19.12.2013 - Ausgabe: 6/2013

Bruising OK – but not lacerations... (Part 2)

The qualification of playground inspectors and DIN SPEC 79161.

As a playground operator, how does one make sure that one doesn't unintentionally violate the regulations when selecting an external inspector? And how can operators ensure that they actually get the services that they have paid for? Specialists have been looking to find solutions to these and other problems for years. While it is specified in Part 7 of the German standard for playgrounds and playground surfacing, DIN EN 1176, that following construction of a new playground an appropriately competent person must inspect the site to verify that it conforms with the relevant sections of EN 1176, it is not stipulated what qualifications this person must have. The same is the case when it comes to the regular annual inspection that is required for every playground. Again, the standard requires that an appropriately competent person must undertake the inspection: but what exactly qualifies someone to do this?

There have been repeated instances in the past in which self-professed 'experts' have carried out the annual inspection of playgrounds and, in some cases, have come to very different conclusions with regard to the safety of equipment and the playgrounds themselves. Particularly worrying is the fact that it turned out that the evaluations provided did not conform to the available TÜV certification and were thus inaccurate. In early 2008, the German Federal Association of Playground equipment and Recreational Facility Manufacturers (BSFH) decided to suggest to the German Institute for Standardisation (DIN) that they form a new committee to draw up standardised criteria for the training and qualification of playground inspectors. The new DIN NA Sport 117- 07-07 AA 'Playground Inspection' committee, consisting of representatives of inspection and training organisations, playground equipment manufacturers, public authorities, regulatory bodies and the consumer council, prepared specifications for the training and examination of playground inspectors who would in future be responsible for the annual inspection of playgrounds.

The committee completed its technical report, DIN SPEC 79161, in December 2011 and published it through the Beuth-Verlag. In addition to criteria for training course content, the technical report also sets out the qualifications that playground inspectors need to obtain.

The BSFH and the Landscaping and Landscape Development Research Society (FLL) are together responsible for setting examinations and awarding certificates. The costs of the training and the examination required to become a 'FLL/BSFH-certified playground inspector' are specified by the training institutes. They differ according the nature of the courses, the form and duration of training and may also include costs for accommodation and catering. All the services provided by the FLL and BSFH are included in the certification. These consist of coordination, administration, standardisation, supervision and information work.

A success to date? What will the future hold? The international journal Playground@
Landscape has interviewed a selection of experts and obtained their views on playground safety.

Michael Fuchs, specialist consultant, Landscaping and Landscape Development Research Society (FLL)

"DIN SPEC 79161 'Playground inspection - Qualification of playground inspectors' stipulates the requirements for the training and examination of playground inspectors. It establishes a new quality standard by defining the qualifications required of an inspector authorised to undertake the annual inspection of playgrounds and of newly constructed playgrounds, although it has yet to be reinforced by appropriate legislation. Applying our principle of 'quality assurance for green industries', the FLL is supporting the introduction of this quality standard because of the duty to maintain safety on playgrounds and has been collaborating with the BSFH from the commencement as a certifying body to promote its implementation. Hence, just a week after the official publication of DIN SPEC 79161 in early December 2011, the DEULA institute of Westphalia-Lippe, which is affiliated with the FLL, initiated the first 'FLL/BSFH-certified playground inspector' course with subsequent examination in Warendorf. Considerable practical experience of training and examination techniques has been collected since then by the 13 collaborating institutes in Germany and by the FLL and BSFH and of the corresponding organisation and administration work required. Outstanding queries and problems were discussed during two consultation meetings attended by those involved and a number of improvements were proposed, particularly with regard to the questions constituting the question pool for the two parts of the written theoretical examination (with and without aids), and these proposals have been submitted to the DIN committee for further approval.One outcome is that the quality of the question pool has been significantly improved thanks to continuous updating by the work group of the DIN committee while administrative aspects, such as the duration for which examination documents need to be archived, have been clarified, thus facilitating the practical implementation of the standard.
That said, to October 2013 inclusive, a total of 625 candidates attended the course at a training and examination institute affiliated with the FLL; of these 528 successfully completed the course and have thus received the coveted certificate, valid for a threeyear period, and are now fully qualified playground inspectors. Although DIN SPEC 79161 in its current technical report form does not have the mandatory character of a full standard and its implementation as such is currently being resisted, particularly by the local authority umbrella organisations, these figures serve to illustrate that it is accepted within the industry that the course provides a valuable qualification and gives holders a competitive advantage by attesting to their specialist knowledge in the field of playground inspection.
Current experience of the practical implementation of the new quality standard shows that, although the intervening optimization process has resulted in major improvements, it still needs work, particularly with regard to as yet outstanding problems, such as standardization of the minimum course duration and content, and this will be necessary in view of the certification renewal that will be required in the coming year. Another proposed enhancement is the introduction of a supervisor system similar to that employed in the case of the FLL-certified tree inspector qualification at the beginning of next year. This was agreed between the FLL, BSFH and their affiliated institutes during the negotiations concerning the minimum requirements to be set out in the DIN SPEC technical report."

