All children are dependent on adults for their basic needs such as water, food, clothing and shelter. Like adults, children need an environment that makes them feel secure and safe and they depend on adults to protect them from any harm. A safe environment allows children to develop into confident teens and adults who can build strong relationships and meet their best potential. According to Tusla ‘It is the duty of every person working in a preschool service to take all reasonable measures to safeguard the Health, Safety and Welfare of the children attending the service and to comply with the Child Care Act 1991 (Early Years Services) Regulations 2016 and the Child Care Regulations (The Childcare Act 1991) (Early Years Services) (Amendments) Regulations 2016. Safety includes things such as providing safe toys and materials, maintaining safe adult-child ratios, ensuring a safe sleep policy is in place and protection and response to injuries. Daily, monthly and yearly risk assessments are required to ensure that necessary measures have been taken to keep children safe.
Available Health & Safety Products
In partnership with Canavan Byrne, The Early Years Shop offers Irish childcare services many products and tools to guide and help with all aspects of Health and Safety within their service. We offer products such as the Risk Assessment - Audits and Records Pack which includes all the forms you need to carry out daily, monthly and yearly audits and risk assessments that ensure your service is safe for children and the Sleep Policy Pack to ensure that you have everything you require to be compliant with Tusla for the safe sleep of children in your service. New to the Early Years Shop for 2020 are safety products that can assist you with the prevention of accidents at your service. The new products include door guards to protect little fingers, electrical socket covers and edge and corner protection kits. These products are hard wearing and easy to use anywhere within your service and can help to keep babies and young children safe from hazards such as electric shocks, falls, trips and head injuries. Being proactive where health and safety issues are concerned ensures that services are being compliant for any inspection but most importantly that they are endeavouring to keep children safe on a daily basis!
