Posted By Ron Young
So where is the significant risk to babies in prams?

Posted By Mat
Mothersw and babies should stay where they belong, at home and not the office.

Posted By Gilles27
I got asked this one once and to cover it we simply added the possibility of visiting children/babies to the generic building risk assessments. We are an office environment so there were no significant risks. A note was posted corporately that kids supervision was parent's responsibility. There are a million things that could go wrong, but in the scheme of things in our environment it is very unlikely. Check the insurance though, they may not be quite so open minded.
cheers

Posted By Maggie Atterbury
We too have a variety of parents arriving with children in tow during the school holidays. I have no particular objection to this and do not see this as necessarily a significant risk, provided that the parents have been informed that this can only be for very short visits e.g. to pick up a file etc or show off a new baby to work mates. We explain that the building (local government offices)is a workplace which is not child friendly (lifts, kitchen, guillotine, various items of electrical equipment etc)and thus any child brought on to the premises is at risk and must be under the close supervision of the parent at all times. So our control measures are close supervision and a short visit only.

What is a real risk ocurs with those few parents who have tried to bring the children with them when they come to work. We have had children in the offices and even the catering kitchen, which is not acceptable. Someone who is concentrating on their work is not closely supervising their children and vice versa, so these we ban.

Posted By njc
Hi Matt
Do you have some thing you would like to get off your chest?
Twice I have seen your name pop up on the forum and always with a negative attitude towards women!
Would you like to enlighten us??

Posted By Peter Longworth
Bare foot and chained to the kitchen sink Matt. That's the ticket

Posted By Nick House
Mat, it's a little harsh to tar everyone with the same brush. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, I know, but this is the 21st century, not the 19th...

As for the original post, as has already been said; as long as the parent is under no illusions that they bring their child(ren) into the office for short periods of time, at their own risk, and that the proviso is that it does not distract others from their work (other than to have a peek at the new baby, etc.), then I can see no problem.

We are an office environment, and a high proportion of our workforce are 'women of child bearing age'. Far from taking the no-one wants to work' attitude, being a little more flexible, and open in areas such as this can often swing the employees attitude in favour of coming back to work once they have completed their maternity leave.

As to bringing children in to work during school holidays, this is a little more difficult, as children get bored quickly, and there is often nowhere in the workplace where thay can remain entertained/ occupied for long periods of time. Supervision is another factor to be taken into consideration. therefore, I would have slight reservations here (although not insurmountable ones) about this, as there is great scope for staff to be continually distracted from their job, which in certain aspects (such as Software Development projects under tight timescales for example) could prove frustrating to others.

Posted By JF
You obviously need to raise the awareness and change the attitudes of your workforce. If they think health and safety is the restrictor. Read the new HSE remit, allow people to work and concentrate on the real dangers.

Posted By Julia R
Something Mat seems to have missed is that Men have children too, and sometimes want to bring them in to the office! In fact I think he may find that 50% of parents are men...

Posted By Jim Walker
As Sylvia says there was a death not so long ago.
Fortunately I'm in an industry where this cannot arise.

I note many of you say that it will be OK as the parents will be supervising them.
Judging from what I see in Restaurants, aeroplanes other public places, I would not count on it!

Posted By Calum Clark
We don't do risk assessments for this at my workplace, we just use a bit of common sense and a policy.

As a University we occasionlly have students who bring children into the Library of a weekend and there are plenty of staff who bring in the new baby, pop in to the office with child or have their child wait in the office for a lift home.

Our policy states that the parent or guardian is responsible for the child while they are in the building. If they can't keep them safe or stop them being a nuisance and get on with their job then its up to their Head of School/Department or manager to tell them that its not on. Our Library staff have asked parents to remove their children from the Library before now.

A blanket risk assessment is difficult as an inquisitive three year old needs more supervison than a 15 year with a Nintendo DS. There is also the issue of how long the child is on the premsies before bordeom sets in.

Of, course, there may be obvious areas where you will prohibit young children from alltogether such as an engineering workshop.

In the case of organised school trips and open days to our premsies some thought needs to be given (usually in the form of an RA) to the contols needed.

Baiscally, a bit of come and go without allowing parents to take the michael seems to keep everyone happy.

Calum

Posted By holmezy

kismet,

By keeping the kettle and baby apart you taking the "isolation" route...presumably you have considered the elimination route also? Either eliminate the kettle and upset all the office workers who rely on a steady supply of tea and coffee.....or eliminate the baby, (the mind boggles!!).

Posted By holmezy

kismet,

sorry for sounding flippant in previous threads......but its my way of reducing the seriousness of some situations and hopefully bringing people round the table for discussion rather than adopting the "law says so we must do" attitude of some people. We all moan when common sense is not applied, but sometimes we are also the culprits. I speak of course of the "royal" we, not as any particular individual.

I do agree with you in many ways. Just had a convesation with a chap who started grumbling about HSE law and that RA's are a pain. My opinion is that if we use the law as guidance, and ensure that no one gets hurt then we can spend the rest of the time making sure the paper trail is there. The important part is to stop people getting hurt, not to fill in pieces of paper.

So we are going to allow children in work areas but tether them to a fixed point, ensuring the scope of travel allowed does not allow them access to any kettles, whilst also segregating the area to ensure no one trips over the rope. Once the child gets bored and starts to scream, then we will issue ear defenders to anyone in the vacinity whilst placing an order for a large sound proof box from a local supplier. When this is delivered we can then place the tethered baby in the sound proof box and relax the need for ear protection. Obviously, then we will have to provide confined space training for the baby, ensure adequate lighting, ventilation and welfare facilities etc, etc, etc,,,,,,,,oh no, here I go again being flippant!! Perhaps elimination is the easier option afterall.

Many apologies once again.........

never mind....soon be alcoholoclock

Brightens up a Monday morning anyway.....

And yes, with a bit of radical thinking, then it could make life easier for all concerned and mamnage to keep everyone happy........and safe!

Posted By Eric Taylor
Why wouldn't an employer want children on their premisis, let me think, 1/ Hopefully primarily because they wouldn't want to risk them being hurt. 2/ If they were hurt, given that the employer will always have some responsibility for it, why lay themselves open to the possibility of being sued or being fined by HSE if something did happen. Might also want to look at your insurance? admittedly we are a factory but have large office areas. We have no cover for children on site. They are not allowed past the gate, (allegedly). Found 2 in an office once. Not an expert but one was about 4 and the other crawling. Loads of PC's, Electrical equipment, empty sockets etc. One large heavy and self closing door, (ouch there go the fingers), away from a serious industrial environment with loads high pressure hydraulics, air, cleaning tanks, chemicals, mezannine grating over hydraulic ring main etc. Reason for being there, child care had let the parent down and they would only be half an hour while the parent finished what they were doing. One wee finger, one wee socket or door jamb, one wee court case and probably a not so wee fine from HSE. No insurance to cover the costs. Remind me why we would want to mix the two again?