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Who Inspects the Inspector? In Detail |
Outdoor play areas in the
park — Outdoor Play Safety
Surfacing
Multi-use Ball Courts — Skateboard, Roller Blade &
BMX Tracks
School Playgrounds — Special Needs Play
Areas
Paid-for Indoor Soft Play Areas or Family Entertainment
Centres
Multigenerational Play Areas in Public Parks — Pub
Gardens
They may all seem very different. They all have one thing in common; Responsible play providers want them to be safe. Of course play providers, children and parents want them to be exciting, challenging and to offer appropriate levels of risk. Safety includes meeting current European and British safety standards and guidelines. When an indoor or outdoor play area passes an RPII post-installation safety inspection or an annual safety inspection it is confirmed as suitable for purpose.
The European and British play area safety standards and guidelines set specification criteria on the design of equipment and the layout of the site to minimise the possibility of severe life-changing injury as well as minimising collision injury-causing hazards.
While many play area safety surfaces offer spin-off advantages of draining well, having good grip, displaying colourful graphics, and reducing grazes from tumbles and trips, that is not their primary purpose. Their most important job is to reduce the severity of a head injury from a fall – even from the maximum fall height of three metres. Safe does not mean without risk of injury. It means risk within acceptable limits. Play area safety inspectors make certain that play areas meet BS EN 1176 and BS EN 1177 and are risk assessed to ensure they meet essential safety levels for the user. So inspectors must be knowledgeable, raising the question: Who examines their competence?
In 1999 the API, ILAM, FIT (was NPFA) and RoSPA set up the Register of Play Inspectors International (RPII) to certificate competence in play safety inspection and eligibility for inclusion in its Register. The RPII sets the examination syllabus and runs examinations. It also works closely with the BSI and the HSE. The RPII is not a training organisation, however it lists contact details of companies that offer training for all types of play safety inspections. Before the RPII, safety inspection was variably available through some other organisations and some self-appointed independent inspectors. Inspectors from reputable organisations and individuals should be RPII registered.
Annual play area safety inspectors, who are RPII registered inspectors, have their competence examined and certificated. That is repeated every three years. RPII inspectors are listed at www.playinspectors.com so play providers can easily find a specialist independent inspector. The site also lists staff of play providers who have been trained and certified.
Routine or Daily Outdoor Inspection are usually carried out by the staff involved with play areas; the RPII has certificated some 1500 people to do daily inspection. Some are council staff. Some are employees of grounds maintenance companies. Others are teachers or caretakers. At the next level up Outdoor Operational Inspection takes a closer look. Now, nearly five hundred play area associated staff have RPII outdoor operational inspection certification. Top of the inspector tree are the 100 or so RPII qualified annual play safety inspectors. They are full-time and independent. They inspect and report on outdoor, indoor and inflatable play. They are RPII certificated to conduct annual and post-installation play safety inspections. Beyond that, a handful of senior RPII inspectors examine and certificate the full-time RPII registered inspectors. Even they are regularly examined as part of the RPII rigour. Such is the appeal of this methodology it is attracting overseas interest. Truly international, the RPII now has annual inspectors in Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Romania, Denmark and Ireland, with the Federation of European Play Industries (FEPI) advocating the system be rolled out throughout the EEC.
Routine visual inspection is to spot obvious hazards resulting from vandalism, normal use or weather conditions and can take the form of broken parts or hazardous litter. Routine inspections may be carried out daily or weekly depending on use. Routine inspectors’ normal jobs mean they are on hand regularly to conduct and record these inspections.
The Operational inspection is a more detailed inspection to check on equipment operation and stability, especially for wear. It should be carried out monthly or quarterly, depending on usage of the play area. It may be carried out by RPII examined and certificated inspectors. Operational inspectors should keep records of all inspections.
The Standards require a competent inspector to carry out annual inspections and submit reports. This is specialist work and requires independence, competence and experience. In practice a third party usually carries out annual inspections. Their reports may be used as legal evidence in a court case should litigation occur, or in disputes between play providers and installers.
RPII registered annual inspectors are certificated competent to inspect and report on newly installed play areas. A play provider’s decision to open a new play area to children should depend on these post-installation reports - that it has been assessed as suitably safe, complies with the safety standards and installed correctly.
In addition to certification for examination, RPII Annual Inspectors must: be CRB checked; have professional indemnity and public liability insurance; annually sign and abide by the RPII Code of Conduct. The Code also sets an uncompromising standard for the way RPII Registered Inspectors are required to go about their business. It is available on the RPII website and can be offered by RPII Inspectors as part of their terms of engagement to client play providers. These additional criteria ensure play providers of certificated competence that is up to date and of an RPII registered inspectors’ ability to meet pre-qualification criteria. They are indeed the hallmarks of quality in play safety inspection.
At the start of 2007 the RPII launched its syllabus and ran the first certifications for Annual Inspectors of Fully Enclosed Play Equipment (FEPE). The syllabus and exams are based on the currently guideline ‘Soft Indoor Play Areas – A Code of Practice’ (BS 8409:2002). It will be replaced by a new Part 10, to the European play safety standard, EN 1176 being drawn up now and is expected to be adopted throughout the EEC during 2008. The RPII will update to that. Like outdoor inspectors, indoor play inspectors are listed at: www.playinspectors.com
The PIPA scheme for the annual inspection and certification of inflatable play equipment carried out by RPII inspectors has been classed by the HSE as ‘best practice’. It ensures equipment complies with the current European Standard on inflatable equipment; EN14960:2006. It also reassures the public that a bouncy castle and other inflatable play equipment, on which children are about to play, has been designed and built to a strict safety specification. RPII inspectors are trained to find and identify hazards and recommend solutions. There are now more than forty RPII registered annual inspectors for inflatables.
Safety inspections are not a legal requirement but in any court they form an essential part of resisting a claim. The European and British standard for outdoor play areas and equipment is BS EN 1176 and BS EN 1177. Currently for indoor play, BS8409:2002 applies and BS EN14960:2006 for inflatable play. All of these standards are recommendations, not legal requirements.
Play providers want successful safety inspections because everyone wants children to be safe – including insurers. Annual safety inspection are a requirement in the Standards and seen as Best Practice by the Health and Safety Executive. Play providers have a duty of care and are legally responsible to ensure risk assessments are carried out for all types of play equipment and provision. Risk assessment is a legal requirement as specified in the Health & Safety at Work Act 1994 & Regulations 1999. Mandatory risk assessment would be incomplete without an annual safety inspection report or without reports from more frequent inspections.
With safety standards in use, safety inspectors and manufactures wish to see as much challenge and excitement as possible, This includes opportunities for children to assess risk and learn what they can and cannot to do as they grow. Play has many roles including being vitally important in child development. More broadly, play areas also provide meeting areas for children and the adults they bring with them. This contributes an important social and community role for play areas. Children and families take play area safety for granted. The RPII inspectors job is to ensure they are right in their assumed confidence and trust.
The RPII provides recognised examinations for safety inspection of children's play areas and equipment. It fulfils such a key role within the play industry that after just six years, many play providers now specify RPII certification as the required and recognisable standard.