Is your Current Play Inspector Suitably Qualified?
All play areas and play equipment in public places should have an Annual Safety Inspection. These include outdoor play, wheeled play, Muga etc. Only qualified Annual Inspectors belonging to RpII should carry out these inspections.
The benefits of using an Rpii Annual Inspector are that they are assessed on the European Playground Standards, continually updated and have the highest personal development training available.
Importantly, only Annual Inspectors are examined and certified to the level required to complete valid Annual inspections or Post Installation Inspections.
Always use an Rpii Annual Inspector. There has been many instances of 'cheaper' inspectors who say they are Rpii trained, but are not certified and competant to the correct level.
Check on the Rpii website ( www.playinspectors.com) to see the current list of Rpii Annual Inspectors.....David Bracey Play Safety Inspections will be on the list.
There are three levels of Rpii outdoor play inspectors - Routine, Operational and Annual. Operational and Routine Inspectors are examined to an appropriately lower level of competence by their lower level of resonsibility. Genuine mistakes may be made by them or local authority clients using them for annual safety reports as Annual Inspectors - which they are not. Their inspection reports, for health and safety reasons, may be invalid and may not be worth the paper it is written on - making the 'low cost' wasted money, the report unusable and the client vulnerable. This is because, in the event of legal action under the Health and Safety at Work Act, the annual safety inspection report and competance of the playground inspector will be questioned and brought in to doubt.
Registered & Certificated Rpii Inspectors
Outdoor Annual
Inspectors competant in carrying out Annual and Post Installation Inspections. The Annual Inspector has proven his/her ability and requalifies via attandance at CPD events during the year.
They have provided confirmation of the relevant cover as follows: Public Liability - £5m (minimum) Professional Indemnity Insurance - £1m (minimum)
All Annual Outdoor Inspectors have completed a DBS check.
The Annual Inspectors of outdoor play equipment play equipment pay an Annual Membership Fee and are entitled to use the Rpii logo.
'Inpect the inspector' says recent schools survey on play inspection
Hamilton House recently undertook a survey and found that the majority of headteacher and admin respondants knew their play areas should be subjected to an annual safety inspection by a suitable competant person. However, from the question 'who undertakes such inspection?', there was an interest array of answers. About one quarter said it was done by someone from their local authority but fewer than a quarter said this very important safety inspection was carried out by an appropriately qualifies Rpii Inspector. Over one third of repondants ticked the 'other inspectors' box which included the school caretaker, site manager or a private contractor or the equipment contractor. Rather worryingly, a significant number stated that they had ' no idea'.
ALWAYS CHECK IF YOUR ANNUAL SAFETY INSPECTOR IS A FULLY QUALIFIED RPII ANNUAL INSPECTOR