Your ability to manage accidents in Early Years Services is just one of the many important duties you have to children and their families in providing a safe early years environment.
An accident or incident in your service can be upsetting to staff and children. Having the correct policies and procedures means that you can first of all do your very best to prevent accidents before they happen, and secondly, to have a concrete procedure for staff to follow in case of accident or incident. Having a good awareness of a structured procedure is always an important component of making sure staff can manage crisis situations.
First Aid and Medical Care for Accidents in Early Years Services
All staff should be familiar with your policies and procedures around safety and first aid, particularly your First Aid Officer and your Health and Safety Officer. Provide training where possible and document all first aid training.
You must keep a fully stocked first aid box where it is easily accessible to staff at all times. Post a checklist to make sure you maintain the correct stocks of all first aid supplies.
Be sure you can provide safe transport to doctor or hospital with the appropriate car seat for any age in your service. Every room should have a list of emergency numbers posted.
Order the Only Tusla-compliant Accident and Incident Book
Every accident or incident must be recorded in an accident and incident book. We recommend our new Accident and Incident book containing 50 triplicate records. One copy is filed in the child's file, one copy goes to the family, and one copy remains in the book so the book serves as a reference of all accidents in the room. Our Accident and Incident book is also up to date with GDPR compliance. Did you know that a large number of non-compliances reported in Tusla inspections are due to out-of-date forms and books?
Tusla has provided this list of written documents requested by inspector in course of Tusla inspection. We recommend you download this and use it as a reference to ensure all your paperwork is up to date and inspector-ready!
