Since their inception, playgrounds have been designed to provide children with developmentally appropriate play challenges. However, in many instances when these challenges are combined with age inappropriate play activities or poor protective surfacing they can result in injury. How serious? According to Health Canada and the Centre for Disease Control over 200,000 children in North America are treated in hospital emergency rooms for playground related injuries annually. Approximately 6.7% of these injuries result in a hospital stay of at least one night.
What can be done to reduce the number of injuries and potential litigation that may arise from these injuries? There is no simple answer. However, a significant portion of the solution lies in the development and implementation of a comprehensive risk management policy. In order to implement such a policy, your organization will need appropriate training. With adequate staff training and following through with necessary playground maintenance you can help eliminate up to 41% of playground related injuries.
Such a training program has been developed by Scott Belair. Scott is a Certified Playground Safety Inspector in both the USA and Canada. Scott has over 10 years experience selling playground equipment, manufacturing and installing equipment, inspecting and auditing as well as repairs and maintenance. He instructs courses on playground safety and risk management. As well as selling software programs for the inspection and maintenance of playground equipment for compliance with governing safety standards, Scott has also served on numerous safety related committees both in the USA and Canada and is an active member of the Canadian Society of Safety Engineers. Scott has also developed an inspection tool kit used to perform playground inspections. Please contact us for more information.
Scott’s playground training seminars are intended to educate those responsible for maintaining and supervising playground facilities in both public and private sectors. School board and municipal owner/operators as well as day care and private operators are encouraged to attend.
Topics include:
- An introduction to playground safety basics and developmental benefits of play spaces and play equipment
- Equipment layout
- Guardrails and protective barriers
- Equipment specifics
- Protective surfacing
- Risk management and litigation
- Accessibility and special needs users