Health & Safety: What Does the Government's Plan to Transform Unused Classrooms into Nursery Spaces Mean for H&S Within your School?

On the 10th of June 2024, the Labour Party announced plans to open up over 3,000 new primary school-based nurseries transforming spare classrooms into nursery provision provided by schools or Private, Voluntary and Independent (PVI’s).

But how will these primary schools cope with an influx of children from as young as 9-months? The requirements of Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) are very different to those of children aged 5-plus.

Join us as we discuss how this may affect the health and safety within your school setting.

During the session we will be looking at:

• Classroom Conversions – How do we meet the health and safety Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) requirements and other relevant safety and fire legislation.
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  Risk Assessment – Conducting comprehensive risk assessments for new spaces and mitigating potential hazards in converted classrooms to ensure a safe environment for children and staff.
• The implementation and maintenance of high health and safety standards in shared educational spaces by implementing communication protocols and staff training to sustain safe and secure learning environments.

Let us introduce you to this week's professional speaker

Rachel Kitchen

Rachel is a Chartered Health and Safety Practitioner with 20+ years of health and safety experience and joined Judicium in December 2023. Her roles and responsibilities include ensuring health, safety and fire compliance for our education clients as well as delivering training sessions. Rachel lives in Northamptonshire with her husband and two children. Outside of work she is keen football fan, holding a season ticket at Watford Football Club and previously coaching a local grassroots team.