Posted By kanta As H & S Officer, I tackled this by saying children under 18 yrs of age are not allowed on the premises.Fullstop. the management are aware of the implictaions of not following this policy.

Posted By Andy Lorraine, Banning groups of people may not be the answer for all workplaces, indeed, it may get you into the papers with the recent "Risk Averse" media hype, that said, I work for a manufacturing site, with lots of FLT and HGV movement and children under the age of 16 are not permitted to enter the site. This is a sensible risk based decision as in the past, hauliers and others have brought children onto the site in their vehicles (usually HGV). These children have been found walking the site alone, and I actually found one youngster at the wheel of a stationery HGV and saw him start the engine! One exception to this rule is competition time, we have competitions and prizes for our suppliers, a site tour, meal and speeches, we allow the families on site at this time, precautions are taken, PPE is worn, areas of risk cordoned off So, in summary, where do you work, what are the risks to young people, can it be managed? What do you think the average person on the street would say? Regards Andrew

Posted By Eric Taylor Jos, I work for the MoD in a factory/office setting. We do not have insurance cover for children at work so that makes it easy. To answer your questiuon about offices, If I look around our office, there are numerous electrical devices that a toddler could get in to trouble with. Imagine how much paperwork you would need if someones toddler pulled the kettle cable and tipped hot water all over themselves or stuck their finger in a socket etc, etc. Not worth the risk. I'm sure your finance managet would love the ivoice for electrical socket protectors too.

Posted By Jos Eric. Maybe my response was not clear or misunderstood. I am fully aware of the hazards that you have mentioned and I agree. I was pointing out that many people perceive an office based environment as low risk and there are many issues to consider as you correctly said. This is what leads to complacency. In my opinion, if the specific workplace presents a risk to children they must be either prohibited from entering or fully supervised depending on the risks. But paper work or finance managers do not concern me. We are talking about human life.

Posted By Diane Thomason Sorry to come into this a bit late (well, a month) - I chanced on the thread while searching for something else. I work at a university and this problem was raised a few years ago. We produced a policy regarding children on site. Basically - banned from high risk areas, allowed in "public areas" e.g. bookshop, coffee shops. Entry to all other areas only with knowledge and permission of head of departments. We included a few safety guidelines. The policy was generally well received. If anyone would like to see it, feel free to email.