Tiegan Patterson Unit 3: Health, Safety and Security

M2, D1
Assess the hazards identified in a health and social care setting The risk assessment was taken in a nursery setting, in this assignment i will be explaining further the likelihood and severities of the risks and creating control measures to prevent them from occurring. Arts and crafts in the nursery setting­ A hazard in arts and crafts in a nursery is the area getting messy and a spillage of water, paint or glue happens, the risk of this spillage would be a child or nursery nurse slipping on the spilt substance, tripping and injuring themselves. I put the likelihood of this happening at a 2, this is because it is an arts and crafts activity so there wouldn't be a lot of movement in the room also considering the young children would be handed the equipment by an adult instead of getting it themselves. The likelihood is a 2 due to the workers walking around to supervise the children and take them equipment as they may be distracted and not notice a spillage made by a child. The severity of this hazard is a 3 as depending how bad the fall is it can result in an injury that could be dealt with by an unprofessional or result in a broken bone which would take a few weeks to heal and would have to be dealt with properly by a professional. To minimise the risk of this happening the nursery nurses should ensure the floors are clean at all times and if anything is spilt it is cleaned up immediately, if the spillage can not be dealt with immediately a wet floor sign should be put down to ensure people are aware of the spillage making them less likely to slip and injure themselves. Another hazard for arts and crafts in the nursery setting is a child cutting themselves accidentally on a sharp pair of scissors whilst cutting something up. The likelihood of this happening would be a 3 as if lots of children are handling the sharp scissors alone there will be lots of accidents considering young children do not understand the dangers of sharp objects and their coordination is not as good as older children or adults and they can easy miss what they are trying to cut and cut themselves instead.The severity of this happening would be a 2 as the cuts may be able to be dealt with by an untrained person but a more serious cut which is possible would need to be seen by a professional and require stitches. To minimise this risk the nursery could ensure that all scissors used are child friendly for example, plastic scissors or blunt scissors which children could not harm themselves with. Also the nursery nurses could supervise children with scissors or help them to

Tiegan Patterson Unit 3: Health, Safety and Security

ensure they are using the scissors correctly and not at risk of cutting themselves, they could also pre cut or cut things for the children so scissors do not have to be involved in the activity or children do not use scissors during the activity to eliminate all risks.
Another control measure that could be taken would be educating the children on the risks of scissors and other sharp objects, this would help them to become more aware of the dangers and become more careful however they would still need to be supervised around sharp objects and scissors as they are still only young and accidents can still happen no matter how aware the children are. Outdoor play or activities in a nursery setting­ A hazard of outdoor play and activities would be that children are likely to fall over or hurt themselves on play equipment like swing sets, slides, playhouses, etc. The likelihood of this hazard occurring is a 3 as young children are likely to hurt themselves by falling over and playing on things. The majority of cases are not serious and would be dealt with by an untrained