've now had a meeting with them and am feeling much happier.

It seems DS wasn't at nursery during the fire (we may have been on leave) and the manager seemed surprised we hadn't heard as one building was shut for the afternoon and so all parents knew (she brought it up). They evacuated all children in 1min30secs during the incident. She also said that the reason we weren't told when there was a monthly fire drill is that in the past parents panicked and thought they were saying there had been a fire.

I'm concious I am very paranoid at the moment and am tring to get some MN sense kicked into me. This is in the context of this: www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/expatlife/9297577/The-Qatar-fire-has-united-us-in-anger-and-in-grief.html