Posted By Steven I am after some help on young (being 16-18) disabled people with learning difficulties doing work experience. Our company will have 3 disabled people on site supervised by their teacher and a member of our staff at all times, I have done previous risk assessments for young work experience persons but need help with what further risks I need to look out for with disabled youngsters with learning difficulties. The work they will be completing is collating different coloured A4 sheets of card, very basic. Length of time doing this activity will be about 2 hours. Many thanks in advance Steve

Posted By Kenny McGillivray Hi Steve We place many young persons with organisations on periods of work experience, some of who have learning difficulties and disabilities. It is important for you to know what health problems the young persons suffer from, this can be done by asking them with assistance from their teacher to complete a health questionnaire. Obviously any information you are given must be treated confidentially and used to assess the risks the work they undertake may pose and the affect it may have on their existing health. good supervision is the key to all work experience, any accident investigation I have done almost always identifies lack of supervision as top of the list of causes. It doesn't sound as if the work is particularly hazardous but may well be for some young person with health problems. You will no doubt have looked at the issues surrounding seating or standing in one place, repetitive work,etc. Young people are sometimes very inquisitive and if there is interesting machinery or vehicles about the workplace then these will pose a problem. Please email me direct if you want any copies of paperwork I use for assessment etc. sorry so long winded butt the subject is huge! regards Kenny