- Why do children need to take risks?
'Children who are not allowed to take risks are missing out from learning from their mistakes.'
'We have got woodwork and use saws and different tools and the children love it, but they know the safety and they can take that risk, and they know that if they put a finger across the saw they will cut themselves. They are allowed to do it within boundaries.'
'Children have to find out for themselves, like telling them something is hot. They don't understand.'
'By taking risks children are exploring what their bodies can do.'
'If they are not allowed to take a risk, then we are stopping them from moving on and they may grow up to be a nervous wreck!'
'If you let children take risks they will grow up understanding a lot more about boundaries. All the media hype is about how children need to be reading and writing before they get to school but if they are not allowed to do new things, like using a knife, when they get to school they may not be able to cope.'
- Q: Do today's children miss out on 'risks' that we took for granted?
'When I was little I used to swing off trees. Now we'll be saying "Be careful".'
'But children are more cautious these days too. They hold back and want lots of help, like climbing on the crates in the garden.'
'My mum used to let me play out in the field and we'd make mud pies and birds' nests out of grass. I used to check in now and again and stay within boundaries and it was OK.'
'But you wouldn't let your daughter do that, would you? Society is different now. It isn't as safe, or maybe things are just reported more. There is always something on the news that make parents extra cautious.'
'Naturally some children are risk takers and some aren't. But we probably stifle those who are risk takers because we don't let them take as many.'
'As nurseries we have also caused this over the years. There are so many health and safety regulations that we make everything so safe that children don't take risks any more.'
- Q: Is there too much risk management these days?
'At my school they banned egg and spoon races in case an egg broke and a child was allergic to it.'
'I think I'm different at work than with my boy at home. At nursery you do not let them rough and tumble the same. I'm over-cautious with the other children because I'm not their Mum and I do not want to let them hurt themselves.'
'At nursery you want to hold their hand on the stairs, whereas with my own child I'll stand a few steps behind, just in case.'
'We have a company that deals with our health and safety law. I dread their visits because they always come up with something crazy. We have logs in the garden and one had a twig sticking out of it and they wanted us to remove it, but I said that's a calculated risk. A child will scratch their leg on it but not die on it and they'll know not to go so close again. We have a digging area in the garden with tools, and they wanted to close it down because of the risk of e coli.
'At our other nursery one of the recommendations from an Ofsted visit was that someone removed the stones from the grass in the babies' area. Influences like that make nurseries stop taking risks.'
'Our nursery owner is supportive but she is terrified of something happening to the children. We talked about having pullies on the tree in the garden and she went white when I said about ropes hanging.
'We never take children off the premises, and I do agree with that. We won't even go to the postbox because of the owner's anxieties that a child may slip your hand and run into the road.'
'My previous nursery took children out but the amount of paperwork involved was ridiculous.'
'The families that come here don't have to go to Legoland with us, they have the income to do it themselves and do go out. It was very different when I worked in social services nurseries and children didn't have the same opportunities.'
- Q: How do parents react to risk?
'Parents are always saying be careful, don't hurt yourself, or don't get dirty.'
'If a child goes home with a load of accident forms parents may wonder whether the staff are looking out for their children enough or are not supervising them.'
'From a manager's perspective you're thinking longer term. Society is all sue, sue, sue these days. Children do not just have accidents any more. There is always someone who is negligent. Even children with bumps - parents are quite rightly saying to us "where is the supervision?"'
'Those who have the biggest accidents have been the least problems. It's the regular small accidents that tend to cause more difficulty with parents.'
'Whenever I show parents around I say we let children explore to allow them to make mistakes and learn from them. But now I'm wondering - we probably don't do it as much as we think we do.'
- To have your say, visit our discussion forums at www.nurseryworld.co.uk.
An Expert's View
Jennie Lindon, psychologist and early years consultant
Not every early years setting reaches the same decisions about risk. There is scope for professional judgement that recognises children's need to learn as well as to be safe enough. Leaders in every setting should encourage a genuine discussion about risk so that everyone understands how the team has reached its practice guidelines.
All team members then need to be consistent about issues and observing the guidelines, such as, 'On trips to the park, we do not let the children run further than ... because ...', or, 'The children learn a great deal from cooking and we ensure that the experience is safe by ...'.
Registered early years provision is already required to meet basic health and safety standards. So, when it comes to resources, equipment and play-full experiences, most of the risk assessment should be about 'can' rather than 'can't'.
Sensible risk assessment does not follow from imagining the very worst that could happen and restricting children's experiences on that basis. An enjoyable childhood will involve some level of risk, physical, emotional and intellectual.
Young children start to judge their own limits when they can move freely outdoors and practitioners know the boundaries are secure. But if they are never allowed to have adventures, then they cannot learn to manage their own physical risk.
Caring adults have to identify genuine hazards for young children and then take simple measures to reduce any risk to a manageable level. You, the adult, are the most useful piece of safety equipment ever invented. You can actively teach children how to avoid risks, such as to look before they jump and to bend their knees on landing. Another simple measure can be to introduce simple practical rules, such as only one child at a time on the slide, or always having an adult sitting by the paddling pool.
Remember that recent Government guidance linked with the Staying Safe initiative has recognised that the balance has swung too far towards anxious over-protection. Advice increasingly talks about risk assessment being 'proportionate' to genuine danger and not just a knee-jerk reaction to single events (sometimes it was just an accident), nor the over-reaction of one or two families.
FURTHER READING
- Lindon, Jennie, Too safe for their own good? Helping children learn about risk and life skills (2003, National Children's Bureau).
