I am often left wondering what some peole believe the H&S Policy of a company should contain. There are many requests about what it should contain, just like the one this posting is about. I believe the POLICY should be a simple statement of intent by the senior members of the organisation signed off after agreement by the most senior memeber of the management team such as the Chief Executive. This policy is a statement of intent and not how that intent will be met. This should be companied by a set of arrangements that includes the meat of the arrangements to manage the particular things that affect the organisation such as how it will manage issues such as manual handling, accident reporting and investigation and DSE etc. This is waht the company will do to manage each issue in detail. This can be amended as requuired but continues to meet the overall policy of the organisation. Thoughts please.

I used to write H&S Policies for nurseries a few years ago and the overall H&S File contained the usual sections - working at height, manual handling, risk assessments etc but we also had sections on medication, special diets, toys, hygiene, child protection, ratios, outings, activities, etc etc. What you need to be mindful of is making sure that Child Education/General procedures do not mix with H&S as this can cause confusion and what you include will also depend on what occurs in the nursery. Most of what is needed can be captured through the risk assessment process, remember with A&I reporting OFSTED have other requirements to H&S requirements -take care to separate child behavoiur issues such as bites, falls as they are learning to walk, hitting otherwise the accident reporting system will become overwhelmed. Hope this helps