Posted By naomi I'm going to say it but you probably know any way Young Persons Risk Assessment needs to be carried out. Naomi

Posted By Andy Petrie An 'inexperienced persons' risk assessment would need to be carried out. 'Young' persons is discriminatory under the new Age Discrimination Act.

Posted By sagalout Andy ??????? Have HSE changed the description? Paul, As I am sure you know, the safety of young persons at work requires a great deal of planning and, above all else, adequate and proper supervision throughout the whole time until they become adult at 18. Not a good start then, on the bare facts as you outline them, where a company has taken on a "sort of apprentice". It does suggest that they do not have the resource or commitment required to ensure the safety of a young person. It may be they just didn't realise and now want to get it right, lets hope so. Have they checked out the support that is available on approved schemes through Connexions, CITB or similar organisations? You will not be able to fully complete a risk assessment until you have defined the training programme. When you complete your assessment you should ensure that it clearly outlines the prohibited tasks as well as those that the trainee can complete, when and where the young person will be allowed to undertake duties as part of a properly supervised training task and how the risk controls will be audited for the duration of his employment as a young person (i.e until 18). Named or post-holder nominated supervisor and/or mentor. You will need to review the assessment regularly, maybe a frequently as 6 monthly, as he progresses. Put simply, he can do nothing at all until he has been determined as competent. Some of that will be by "ticket" and some by his employer. For many tasks he will either be prohibited or he will need to be directly supervised until he is 18. He will need an extra level of mentoring/supervision for the whole term until 18. There is a lot of stuff on the HSE website, ROSPA, LSC and CITB website about young persons just at the moment because it is recognised as a significant area of concern. I suggest that if you haven't looked there, you would find it useful to do so.

Posted By Sean Nuttall Taking school leavers on in construction at 16 is a great experience for many kids. I can fully associate with the "sort of apprenticeship" as many of the highly skilled plant ops and ground workers we currently employ left school at 16 and followed this path. All the above re assessments and supervision is fully valid as young people who suddenly find that they can do something well (and many struggled at school) will be over confident and willing to get stuck into everything, very dangerous for them and others. As with all "apprenticeships" your 16 year old has to start at the bottom, shifting muck, mucking out welfare facilities, doing the butty run, being the site managers dogs body, stacking brick. Lots and lots of hazard awareness training from your old hands. The best bit of safety training I ever had was from an old hand. "Never put your fingers where you wouldn't put your thingy" (last word changed for the sake of not upsetting the moderators). You obviously won't find that in any CITB training documentation but perhaps should ? As long as your client/employer understands that his employment of this kid is not just a route to cheap labour and is in fact the beginning of a long term training and development relationship which could result in a highly skilled multi talented individual who will be exceedingly valuable to his company then I guess it will be far easier than you think. Well trained competent operators do not tend to flit around jobs, they stay put so it is in his long term interests to invest in this guy