Hi

Quick question if you don’t mind as my H&S Consultant is on holiday.

We are looking at employing a new part time member of staff for 16 hours per week, 4 hour shifts, 4 days a week. I’m aware of the regulations around employing children 16 and under, and have spoken to the local education office about this too.

I have one question outstanding – what is the minimum age that an employee can work without supervision? Duties would be cleaning, bed changing and very occasional reception cover.

Thanks!
Keith

A start:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/193326/Child_employment09.pdf

Not sure if there is specific legislation but you will need to do a risk assessment before they start and that should flag up any issues

from the management regs

Protection of young persons

19.—(1) Every employer shall ensure that young persons employed by him are protected at work from any risks to their health or safety which are a consequence of their lack of experience, or absence of awareness of existing or potential risks or the fact that young persons have not yet fully matured.
(2) Subject to paragraph (3), no employer shall employ a young person for work—
(a)which is beyond his physical or psychological capacity; .
(b)involving harmful exposure to agents which are toxic or carcinogenic, cause heritable genetic damage or harm to the unborn child or which in any other way chronically affect human health; .
(c)involving harmful exposure to radiation; .
(d)involving the risk of accidents which it may reasonably be assumed cannot be recognised or avoided by young persons owing to their insufficient attention to safety or lack of experience or training; or .
(e)in which there is a risk to health from— .
(i)extreme cold or heat; .
(ii)noise; or .
(iii)vibration, .
and in determining whether work will involve harm or risks for the purposes of this paragraph, regard shall be had to the results of the assessment.
(3) Nothing in paragraph (2) shall prevent the employment of a young person who is no longer a child for work—
(a)where it is necessary for his training; .
(b)where the young person will be supervised by a competent person; and .
(c)where any risk will be reduced to the lowest level that is reasonably practicable.

You don’t say how old the emplyee is. When you say unsupervised do you mean that no-one else will be on the site?

Thanks for the info so far folks. The employee would be 17 and may be onsite themselves on occasion. Its far from ideal for all concerned and I’d prefer someone 18+ but we’re struggling to recruit. It took 3 months to get someone last time, he’s been here 4 weeks and he’s off!

Keith

As a H & S bod I’d be asking myourself these kind of questions if they were on their own:

1. Could they deal with a fire?
2. What would happen if they had an accident or if a MOTP was hurt?
3. What about aggressive MOTP?

Basically how can you be reasonably confident that they could be left on their own given their age and inexperience? If they had been working for you for a while its easier to answer. Brand new is more of a problem. Risk assessment first to identify issues, then a balanced judgement on whether to proceed. I know what advice I’d give if I was your consultant (based on what yu’ve said anyway). I suspect you know it too 🙂

Yes I think it would be unwise to trust a non o adult with those sorts of things tbh

It is certainly not best practice and may leave you vulnerable should something go wrong

I assume training and other things could mitigate the risks but essentially you have put a non adult in a position of sole responsibility…it is not outlandish to think this may be unwise

IIRC i thought you had to reasonably assume they would not follow your instruction and therefore supervise them more /not leave them unsupervised- dont they get longer breaks as well – has that changed as my knowledge is a few years out of date

I assume Yoss will know more so is that just a rule of thumb?

Thanks for the replies folks, I’d certainly never put anyone in a risky situation especially a young person. There’d be no responsibility involved, no direct contact with any MOTP (like it!) but obviously there could be a fire or injury etc. If we don’t get any over 18s applying shortly we’ll look at the 2 lads we’ve identified (17) and put supervision in place.

Thanks again
Keith