Inspection and Maintenance
Inspection and Maintenance
In recent months the API has received a steady number of calls from authorities and commercial play providers in regards to how they are expected to deal with the inspection and maintenance of natural play spaces and natural play features such as boulders and tree trunks.
Designers, regardless of what they design have a legal responsibility to provide inspection and maintenance information to their clients, under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
The first misconception is that a natural play space is not covered by the same legislation as the more traditional play space and natural elements do not need to comply with standards.
Natural play spaces are typically manufactured play spaces and as such suppliers and operators have obligations and requirements under the Health and Safety at Work Act, which is the umbrella for all other guidance and standards related information and however the designers want to define the space it is still subject to the same legislation, such is the breather of the act.
Natural features such as boulders and logs placed into a play space must be included in the design risk assessment, and to produce a risk assessment on the feature in the play space competent designers will refer to the appropriate guidance, so with a log for example the designer needs a detail understanding of the BS EN1176 and 1177 to carry out the risk assessment and maintenance schedule.
In regards to inspection of a natural play area an inspector needs to have a wide knowledge of varying subjects and risk assessment in order to be competent to assess the site, as the environment they are now dealing with is not purely based upon the requirements of BS EN 1176 and cannot be inspected as such.
Maintenance is one of the parts of the safe systems as required by the HASAW etc Act 1974. The operator of the equipment not only has a duty to the user but also to the maintenance person who is inspecting it on behalf of the operator for the end user (visitor) to play on. The operator must therefore also ensure it is safe for the maintenance person to use during inspection. This can only be achieved through maintenance of the equipment. The frequency of the inspections is reliant upon its usage and the system that is put in place by the operator to ensure its ongoing safety
The following details are published on the HSE web site (www.hse.gov.uk) in regards to the different duty of care placed upon employers, non employees and designers.
Section 2 General duties of employers to their employees
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It shall be the duty of every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all his employees
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Without prejudice to the generality of an employer’s duty under then preceding subsection, the matters to which that duty extends include in particular:
a. the provision and maintenance of plant and systems of work that are so
far as is reasonably practicable, safe and without risks to health
Section 3 General duties of employers and the self-employed to persons other than their employees
- It shall be the duty of every employer to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that persons not in his employment who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety.
- It shall be the duty of every self-employed person to conduct his undertaking in such a way as to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that he and other persons (not being his employees) who may be affected thereby are not thereby exposed to risks to their health or safety
Section 6 General duties of manufacturers etc. as regards articles and substances for use at work
- It shall be the duty of any person who designs, manufactures, imports or supplies any article for use at work or any article of fairground equipment-
a. to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that the article is so designed
and constructed that it will be safe and without risks to health at all times when
it is being set, used, cleaned or maintained by a person at work;
b. to carry out or arrange for the carrying out of such testing and examination
as may be necessary for the performance of the duty imposed on him by the
preceding paragraph;
It is the responsibility of the play provider to keep the play area up to the required standard and in a safe condition, but the play space designers have the responsibility of providing this detail which should form part of the health and safety file given to the client once the project is completed and should form part of the design risk assessment.
Inspection frequency is determined by a combination of factors such as usage, location and material used and is a generally well documented procedure within most authorities and commercial operators and there are several organisations specialising in this field.
Well maintained means ensure that the risk encountered in a play space are the beneficial risks as discussed in the recently published Managing Risk in Play Provision: Implementaiton Guide. (available from www.playengland.org.uk)
Operational Inspections, Annual Inspection, Design Risk Assessments and DDA Assessments have been standard practice on traditional play spaces and the same processes and procedures apply to natural play spaces.
The Pathfinder and Playbuilder contracts require that the play spaces are sustainable. Within the inspection and maintenance detail provided by the designer the full life expectancy must be a consideration as must the cost of maintaining the facility.
Just as an example, we all know the benefit that sand provides in a play space and that it performs an additional function as an impact absorbing safety surface. Designers should therefore consider whether sand is the most appropriate surface under a group swing for example. Aesthetically is looks lovely but this will require a higher maintenance schedule than a wetpour surface, and is the sand actually providing any play value under the swing.
An experienced designer will understand these issues at the design stage and should make the client aware of the alternative solutions and the respective on going maintenance costs.
All inspectors and engineers should be competent and can be apart of a professional 
body such as the Register of Play Inspectors International (RPII) who run training and continually update their members’ professional knowledge to keep them abreast of the industry and safety requirement changes. (www.playinspectors.com)
Maintenance of play spaces is a cost based decision, it is therefore essential that designers make their clients aware of the anticipated future maintenance costs over the life expectancy of the play space. The car industry is perhaps a good example today where the design engineers focus enormous resources on the maintenance costs and as customers we see this benefit in increased service intervals and improved reliability.
Maintenance of the play space is a legal obligation, whether deemed as a natural, adventure or traditional play space. Just ensure you know as the client what these costs will be so that these can be budgeted for or through the initial design phase brought inline with your budgetary requirements.
Do not be misinformed that the word natural also means current legislation and practices do not apply.
API members are well placed to help meet the needs around natural play and also provide competent play space designers.