You have a responsibility to the public to maintain your play area in a safe condition. This requires periodic inspections, maintenances and risk assessments. This Guide is intended to help you understand what is required of you.

To ensure your play equipment is safe, a systematic programme of inspections and maintenance must be performed throughout the year. This guide is a list of tasks required to preserve your play equipment in a good and safe condition. Maintenance is broken down into weekly, monthly and annual tasks.

If serious defects that put safety at risk are found during any inspection, these should be corrected without delay. If this is not possible, the equipment must be immobilised, isolated or removed. When an item of equipment has to be removed from the site, any anchorages or foundations left in the ground should be removed or made safe. The site, including the surfacing, must also be made safe.

In the firsts weeks after the opening of the new play area, the wooden structures need to be inspected carefully everyday as the playground settles in. The wood will warp, splinter and crack. This is perfectly natural and does not undermine the structural integrity of the structure but cracks and splinters can pose a hazard to children playing on the structure and need to be attended to. Particular attention should be paid to decked areas as decking has a greater tendency to splinter whilst bedding in.

Once the structure has bedded in, it might be necessary to re-tighten fixings. Sanding of splinters can be conducted by the Facilities Manager. Pay special attention to gates, platforms and moving parts.

This should be conducted weekly but where sites are subject to vandalism and/ or heavy usage, a daily inspection is recommended. The Weekly Inspection includes:

1. Visually checking the equipment for any obvious faults or hazards that can be a danger to children, parents or carers.
2. Ensuring the safety surface and surrounding areas are free from debris which could cause injury or be a hazard to health or the environment.
3. All fixings must be checked and re-tightened.

Accurate records of maintenance inspections must be kept.

A more detailed monthly inspection should be conducted. This can be undertaken every three months if the playground consists solely of static units such as slides, climbing frames and furniture. The Monthly Inspection includes:

1. All aspects of routine inspection
2. Checking that fixings are secure
3. Lubrication of bearings
4. Touching-in any scratches to paintwork using the appropriate paint
5. Repairing safety surfacing and other elements that form the rest of your site

Accurate records of maintenance inspections must be kept.

An overall inspection of all aspects of your site should be carried out once a year by an approved independent inspector.