Hi All Just have a quick question. If you have a work experience child who by the definition on HSE is a child as there under the age of 16 can they work with coffee machines? Cheers B

Hi Brett, Take a look at the HSE guidance about young people and catering: http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/cais21.pdf There is no legal reason why they shouldnt, but you would need to carry out a risk assessment and take into account the hazards and the young persons physical and psychological ability, alongside sufficient training and appropriate supervision..

As with all things there will be good examples and bad ones. I did work experience twice, the first time was at school, the second at college. The first time was with a motorcycle dealership. I was fortunate in that dealership took on more than one student and I got to do my work experience with a friend. Being a bit more of a risk taker than I, he persuaded one of the mechanics to let him ride pillion on a trials bike down a dirt track one lunchtime. The bike flipped and my friend ended up becoming a human sled for about 20 yrds. His mother went nuts because I tried to stick him back together with strip plaster (it was all I had on me). The second time, I was working in a hanger in a local museum (one which has a very long pointy white fast thing). The defunct ticket office was a studwork room in the corner of said hanger. I was up on top of it standing on the joists, kicking in the ceiling when I slipped.......legs either side of a beam...... Luckily, I was a lot lighter, fitter and faster back then and managed close my legs fast enough to use my inner thighs as brakes pads and was lucky to get away with bruising and grazes.

The ACOP to MHSWR is useful to this: http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/priced/l21.pdf