Posted By Frank Hallett Richard May I suggest that you do a search on this Forum for "Young Persons", MHSW, and MHSW Reg 19. You should also visit the HSE web-site and search for "Farms" and "Young persons". If you need further support, please contact me direct [click on name] if you wish. Frank Hallett

Posted By Cathy Ricketts You are certainly going to have a battle here. It will depend on who the children are - ie family members - having being brought up in a farming environment it was not uncommon for myself and my younger siblings to remain in area carrying out work whilst a tractor and trailer was driven elsewhere to obtain/deliver feed or other items. - having said that we had a streetwise awareness of the risks involved and what to do in an emergency - no mobiles then. However in general terms children should not be supervising other children and if you have a look at HSG165 you may find some additional help there - also think about duty of care to those other than employees

Posted By richard emery Hi, thanks to both of you for your postings. Haven't looked at HSG165, must get a copy, been meaning to but ever got around to it. As for work experiance, no they aren't, and if they were, they are generally well covered by the companies who manage the work experiance placings. The young persons involved are full time, having left school last summer, the children may well be family and equally may not as they have a fairly high turn over of under 16's. All farms have always had a high amount of play factor to the local lads and lassies, however in both times gone by and still today, kids get killed and hurt though lack of supervision. Think I'm going down the "Risk Assessment" and "Duty of Care" Route, if nessecary with a big stick and a loud dog.