Posted By Neil Harvey I took a call today from one of my organisation's regional safety advisers that the local senior manager had brought his three year old son into work and left him in the care of the personnel office staff. The reason for this was the manager had been let down at short notice by his regular child minder, couldn't make alternative arrangements, and had to be in the office for a series of meetings that apparently could not be cancelled. Our organisation doesn't have on-site creche facilities. I talked through the situation with my colleague, who was somewhat perturbed by the manager's actions, to come up with a risk assessment and action plan to keep the tyke as safe as possible during the day. Measures we identified included: an adult to be in the personnel office at all times; keeping the door of the personnel office locked, to prevent the child running out, or other people walking in inadvertently and tripping over the child or his toys (!); restricting access to the office to the staff who normally work there and one visitor at a time, to ensure that the child was supervised all the time; putting everything that cause the child harm out of reach or locked away in cupboards or drawers; when he needed the toilet, ensuring someone took him. And so on. I'm absolutely amazed at this manager's actions, and have mind to report the incident to my HR Director, who is responsible for health and safety management in our organisation. Has anyone else had to deal with this kind of behaviour?

Posted By Ken Taylor Yes. I still remember from my local government days the Councillor (Chair of Committee) who always took her infant with her on visits around the offices and the occasion when he was found in his carry-cot being used as a wedge to hold open the lift doors on the landing while she was in one of the offices! Children are at greater risk. We have a greater duty of care to children. Irresponsibility may sometimes go with rank but no reduction in legal duty.

Posted By James B What a nightmare situation Neil! Has anyone taken this the other way and actually encouraged children in the workplace - say for "National, Bring your child to work day"? Incidentally, who decides when these "national" events occur. Does anyone actually eat apples all week for national apple week or smile at work all day for national smile at work day... Karen - If memory serves you can take up to 13 days a year for parental leave but it's unpaid so the temptation is to take a sicky. If you work forthe Royal mail though, you'll be left out of the prize draw for a car! Oddly enough, I was let down by a baby-sitter this week and took a half-day annual leave. The options are there if you look for them even if it means cancelling important meetings. In my last job I took my dog to work every day and we had a pretty good risk assessment in place for that. Far less trouble than having an 11month old daughter around who is learning to run before she can walk. James

Posted By David Thomas I remember the bad feeling there was when a member of staff on her second maternity leave brought in the new baby to show everyone and left the 2 or 3 year old to run around the office screaming, climb up on chairs etc etc. When I sent out a memo to all members of staff stating that this was unacceptable and there may be a problem with our insurance company it was as if I had overnight been found to be a child molester. As to dogs, more than happy - they are housetrained (usually), and more importantly have an aversion to the institutional skivvers who have to keep popping out for a fag or two (I know they only talk company business) Dave

Posted By Locksley McPherson This member of staff should have been sent home to take care of his child. How important do we think we are that we can't miss a day. What if he had been involved in a serious road traffic accident and been seriously injured? Whould he still be coming to his VERY IMPORTANT MEETING then? Regards, Locksley

Posted By Neil Harvey Thanks to all for your comments. My report went in yesterday to my HR Director. I'm not holding my breath, though!

Posted By Jim Mc Nally My advice to you here is to be careful how you approach this. As the H&S guy, you need to be fostering a relationship with this senior manager. I would suggest that rather than speak to HR in the first instance that you speak to him direct, express your concerns and get his agreement that from a safety perspective what he did was not acceptable and to agree some form of action for the future. As an aside what you don't want to get drawn into is if his employees are just annoyed at his actions and they may have their own axe to grind here, perhaps they do feel that they don't want to be treated as unpaid babysitters, I have seen safety being used as the big sword in these types of issues.

Posted By Sean Fraser I once touted a suggestion to my previous workplace about sourcing, recommending and perhaps providing a financial contribution towards an "approved" creche facility. The organisation was around 70+ strong and several female employees had taken up their maternity rights, but were effectively left to their own devices afterwards regarding arranging satisfactory care for their children while they work. Since the company wasn't keen in establishing a creche of it's own, I thought this would be an appropriate half-way house, and a low-cost recruitment bonus for attracting working mothers. Advantage to the employees was closeness to work (reduction of time and distance to / from work) and the removal of need to assess a suitable facility / provider for themselves. Benefit for the company is more satisifed and happy employees and recruitment bonus as described. You might come up with some more yourselves. The point is that we have all been discussing the rights and wrongs of what has happened, but no-one seems to have been considering a solution to the cause that would remove the need for them to bring their children in as an emergency. Obviously it is not safe for a toddler to be running about a workplace - the need for this to happen should be removed. Taking a sickie b****rs up any stats being collated (just how would you categorise it anyway). Forcing employees to take time off, either as holiday or specified grace day, robs the employer of a productive member and often instills resentment and/or guilt in the employee. Even so, these are preferable to being forced to bring a child into a potentially dangerous area (you can't watch 'em all the time!). So why not try to solve the problem for ALL concerned? My two penn'orth!

Posted By John Murgatroyd 13 days parental leave ? I think you need to look at the legislation again. 13 weeks.

Posted By Karen Todd Heather, You're quite right about the parental leave. I think I gave everyone a bum steer by referring to this. The one I had meant to refer to (but couldn't remember the name of) was Time Off for Dependants: http://www.dti.gov.uk/er/time_off_deps.htm Have a look at the FAQs - it covers the child minder not turning up. Regards, Karen