Avoiding big problems for little people

Early learning centres are dynamic, continually changing environments.  This is important so children are stimulated and always learning.  However, this also presents challenges and potential risks for both children and staff which need to be managed.

Guild Insurance has over 25 years’ experience insuring early learning centres; this means we understand your industry.  The following information provides examples of common incidents, which lead to insurance claims reported to Guild.  Following this are risk mitigation tips for running a safer early learning centre.

Case examples:

  • A child scaled a 6ft high fence, with the assistance of nearby play equipment, and left the centre.The child was intending to go after his parent who had just dropped him off.The child was found by a member of the public on a busy road about a hundred metres from the centre, fortunately unharmed.
  • A child was climbing up some play equipment when she lost her footing and slipped.As she fell, she bumped her mouth on the equipment, fracturing her tooth and splitting her lip.
  • A child was running outside and tripped over some play equipment.As she landed, she fractured her wrist.
  • A child was closing a door not realising there was a child on the other side of the door.This child’s finger was caught in the closing door and the tip of his finger was amputated.
  • Following complaints about an employee’s unprofessional conduct towards children, the employer investigated the matter and subsequently decided to terminate the employee. The employee then lodged an unfair dismissal claim with Fair Work Australia.

Tips to mitigate risks

Identify and act on hazards

There are many hazards in an early learning centre which could lead to children suffering an injury or experiencing an incident which could lead to harm.  Staff need to be continually vigilant looking for these hazards.  And this applies to all staff, this isn’t a job just for senior staff.  All staff have a responsibility to maintain a safe environment and this means staff should be encouraged to speak up if they see something which concerns them. 

When hazards are identified, it’s important they’re acted on immediately.  It’s not uncommon for Guild to see cases where identified hazards are put on the back-burner due to a lack of funds or time to address it.  This isn’t ok.  All centres need to have a process for how identified hazards are reported and recorded, with the person responsible for ensuring it’s rectified clearly noted.  This person needs to have an appreciation for what could go wrong if the matter isn’t addressed and ensure the required focus and urgency is applied.  It’s also important to have a maintenance budget to allow the centre to deal with unexpected yet urgent maintenance issues.  Waiting till more money becomes available could be more costly in the long term if there’s a serious incident.

Ensure there is appropriate supervision

All centres would be aware of the required levels of supervision and ratios for their centre.  However, supervision is about much more than numbers.  Staff need to understand what they need to be looking at and for when supervising children.  They need to know where to place themselves.  They need to be sure their attention is on the children and not allow themselves to be distracted.

Adequate supervision assists in several ways.  It means potential risks may be detected before there’s a serious incident.  Take the earlier case of the child using play equipment to climb the fence.  Not only should appropriate supervision have meant the child was seen climbing over the fence, but it’s possible that staff may have seen children attempting this on previous occasions.  This risk could have been dealt with by moving equipment away from the fence.  Appropriate supervision also means that if there’s an incident, such as a child has fallen and injured themselves, staff will be able to respond quickly and provide an accurate report of what occurred.

Create a safe place of employment

All staff want to work in an environment where they feel safe and valued.  Unfortunately, Guild sees many varied cases where staff claim they’ve been treated unfairly.  This may be because they’ve not been provided their full entitlements, such as salary or leave, or they may feel they’ve been bullied or not given promotional opportunities.

Managers and directors within early learning centres need to be sure their focus isn’t solely on the children but also on their staff, remembering that staff play a crucial role in the success of any business.  There needs to be open conversations and clear expectations regarding how staff are to treat and interact with each.  Managers need to also be sure their expectations in terms of behaviour and work performance is clear.

It’s important to create a workplace where staff feel comfortable speaking with mangers if they have any issues or concerns.  Too often we see cases where the managers are quite surprised a staff member has lodged a formal complaint as they were unaware of how the staff member was feeling.  It’s much easier and quicker to deal with an issue in its early stages.

Understand employment law

Employment related disputes are an ongoing theme in early learning claims reported to Guild.  These claims indicate that some employers may not be aware of their obligations and the laws governing them as an employer.  There are laws surrounding salaries and awards, leave entitlements and terminating employment.  Employers can’t simply do as they please, no matter how their employee behaves, which unfortunately it seems they sometimes do. 

The following two websites contain a great deal of easy to follow information to assist employers, and employees, understand their obligations.

If you find yourself in a difficult situation regarding an employment matter and you hold a Guild Insurance Early Learning Business Insurance policy, you’re entitled to two (2) hours of free legal advice under the policy.  This advice can assist you to deal with a matter correctly and fairly while it’s still in its early stage which may prevent the situation escalating into a more serious legal matter.

Don’t think it won’t happen to you

It’s easy to read cases such as those at the start of this article and think that wouldn’t happen to you and your centre.  However, Guild’s claims suggest these incidents can happen to anyone.  Thinking you don’t face these risks can actually put you at an increased risk.  This is because when risks and hazards aren’t taken seriously, the necessary risk mitigation strategies are likely to not be implemented.  Therefore, acknowledge what could happen, and do what you need to do to prevent this.

Download the pdf here.

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    Guild Insurance sees many insurance claims which have come about due to poor maintenance of a property.  In too many of these cases, the poor state of the building or its grounds is obvious and it’s quite surprising, as well as disappointing, that repairs haven’t been carried out before an incident has occurred.

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    There are a range of incidents which can occur due to poor maintenance of a property.  Staff can be injured leading to a worker’s compensation claim as well as staff being absent from work for an extended period.  Visitors to the premises, such as customers, clients or contractors, can also suffer injuries leading to public liability claims.  As well as the insurance claims which need to be managed, there’s the added stress of knowing that someone has been injured while at your premises.  Some of these injuries can be very serious and life changing.  Unfortunately, the hazards which lead to these injuries are often not viewed as seriously as they should be.  Yet with appropriate property maintenance many of these injuries could be avoided.

