Recently my son had an accident at his nursery school that resulted in a head injury and him being taken to hospital (He's fine now). Point is I considered this to be RIDDOR reportable under R3, persons not at work (see quoted extract below). However the nursery says they have asked the RIDDOR helpline and been told it is not reportable. As the accident occured because he tripped over "stuff" lying on the floor in a walkway I believe it occured arisng out of work i.e the condition of the premises. However, before I go in next week (I'm overseas at the moment so my wife ha had to deal with it all) I'd be interested in any views here as to whether you consider this a RIDDOR or not? Thanks "45 Any injury to a person who is not at work (eg a hotel or care home resident, pupil or student, or a customer in a shop) must be reported if it: (a) results from an accident arising out of or in connection with work; and (b) results in them being taken from the premises where the accident occurred to a hospital, by whatever means (for example by taxi, private car or ambulance)."

IMO it is a RIDDOR reportable accident, yet again it is for the nursery to worry about. It would not make any difference to you or your little one if they report it or not.

Hmm; an interesting response from Clairel to what I thought was a pretty straightforward request for other professional opinions on a situation I had encountered. I’m actually interested in this from a number of angles. First, as a parent I’m clearly interested to ensure that my son is being looked after safely and effectively. The running of the nursery has recently given myself and others cause for concern on a number of fronts and this incident has identified that safety may be a concern. I plan to discuss the matter with them on my return to the UK next week and want to be sure of my facts before doing so. The document referred to by Ron is one that I have seen and the reason for not being certain is that in the 1998 guide the document is referenced but does not appear to be so in the 2008 guide. I therefore wondered if it had been withdrawn. In “Education Information Sheet No 1(rev1)” it states that the hospital stay should be greater than 24 hours but this is not stated in Regulation 3. Therefore I was seeking clarification from other H&S professionals. Second, I don’t believe my responsibilities end when I stop work. I may not be able to solve all the H&S problems I see but I do believe, as a safety professional, I have a duty to help where it is appropriate and possible and I believe this to be an instance where it is totally appropriate and possible for me to provide some helpful advice and support to the nursery. Third, as a safety professional, this is an opportunity for me to develop my knowledge in an area I would not usually work. From the information I have, it does appear to be that the room they were using as a walkthrough was exceptionally untidy and even give the fact that this is a children’s nursery, this is not an excuse to never tidy up anything. Therefore the statement in the regs regarding “(a) results from an accident arising out of or in connection with work;” I believe is appropriate and probably applies in this instance. There is clearly a balance to be gained between children being allowed the freedom to express themselves and enjoy being children and the need to look after them. I encourage my son to be active and adventurous and he needs to learn to understand risk and the consequences of getting it wrong. Hopefully, he will achieve this without suffering any serious injury. As you suggest, I could report direct to the HSE but I would prefer to work with the Nursery to improve the situation not just for my son, but for all the other children that attend. If this can be achieved this would be a better result for all concerned. I am very clear about what my role in this event is and what I believe is appropriate action.

My reposnse was base don the fact that: a) As an involved parent it would be impossible for anyone to emotionally remove themselves from the situation and so I wanttd you to consider that as a factor in your thinking b) Your post did not mention wanting to rectify problems at the nursery it purely was asking whether we felt it should have been reported. We all give different answers becuase you haven't given us enough information about the 'stuff' or the circumstances. Like I said the nursery have phoned the HSE and they have said it's not reportable and so of course I am going to query where you are heading with this. Sorry if my post offended you, that was not my intention, but I still can;t see where you are heading with this. If, as you now say, it is about working with the nursery to improve conditons then wheteher the accident to your son was reportable or not in some ways is irrelevant.

There are various grey areas at the edge of RIDDOR, as anyone involved in public-facing organisations will confirm. The HSE are trying to stop it spreading too far away from the original intention of alerting Inspectors to cases that they (or EHOs) need to follow up. In this case, I'd be tempted to enquire what information they have collected in line with their Ofsted registration. That'll put the cat amongst the pigeons.