Please help. I have had my Unit 2.3 referred back to me and my assessor has provided the following feedback : " Please expand and further evaluate your own role in managing risk. You should include what risks you identified, how you managed them, could you have done anything more, and what could you do to improve your practice?"
My initial answer plus ive added another example as follows:
As a general rule of thumb most practitioners will naturally keep children safe whilst they are in their care, for example, if we see a broken toy we naturally throw it away or take out of reach to be fixed if possible so as to ensure no child is hurt. This is normally a natural autopilot reaction when we see things are broken. So through out all of the working day any toy or equipment that is broken beyond repair or needs repairing and could pose a risk to a child or adult would be put aside either to be fixed or would be discarded off in appropriate way.
Sometimes an activity may be set up and although a risk assessment is carried out and all risks dealt with, at times a new risk will arise that will need assessing, for example a shaving foam snow scene in a tough tray was set up. Children had a towel to wipe their hands on during and once finished with activity. Some of the boys were flicking shaving foam onto the floor and stamping on it then smearing onto the floor, i noticed it was becoming slippery. I took the children away from area, retrieved a mop, cleaned up and dried and allowed children to continue play. Before they began i explained what had happened with floor and we had a discussion about the risks and what we could do to reduce risks. Myself and children agreed not to spread foam on floor. In retrospect we could have identified this risk before the activity was set up and put safety precautions in place such as explaining to the children how to enjoy the activity safely and what to be careful of and what not to do.
Whenever you have children in your care you need to be aware of risks that may develop as well as risks already on show and also be prepared to deal with them immediately.
Another example of assessing risks was when children were playing outside in garden and were using the slide. Most children favoured the slide over all other outside activities so they were all very keen to go up and down slides. We have a policy that an adult must always supervise children when using slide so as to ensure the children are safe and slide cannot be moved / tipped etc but i was not that person. Whilst assessing the children playing i noticed a lot of the younger children were sliding down slide and then Immediately pushing their way back in and climbing up steps to slide again. This was not being addressed by member of staff and i could see other children were getting aggravated and upset by this. Some of the younger ones also began pushing as others were climbing up the steps of slide and at top of slide. I immediately stepped in and stopped children's play, I explained to all children that they had to form a line and take it in turns, once they had taken their turn they were expected stand at back of the queue and wait their next turn, i then stayed and directed children when they had had a turn and when they were queueing up so that way one adult was supervising the safety of slide itself and those at top of slide and i was keeping the children that were waiting safe. If i had not have stepped in chances are a child would have fallen from steps or slide by being pushed inadvertently or hurt by being pushed down slide when they were not ready. I think this shows i am able to manage and assess risks well. To improve my practice i believe that "
Stumped what to write now.