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    A client entered a building and tripped over an edge of carpet which was ripped and curled up.  The client sustained a fractured wrist when they landed.

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    An awning out the front of a building was old and worn out.  During heavy winds it broke off from the building and hit a person walking past at the time.

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    While walking through the carpark of a premises, a staff member has tripped on a large crack in the asphalt which had caused the surface to be uneven.  They fractured their ankle as they fell.

    Case 4

    Poor maintenance doesn’t just lead to people suffering injuries, it can also lead to further damage to the property.  An old deteriorating roof collapsed when hit by heavy rain as it no longer had the strength to support the weight of this rainfall.  This led to excessive water damage within the building.

    Property maintenance tips

    • Have a documented maintenance program in place. This requires a schedule for regularly checking the property to identify hazards as well as details on what needs to be serviced, repaired or replaced and when.
    • Be aware of the out-of-sight, out-of-mind hazards. Many properties have roofs, guttering and downpipes in poor condition due to a lack of maintenance as no one has thought to get up on the roof and inspect it. Include the less obvious hazards in the maintenance program.
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    • Be sure to use qualified tradespeople to undertaken maintenance work. While it can be tempting to undertake some DIY and save money, the risk of things not being maintained or repaired correctly will not be worth the savings in the long term.
    • If you’re a tenant, be aware of what you’re responsible for maintaining and what’s the responsibility of the landlord. Not all tenancy agreements are the same, so you need to be across the details of your agreement.
    • Don’t wait to undertake maintenance till a more convenient time. There are many cases of injuries occurring due to hazards which had been identified but not yet acted upon, usually due to costs, time or not acknowledging the risk of the hazard.
    • All staff have a responsibility to create and maintain a safe workspace. Some hazards will be identified through regular property inspections, however, you can’t rely solely on these inspections. Therefore, encourage all staff to continually be on the lookout for hazards and to speak up when they see something.
    • Don’t think it won’t happen to you and your property. These incidents are a lot more common that many people realise.

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    Understanding social media risks

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    2. Business social media should be based on business requirements, not personal views
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    Guild Insurance Limited ABN 55 004 538 863, AFS Licence No. 233 791.  This article contains information of a general nature only, and is not intended to constitute the provision of legal advice. Guild Insurance supports your Association through the payment of referral fees for certain products or services you take out with them    .

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    Common workplace errors and injuries in early learning centres

    No employee wants to be injured at work. And no employer wants their staff to be injured at work. Guild Insurance knows that employees and employers have the best of intentions when it comes to workplace safety. Unfortunately, despite these good intentions, we see many cases where early learning workers are injured while at work,
    and sometimes quite seriously. And it’s disappointing that many of these injuries could have been easily avoided.

    Guild Insurance sees too many cases where an injury in an early learning centre has occurred while the educator was performing a task in an unsafe manner which was most likely preventable. See below five posters you can display in your service with common examples of injuries and tips on how to avoid them.

    Examples of tasks performed incorrectly

    The following are some of the common actions which lead to injuries in early learning services:

    > Standing on swivel chairs instead of ladders to reach an item

    > Picking up children rather than lowering to their height

    > Lifting children onto a change table rather than having the child climb up steps

    > Lifting something alone which is too heavy rather than asking a colleague for assistance

    Training

    It’s possible that one of the main reasons people perform tasks in a dangerous way is that they don’t fully appreciate the risk. They may have been taught that it’s wrong, however they may not understand why it’s incorrect and what could go wrong. Therefore, when teaching staff about the correct way to perform tasks, it’s important to not just tell them what to do and what not to do, but also stress the reasons why. They need to appreciate what could happen and what sort of injury they could sustain. They need to understand, for example, that when standing on a swivel chair, it can easily move, causing the person to fall off. This often leads to serious arm injuries, such as fractures, as the person has landed on the ground. 

    Reminders

    Being told something only a couple of times, maybe during formal education or at induction, isn’t always enough to enforce learning and change behaviour. People often need to be continually reminded. Early learning services should be regularly talking about and promoting safety and correct techniques in the workplace. This could be a regular agenda item at team meetings. There could be signs around the service to remind staff of the correct way to do things. Staff could be commended when seen doing the right thing. Don’t make education a once‑off.

    Rushing

    One of the most common reasons people don’t do things as they should, is that they’re rushing and feeling they’re too busy. Too often when staff are busy at a service, they’ll try to do things quickly and will often look for workarounds to speed up tasks. Unfortunately, this can lead to unsafe practices and injuries. Taking an extra couple of minutes to look for an appropriate ladder or ask a colleague for assistance is surely better than suffering a serious long-term injury which may prevent someone from working for weeks or even months. Similarly, scanning the room for hazards prior to entering may aid in the prevention of a trip or fall.

    Lead by example

    Managers and senior staff need to be sure they’re leading by example. There’s no point telling your staff how to do things correctly and then doing it a different way yourself. And if you think you can do it quickly and get away with it, think again, as someone will see you. Not only are managers risking injury by doing things the wrong way, they’re also sending the wrong message to their staff. To create a workplace culture that values safety, all staff need to do the things the right way, which is the safe way.

    It won’t happen to me 

    We’re all guilty at times of knowing what can go wrong but not really thinking it’ll happen to us. However, Guild’s claims experience tells us these incidents and injuries happen to anyone, including people just like you. Just because you may have cut corners with tasks in the past and nothing went wrong, doesn’t mean you’ll get away with it next time. Taking these risks just isn’t worth it, because it only takes one time where something goes wrong for a serious injury to occur.

    Common workplace injury scenarios and prevention posters

    practices
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