Health and Safety Risk Assessment in Early Years Settings: CACHE Level 3 Guide

Health and safety assignments in CACHE Level 3 often ask students to “carry out a risk assessment” for a specific area of a setting — the outdoor play space, the kitchen, a specific activity — and this is where many students either write something far too generic (“check for hazards regularly”) or miss a required step in the formal process entirely. This guide walks through the legislation, the recognized five-step risk assessment process, and detailed worked examples across different setting areas.

Key Legislation Behind Health and Safety in Early Years

• The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 — the overarching UK legislation requiring employers (including early years settings) to ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, the health, safety, and welfare of employees and anyone affected by their work, including children and visitors.
• The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 — specifically requires employers to carry out risk assessments and record significant findings where five or more people are employed.
• RIDDOR (Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013) — sets out the legal requirement to report certain workplace accidents, diseases, and dangerous occurrences to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
• The EYFS Statutory Framework — sets specific requirements for early years providers, including maintaining a safe and suitable environment, appropriate staff-to-child ratios, and written risk assessments for outings and potentially hazardous activities or resources.
• Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations 2002 — governs the safe storage and use of hazardous substances, such as cleaning products, which is directly relevant to early years settings due to children’s access to storage areas.

Common assignment mistake: Naming RIDDOR when a question is actually asking about the process of preventing accidents (which is governed more directly by the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations), rather than the separate process of reporting an accident that has already happened. Being clear on which legislation governs prevention versus reporting is a frequent assessment distinction.

The Five-Step Risk Assessment Process

Nearly all CACHE Level 3 written risk assessment tasks are marked against a standard five-step model, adapted from HSE guidance:

1. Identify the hazards — What could realistically cause harm?
2. Decide who might be harmed and how — Be specific: which children, staff, or visitors, and in what way?
3. Evaluate the risks and decide on precautions — How likely is harm, how severe could it be, and what control measures reduce this?
4. Record your findings and implement them — Write down the assessment and put the precautions into practice.
5. Review and update as necessary — Risk assessments are not one-off documents; they must be revisited regularly and after any incident or significant change.

Common assignment mistake: Skipping step 5 entirely. Students often treat a risk assessment as a single static document, but assessors specifically look for an answer addressing when and why it would be reviewed — for example, after an accident, when new equipment is introduced, or when a child with a new specific need joins the setting.

Worked Example 1: Outdoor Play Area Risk Assessment

Hazard identified: A wooden climbing frame with a raised platform.

Who might be harmed and how: Children could fall from the platform, resulting in bruising, fractures, or head injury; staff supervising could also be at risk if attempting to intervene awkwardly during a fall.

Risk evaluation and control measures: The risk of a fall is moderate given the equipment’s regular use, and the potential severity is significant (fracture or head injury), making this a priority for control measures. Controls include: ensuring impact-absorbing safety surfacing (such as rubber matting or bark chippings of adequate depth) is maintained beneath and around the equipment, restricting the number of children on the platform at one time, positioning a staff member with direct sightline to the equipment during outdoor play, and checking the equipment visually each morning before use for loose bolts or splintering.

Recording and implementation: These measures are documented in the setting’s outdoor equipment risk assessment, reviewed and signed termly by the manager, with a daily visual check recorded on a simple tick-sheet.

Review trigger: The assessment would be reviewed immediately following any fall-related incident on this equipment, and at least annually as standard practice, or sooner if new climbing equipment is added.

Worked Example 2: Snack Time / Food Safety Risk Assessment

Hazard identified: Risk of allergic reaction during snack time.

Who might be harmed and how: A child with a known nut allergy could suffer a mild to severe (potentially life-threatening, anaphylactic) reaction if exposed to nut traces in food or cross-contaminated surfaces/utensils.

Risk evaluation and control measures: Given the potential severity (anaphylaxis can be fatal), this is treated as a high-priority risk regardless of how statistically rare a reaction might be. Controls include: a clearly displayed, regularly updated list of children’s allergies visible to all staff (while maintaining appropriate confidentiality — displayed to staff only, not publicly), a designated allergen-free snack table or staggered snack timing, color-coded utensils and chopping boards to prevent cross-contamination, and all staff trained in recognizing signs of an allergic reaction and in using an EpiPen if the child has one prescribed.

Recording and implementation: Individual health care plans are completed and signed by parents for any child with a diagnosed allergy, kept accessible to all staff (e.g., in the kitchen and on the child’s individual file), and referenced during daily handovers with new or relief staff.

