Posted By Jonathan Breeze Rob, Rather than trying to arrange it yourself, try to get involved under the aegis of your local careers company. Thay should be able to provide you with work experience specific advice. But as far as Insurance is concerned, yes contact your provider to ensure they have no clauses that may invalidate your cover. The big companies generally have no problems, but we have received anecdotal evidence that smaller brokers may quibble.

Posted By Ian Stone Get hold of a copy of HSG 199 "Managing health and safety on work experience". Should help give you some pointers as to what organisers woul;d look for Ian

Posted By MichaelM Rob Working in a Local Authority, I know that there are by-laws governing this type of scenario. They are worth looking at. Michael

Posted By Frank Hallett I know that this won't help you directly Rob; but isn't it strange that in other threads we're talking of the need to introduce young persons to "risk" so that they learn that life isn't totally safe and here we are making sure that all the tangle of disparate legislation is in place to ensure that the young person isn't actually exposed to anything prescribed by "the law". I have no problem with that except that there's just so much of the d**n stuff to pull together from so many different places first. And, does all this stuff apply to the "paper deliverer" and corner shop? Apparently not around here! There appears to be a cosmic intervention that exempts these situations and makes them invisible to the LA enforcers. If those who make the pronouncements about sensible risk management could deign to actually make it a little easier to make it happen, we could all do something more productive with our time than chase up these not quite connected strands of legislation. It's getting late and I'm missing my Horlicks! Frank Hallett

Posted By Eric Burt Frank I have been involved in arranging placements for work experience, YTS etc etc and I don't share your view about not exposing young people to risk. In all fairness, the legislation and guidance is fairly straightforward and basically says what we already know - treat youngsters as you would your own employees insofar as health and safety is concerned; give some thought to any special risks they may face due to their inexperience and do something about it. My 16 year old son recently went to a car plant for his work experience and I was most impressed with the way in which his health and safety was taken care of. They made sure that he experienced as many parts of the plant as possible and certainly didn't keep him away from any hazardous areas. You are right in that work experience should be a true reflection of work including exposure to risk and the guidance / legislation is merely reminding us (and informing those who don't know) about the sensible ways of making sure that the youngster isn't harmed. Thanks to my sons excellent work experience at the car plant he has now decided he wants to become a pilot! (figure that one out)! Regards, Eric

Posted By Jerry Sanderson Rob, Have you had a pre placement vetting visit on behalf of the placement organiser.We used to do this for all our pupils who went out on work experience and still don't allow pupils to go to unvetted placements. The vetting visit would cover Insurance issues, basic safety and welfare provision and risk assessment (ours used to leave the employer with a specific young persons risk assessment covering the placement tasks as many small employers found this a problem). The visit also allowed the employer to ask any questions they might be concerned about. If you have not had such a visit I would advise that you contact your Local Education Department Safety Adviser to find out what their policy on work experience placements and pre vetting is. Regards. Jerry.

Posted By Adrian Clifton Rob I am a H & S Adviser working for an Education Business partnership (EBP) dealing with Work Experience for year 10 students (15 year olds). All Work Experience providing employers should be "approved" prior to W E taking place. This involves a visit fron an Adviser who will conduct a Risk Assessment on the activities of the employer along with welfare facilities, hours of work, prohibition from certain substances/machinery/activities, etc. The Risk Assessment is aimed at "young people below the minimum school leaving age". I strongly suggest that you contact your local EBP and the school that the student attends to arrange a visit from an Adviser. This is important for your organisation in the event of an accident/incident. Let me know the location of your organisation and I will try to identify your local EBP. Adrian