Elf 'n' Safety gone mad???

As said, very few school exchanges happen these days, as the paperwork and risk of being sued is overwhelming. The only trips to France and Germany seem to be those through specialist holiday companies, where the school just collect the fees. The educational value is very pale in comparison to full immersion and living with a French/German (etc) family. Such a shame imho.

We have just emptied a bedroom - bed, dressing table, chairs, bedside cabinets etc [mattress with fire regs label] - rang charity after charity - not interested, but the battered women's came up with a classic answer - oh no, can't take beds Elf & Safety you know, that would have to go in a .... bedroom!!!!!! So, people prepared to share bedrooms with homicidal maniacs but apparently not a bed with or without it's fire regs label.

I agree with JessM - Health & Safety rules are there for a reason and just because somebody goes over the top that doesn't mean they are not valuable. Also, if people weren't so litigious these days, organisations wouldn't be so nervous about avoiding risk.

Very few of these edicts come from the HSA. They come from unqualified people who do not understand H&S and think they have to remove all risks.

I did a professionally run H&S course some years ago and was given three rules and a follow up

1) see if the risk can be removed easily

2) If not see if it can be mitigated.

3) If it cant then take measures to ensure everyone has the danger drawn to their attention. Possibly station someone by it to do the warning

Finally
What is the probability of the perceive danger. Selliing a kitchen knife to a teenager has obvious dangers, I cannot think of any circumstance where selling a canteen of fish knives and forks could be considered a dangerous weapon.

Once when DD and I went to our house in France our car was checked by a security man who sucked his teeth about whether our electric chain saw was a security risk. Said saw has a fairly short lead. We agreed we would leave it in the car on the car deck (it had never occurred to otherwise) but we whiled away some time on the ferry thinking of ways one of us could wield the saw, the other carry the plug and we could rush the bridge threaten them and then ask them if they had anywhere we could plug the saw in so that we could use it, and what we would do when everyone ambled out of reach of the saw and its lead.

FlicketyB - your scenario about the ferry made me laugh!

I saw another example of H,n S in action today. A little old soul fell?collapsed in the pile of trollies outside M&S today I thought it was a child she was being hauled to her feet by an elderly man. As I went to get my trolley I realized she was elderly with a lot of blood coming from a dirty gash. I said I would get someone from the shop and not to move. The man with her disappeared so she followed me in . She looked rather dramatic especially as her jacket was pale and by now bloodstained. One assistant went to collect the first wider and when she came I did I say I felt the poor soul should go the a&e as she couldn't remember what had happened also she didn't know if she had had a tetanus injection also I suspected she might need the odd stitch once cleaned up .when I finished my shop she was bandaged up but the first aides was filling in her detailed form. Surely surely the ambulance should have been called first it had only arrived when I left after my visit to Lakeland and a serious trudge around Sainsbury

What the devils up with these mamby pamby modern loonies.Come on grans tell em what life was like in our days,saterdays was my day to clean out the fire place and ovens at the side.Lay the table for saterday dinner wash up,go and check the garden for slugs and caterpillars on the vegis,feed the hens and ducks ,collect all the eggs,feed my rabbits.Then it was time to nip down to the chippy for dinner.In the course of us older folks lives we must have cut,burned,knocked,had splinters,fell off varios objects,got told off for scrumpeing apples,fell off the occasional tree.Come on you youngsters,a little bit of risk is what learning is all about.Life was not easy but it was certainly a good learning curve for the future.Manners was also something we learned from an early age,or a clip round the ear.You would not cheak your elders no matter who they were.And manners cost nothing.Hey grans don't sit in the waiting room knitting you may be picked up for using dangerous weapons??Ba soft twits.

Well I've just watched the heartbreaking report on C4 news about the inquest into the fire in the tower block - a bit more of the much maligned health and safety would not have gone amiss.

I know only two of the many local Charity shops who are worth visiting for knitting needles. I have done very well at both of them.

I am not telling which ones that are though.

A neighbour with 2 small boys at nursery, told me she was saving 'bits' for their craft projects. I offered to help but was told NO egg boxes (a risk of Salmonella apparently!) Has the world gone mad?

No egg boxes?! - how could Blue Peter have continued without them?

This certainly seems a bit OTT!!!

I live in the country and all the children round here are steeped in chicken and other animal shit all the time - cannot imagine that an egg box is going to contaminate them - probably the other way round!

No cardboard cylinders from toilet rolls allowed at my GD's nursery/primary school!!.At one time my son had large box of them he used for model-making .
When I was a child there was a claypit nearby.In holidays we collected a bucketful of clay and used it to make pots,cakes etc for our 'shop'.
I loved the feel of it in my hands but think of all those germs-however did I survive!

Toilet rolls have been banned in schools for years because of the poo which could be on them. They suggest putting them in the microwave {I agree we used them for years before then.}

Check this out!

www.hse.gov.uk/myth/

Whoops missed the last bit off

www.hse.gov.uk/myth/august.htm

You will see that it is a complete myth. Tell her to show the page to the school.

Thanks MiceElf (love the name!) Have forwarded it to show them at nursery.

MiceElf here is some of my favourite reading: www.hse.gov.uk/myth/myth-busting/index.htm. It's good to have the facts in order to challenge some of the more stupid H&S myths because I actually believe that H&S rules have saved many lives and prevented many accidents. We have become a risk averse society, which I deplore, but it's not fair to place all the blame H&S for this.

It's after 9.00 pm. My daughter (a teacher) has just completed a Health and safety form for a public speaking event ... Potential injuries? Sore throat? Over gesticulation?

What a waste of her time!

A craft shop I know sells the old bakelite coloured knitting needles as bangles. Somehow they are softend to wind 2 or 3 times around the wrist.
I keep my knitting needles in a large jug on the windowsill by my door. Often have delivery, postie comments about how dangerous they look.

sorry, softened!

Aka If it's a public even, then of course there are health and safety issues including egress in case of fire, for example.

I have just finished a novel where the murdered person was stabbed with a sharpened knitting needle !
perhaps Elf n Safety have read the same book ?

No egresses invited Absent