# Home Health & Safety Check



## baby0684 (May 20, 2012)

I was just wondering what the SW look for on the health and safety check?
She says it will take about an hour to do everything.
I already have a BC so hopefully some of the stuff will be done.

Thanks


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## someday (Sep 11, 2008)

we will be having our shortly too. I think moostly that the house is safe ie no holes in wall etc. We have bought some little things like catches for cupboards, covers for sockets so we can say we have them. Our SW has said she will need to check house and car insurance too.


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## bambinolove (Jan 4, 2010)

As baby said, it is obvious h&s risks, fire guards, glass doors, plugs, stairs / stair rails, all those sort of things.


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## KJB1978 (Nov 23, 2010)

We also had to get locks for all windows and doors, any glass you can not prove is safety glass we had to cover with horrid film, the shed and gate had to have special locks made for them, all play equipment indoors and out must be secured, of a good quality and make.  The garden has to be enclosed and secure.  Obvious things like locks on kitchen cleaning products, medicines, matches etc

We got a tick sheet which we filled in and she then walked round with us to double check.


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## thespouses (Jan 5, 2006)

We didn't have anything like you KJB. We had to show we were aware of issues and we were told we'd need a fire guard (we were given one half way through HS), stair gates and a cover for the bannisters which were too far apart (little boy is not actually crawling yet and we are putting these in place, the HV is more concerned now than the SW!). None of this was a condition of approval and she never mentioned glass, play equipment (well, we didn't have any!), I think she mentioned door locks.

For us it was just checks not requirements and if you are adopting a child in a wide range, some stuff will be irrelevant (you won't need stair gates for a 5 year old)


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## AoC (Oct 28, 2008)

Our experience was much liked KJBs, although she was very relaxed and reassuring about it, and reiterated we're not expected to make the changes now, because we don't have a child yet!

Our To Do list arising from the check was/is:
- Safety film on accessible non-safety glass (i.e. not all glass, just the glass a child can reach - a potentially big deal in a house with glass that's over 200 years old.  We sourced ours from Amazon)
-  Fixed 'nursery' type fireguard over open fire that's in use.  No need for fire that's not in use.  (She said these were easy to get, but we had trouble - found one in our local traditional hardware store eventually)
- Removing potentially harmful plants.  I've re-homed my ivies and castor oil plant, although there's no way I can get rid of the self-seeding foxgloves in the front garden, but this won't be an 'unsupervised' child space.
-  A crawl check to spot loose carpet tacks, child-level hazards
- Locking away or putting out of reach sharp knives, chemicals including cleaning chemicals, garden tools/chemicals and alcohol (the knives is as simple as putting them to the back of the cutlery drawer, not the front)
- Stair gates to bottom of stairs, and to the mini-hall that gives access to child's room and my office.  (This is going to be a challenge for us, as both the stairs and upstairs hall access are wider than standard gates, even the extending ones.
-  Making sure roller blinds have safety cords
-  Locks for our sash windows
-  New bolts for our back yard door and the door leading to the utility room/cellar steps
- Making sure cat litter trays are out of reach and/or regularly cleaned.

We have a very old house, though, and currently it's not particularly secure, so we knew there would be work to do.  Most of our solutions to locking things away is to put them into the utility room and lock that door.  And remember, it's not for life, just for while the child doesn't know any better!

We didn't really go into cupboard locks, socket guards etc, although we have them.


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