The British Standards Institution (BSI) work, to encourage risk into children’s play whilst ensuring that levels of safety are maintained, have been agreed and were published on 31st July 2008. BSI’s belief that our nations children need to experience the best play experiences available whilst minimising harm has led to considerable improvements in these new and revised European Standards BSEN1176 and BSEN1177. The previous editions of these Standards will be withdrawn on 31st May 2009.
British Standards on play equipment have been available since 1959 and thankfully massive improvements have been made into what children need, no longer are the Play Standards item specific – the only rocking horse that can be built is as this! The Standards now are saying, design and give the children as stimulating and challenging items as you want, so long as they do not cause significant harm. The Standards have been written with the understanding that too much safety can be detrimental to children’s development, a child needs to experience, clearly foreseeable risk taking and minor accidents, such as bumps, scrapes and the occasional broken limb as part of play and growing up. A well designed and excitingly equipped playground offer’s far better child development opportunities than a stolen shopping trolley in a derelict car park.
The work undertaken for these Standards has built upon their first issue in 1998 to provide guidance on removing hazards that can result in significant harm, such as swing seats that could strike a child with the force of a vehicle or a mechanism that could amputate a child’s finger. The Standards in removing such hazards has unshackled the designers mind, so that they can develop ever more exciting and stimulating ranges of play equipment.
Importantly the changes and additions now recognise that children are individuals and develop at different rates, so age related concerns have been replaced by inclusion of specific requirements to enhance safety. Such as improved barrier provision on platforms where there is easy access to steep drops, and heavy items, such as wobble boards, that now have their mass or movement restricted. These and similar sections highlight to the designer that they can maintain the excitement of an item through an amended design route and without incorporating a hazard that could result in significant harm.
Experience over the decade that the Standard has been operating has also shown that the opportunities to provide play equipment are often reduced by the costs of associated Safety Surfacing. Studying accidents and hazards and indeed in the lack of them, the Standards now highlight that grass can be used in many circumstances where fall heights are less than 1.5m, and hard surfaces, such as macadam, used under items of static equipment where fall heights are less than 600mm. For items creating a forced movement on the user, such as a fire fighters pole, the requirement for an Impact Absorbing Surface remains. The requirement for providing impact attenuating surfaces for falls from higher heights or moving equipment also remains; this is to reduce life threatening head injuries to a child.
Manufacturers and operators are encouraged to explore solutions that provide the challenges that height can provide without automatically selecting expensive surfacing. Some solutions are given in one of the two new parts to BS EN 1176 (Spatial networks) where large climbing or space nets can provide dynamic and challenging opportunities for play at significant heights (6m+) whilst preventing direct falls to the ground other than from relatively low heights.
Recognition that many commercial operators are also providing play equipment indoors within leisure and shopping areas is now addressed by the BS EN 1176 part on ‘Fully enclosed equipment’, and takes into account safety accessibility and the numbers of children that can be using these items at any one time.
Just because revised and new Standards have been introduced does not mean that all the existing equipment on playgrounds is not safe. Much of the existing equipment will already meet the requirements of these Standards and as is common practice in many industries, a sensible risk assessment will determine any action necessary. This should be undertaken by those with proven competence, such as Manufacturers or Annual Members of the Register of Play Inspectors International (RPII).
For those wishing to purchase new equipment it is advised that a 12 month period has been given to manufacturers to enable them to update their product. The old standards will be withdrawn on 31st May 2009.
Importantly these Standards have been developed and checked by all the 27 involved nations throughout Europe in this Central European Normalisation (CEN) work. The experience and knowledge of the participating nationally appointed experts, drawn together and led once again by a UK expert provides not just our 10.8 million children with improved opportunities for better play provision but also all the children within our neighbouring countries.