Review trigger: Reviewed whenever a new child with an allergy joins, when a health care plan is updated by a parent or medical professional, or immediately after any incident involving an allergic reaction, however minor.

Worked Example 3: Kitchen/Cleaning Products (COSHH) Risk Assessment

Hazard identified: Cleaning chemicals stored in a cupboard accessible from the main play area.

Who might be harmed and how: A child could access and ingest, inhale, or get chemical products on their skin or in their eyes if the storage area is not properly secured, resulting in poisoning or chemical burns.

Risk evaluation and control measures: Severity is high (potential poisoning), though likelihood is low if controls are properly maintained, making secure storage a non-negotiable control measure. Controls include: storing all cleaning chemicals in a locked cupboard or high shelf inaccessible to children, using child-safety locks on any lower cabinets that must be used for storage, ensuring COSHH data sheets are kept on file for all products used, and never transferring chemicals into unlabelled containers that could be mistaken for something else.

Recording and implementation: A COSHH register is maintained listing every hazardous substance used in the setting, alongside its data sheet and specific storage/handling instructions, reviewed by the health and safety lead.

Review trigger: Reviewed whenever a new cleaning product is introduced, and as part of the setting’s routine annual health and safety audit.

Common Areas CACHE Level 3 Risk Assessment Assignments Cover

Beyond the three worked examples above, be prepared to apply the same five-step structure to:

• Outings and trips — additional risks around road safety, ratios during transport, headcounts at each stage of the outing, and emergency contact procedures
• Water play and paddling pools — drowning risk even in shallow water, requiring constant, dedicated supervision (never left unattended, even briefly)
• Fire safety — evacuation procedures, clear fire exits, regular fire drills, and appropriate ratios of staff trained in evacuation procedures
• Sun safety — appropriate shade, sun cream policies (requiring parental consent), and hydration during hot weather

A Step-by-Step Approach for Students Stuck on a Risk Assessment Assignment

1. Identify the specific hazard named or implied in the scenario — be concrete (e.g., “wet floor near the water tray,” not just “slips and trips”).
2. State clearly who might be harmed and how, specifying the type of injury or harm realistically possible.
3. Evaluate risk using both likelihood and severity — a rare but severe risk (like an allergic reaction) can still justify a high-priority control measure.
4. List specific, practical control measures — avoid vague phrases like “staff will be vigilant”; instead specify exactly what changes (e.g., “a staff member is positioned within arm’s reach during water play at all times”).
5. Always include a review trigger — name a specific circumstance (new child, new equipment, post-incident, routine annual review) that would prompt reassessment.

FAQs

Q1: What’s the difference between a “hazard” and a “risk” in a risk assessment? A hazard is something with the potential to cause harm (e.g., a wet floor), while a risk is the likelihood and severity of that harm actually occurring (e.g., how likely a child is to slip on that wet floor, and how serious the resulting injury might be). Assignments often specifically test whether you understand this distinction.

Q2: Do CACHE Level 3 assignments expect me to reference RIDDOR in every health and safety answer? No — RIDDOR specifically concerns the reporting of accidents, diseases, and dangerous occurrences that have already happened, so it’s most relevant to questions about incident reporting rather than proactive risk assessment or prevention, which is governed more by the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations.

Q3: How detailed do my control measures need to be for full marks? Specific and practical is better than broad and vague. “Staff supervise children” is too generic; “a designated staff member maintains constant, arm’s-length supervision during water play, with no exceptions even for brief moments” demonstrates the practical, applied understanding assessors are looking for.

Q4: Why does the review stage matter so much if the assessment already covers the risk? Settings change constantly — new children join with different needs, new equipment is introduced, and incidents reveal gaps in existing controls. A risk assessment that is never reviewed can quickly become outdated and fail to reflect the setting’s actual current risks, which is why ongoing review is treated as a core, non-optional part of the process.

Q5: My assignment gives me a scenario rather than asking me to pick my own hazard — how should I approach it? Read the scenario carefully for every detail that could be relevant (the specific equipment, the ages of children involved, the physical layout described) and reflect these specifics back into your hazard identification and control measures — generic answers that ignore scenario-specific details are a common way marks are lost.

Related Reading

Health and safety concerns sometimes overlap with safeguarding, particularly around neglect indicators — see CACHE Level 3 Safeguarding: Legislation, Policies, and Reporting Procedures Explained. For how risk assessment applies specifically to supporting children with additional needs, see Supporting Children with SEND: CACHE Level 3 Unit Guide. For the qualification’s full unit breakdown, see CACHE Level 3 Childcare Units Explained.