Save our climbing frames! Ofsted tells nurseries to let children take more risks

NURSERIES should avoid ‘stifling’ children with overzealous health and safety rules such as removing climbing frames, the head of Ofsted has warned.

Amanda Spielman suggested nurseries could be harming youngsters’ development by removing play equipment and avoiding trips to the park over fears children might hurt themselves.

She said the creation of ‘overly risk- free environments’ was counterproductive and that young children need to be able to discover the world and ‘ run around until they’re exhausted’.

She told the Nursery World business summit in London that while risk should be taken seriously, and children supervised properly, their ‘natural instincts to discover and explore’ must not be inhibited. However, nurseries have previously been penalised by the watchdog for failing to safeguard children.

In 2007, parents accused Ofsted of having a policy of ‘health and safety gone mad’ because it criticised Nailsworth Town Hall Day Nursery, near Stroud, Gloucestershire, for having ‘unsafe’ play equipment. Mrs Spielman, who took on her role this year, admit- ted the watchdog had not ‘always got it right in the past’ but said she now wanted nurseries to feel safe to allow children to explore.

She said she had written before about the ‘importance of achieving the right balance when it comes to keeping children safe’ and being careful ‘not to deprive children of fulfilling educational experiences for fear of “what if”.’

She added: ‘The welfare and safety of children, of course, are at the very core of all early years provision. For parents, handing over their precious child into the care of strangers is a hugely emotional act. We should never underestimate the level of trust those parents are placing in childcare providers.

‘First and foremost, parents want to be sure that you can keep their child safe from harm.

‘And of course you must be able to assure them of that. But my concern is that in doing so, and through the best of intentions, we are creating overly risk-free environments.

‘Young children do need to have the opportunity to explore the world around them, to develop their physical skills or even sometimes just to run around until they are exhausted.’

Mrs Spielman stressed that she did not want past comments from Ofsted inspectors on health and safety to ‘drive any of the risk-averse behaviour’.

She said that while Ofsted expects childcare providers to ‘take risk seriously’, she did not expect everyday activities to be inhibited.

‘We don’t expect you to take away the climbing frame in case someone falls or avoid journeys to the park for fear of crossing the road,’ she said. ‘It goes without saying that children need physical exercise to develop their muscular strength and dexterity but it is also impor- tant that their natural instincts to discover and explore aren’t stifled.

‘This is, after all, one of the ways they learn.’

Mrs Spielman also said she wanted to debunk a myth around ‘ snack time’ in nurseries, saying she had had lots of discussions about what Ofsted expects to see.

‘At first, I was perplexed,’ she said. ‘Why should the way a nursery organises its snack time be so important to Ofsted? Then I discovered that advice from various sources recommends the sort of snack that Ofsted prefers.

‘That might have been borne of a well-intended comment from one inspector to a single setting at some point, but it seems to have escalated into an enormous and pervasive myth.

‘So I will say here, inspectors do not expect to see any particular way of organising snacks.’

Her comments come amid debate over how much parents, teachers and childcare providers should protect children from risk during everyday activities.

A recent study found nearly one in six teachers claimed their institution had banned children from playing conkers, with one school claiming it was to protect those with nut allergies.

Other activities that have fallen foul of over-zealous health and safety rules include British bulldog, tag, marbles and even skipping.

Two years ago, the Government body overseeing health and safety said children ‘need to be able to live ordinary lives’ and ‘play, fall over and hurt themselves’.

‘Explore the world around them’