RoSPA Recommended Inspection & Maintenance Regime of Playgrounds

We provide maintenance services for a number of playgrounds on behalf of Property Management Companies and thought it would be useful to take a look at the RoSPA advice & information on this topic.

According to RoSPA, whilst there is no legal requirement to provide inspection and maintenance programmes there is a legal and moral responsibility on playground managers to care for the children using the site. This responsibility goes beyond the initial design and selection of equipment and covers what good practice look in terms of inspection and maintenance.

RoSPA advise that inspections are completed across playground sites – not just the equipment – including fences, pathways, seats etc. all need to be checked. These inspections are completed frequently and within the following hierarchy:

• Routine inspections – frequent checks of the equipment carried out and results recorded
• Operational inspections – more detailed look at the equipment checking for vandalism and certain types of wear
• Annual inspections – carried out by a specialist not connected with the operator or manager of the playground focused on minor and major wear, risk assessments. These inspections should be in a form acceptable to the operator’s insurance company
• Maintenance – where issues are identified, it is imperative that repairs and managed properly with actions recorded appropriately. We complete most repairs on sites we look after unless it requires specialist attention
• Surfacing checks should be incorporated into inspections to determine soundness, with tests such as economic impact absorbency tests considered as part of annual inspection

Of course, it is important that staff undertaking regular inspections should have completed basic training courses and that if a contractor completes the inspection, they should be able to provide evidence of the required training being completed.

To ensure that inspections and maintenance regimes are adhered to, it is also important that independent random checks are carried out.

Here at Envirocare, we take this responsibility seriously and work closely with clients to ensure that our inspections help to meet the required standards. We have had RoSPA gold accreditation for the past 6 years and work with independent quality inspectors that complete random checks on our work across all sites.

If you’d like to know more about our services, please give us a call on 0800 028 3329 or drop us an email on info@envirocarems.co.uk.