Heinz Münstermann, BOmünstermann consultants:

"'DIN SPEC 79161 Playground inspection - Qualification of playground inspectors - is not a DIN standard but a DIN technical report. The aim was to establish a basis that would enable playground operators to assess the expertise of external service providers offering to undertake the annual inspection of children's playgrounds. However, for various reasons I consider it has not been successful in this!
The corresponding courses are offered by various bodies and institutes and those responsible for the publication have to date not actually stipulated what specialist qualifications the organisations offering these courses should have. Certain 'company' names are cited, but these are otherwise unknown to those in the industry. Members of the various standard committees have been asking themselves 'Who are this people? What gives them the right to offer these courses leading to a qualification?' Particularly as more than just familiarity with the contents of the equipment standard DIN EN1176 is required to undertake an annual inspection.
I find it a matter of concern that these organisations are now writing to local authorities and municipal housing authorities and are telling them: "Your personnel now need to be certified in accordance with DIN SPEC". The idea seems to be to persuade these that all their personnel involved in inspection procedures need to be trained as specified in DIN SPEC.
It would, of course, be counter-productive if the operators of playgrounds decided, in view of the stringency of DIN SPEC, not to train their personnel in future in order to save the time and money because the outcome would be that children's playgrounds would have to be closed.
Court cases dealing with corresponding accidents show that the qualifications of inspectors are a matter of primary concern. In view of the serious accidents that have occurred in the recent past, I think it would be advisable to use only publicly appointed and sworn experts as playground inspectors."

Mario Ladu, Spielplatzmobil GmbH:

"Is DIN SPEC a success? Yes, an unqualified success, because it is apparent that those who graduate from DIN SPEC courses can appropriately determine whether there is compliance with the minimum safety requirements specified by the regulations. Holders of a DIN SPEC qualification state that, in practice, their knowledge of the regulations and safety objectives, etc. is often better than that of well-established inspection organisations.
Courses that were originally designed to create 'independent inspectors' are now being increasingly attended by the inspectors of playground operators. With the knowledge they gain here, these inspectors have the expertise they need, supplemented by their practical experience, to even offer their services to playground planners. What is taught in the courses is perfectly fit for purpose when it comes to assessing the safety of playgrounds, particularly in view of accident statistics. Market saturation is likely to occur over the next two to three years and this means that only marginally acceptable interpretations of standards and practical examples will be taught in refresher courses.
However, the fact that the general population has a very low tolerance threshold when it comes to accidents involving children on playgrounds, even if no major injuries result, means that the standard committees need to eliminate any ambiguities from standards and modify these appropriately in the light of recent accidents. They should ban, for instance, the obsolete practice of embedding socalled 'single-mast' devices made of soft wood in the ground. Ready access to Google and the internet makes it easy for astute lawyers to find interpretive nuances that can be construed to the disadvantage of those operating in the marketplace.
These harmonised standards and their safety objectives are so clearly defined and extensive that they leave no room for the subjective interpretations and risk assessments that are possible with the EU machinery directive (Health and Safety), designed to provide protection to adults in the workplace. This is because these standards have been prepared by experts for experts.
In view of the special nature of those who use playground equipment, the DIN SPEC courses on how to interpret the standards together with practical training will help ensure that playground operators have both safer playgrounds and better legal protection in the event of accidents."

Bertold Tempel, TÜV Rheinland LGA Products GmbH:

"The first DIN technical report on the qualification of playground inspectors was published in December 2011. This technical report, in the form of DIN SPEC 79161, is primarily designed to provide playground operators with a guideline that they can use when requesting tenders from organisations for the acceptance testing of newly constructed playgrounds and playground equipment and annual playground inspection. The standard committee NA112-07-07AA, established in response to a suggestion by the German Federal Association of Playground equipment and Recreational Facility Manufacturers (BSFH), expected that this would result in a significant improvement in the quality of annual playground inspection.

Almost two years after publication of DIN SPEC 79161, it is apparent that increasing numbers of operators who wish to commission outside experts to undertake playground inspections are making use of this and are requiring appropriate DIN SPEC certification from those submitting tenders.

The result is that fewer 'self-appointed' experts are used for annual inspections while it can be assumed that the qualifications required of inspectors by DIN SPEC 79161 mean that the quality of playground inspections has essentially improved. There are, of course, a few criticisms being levelled at certain of the requirements specified in DIN SPEC. These concern certain misinterpretations but there is also the desire to see the requirements for training institutes in a more clearly defined form.
There have also been complaints about the wording of certain exam questions and the possible responses in the multiple choice test that test institutes consider provide excessive interpretative leeway.
As every standard, including DIN SPEC 79161, needs to be adapted so that it remains authoritative in changing circumstances, the standard committee has welcomed these observations.
The mainly constructively worded criticisms, with which alternative suggestions were supplied, were considered in various sittings and in some cases were immediately adopted. Over the last 20 months for instance, the question and answer catalogue used in the examinations has been revised several times in order to make the questions and the possible responses clearer.
In order to provide for continuing improvement of the standard, the committee is dependent on the information of the training institutes and those organisations responsible for supervising the exam questions (BSFH/FLL/TÜV Rheinland).
There is thus a regular exchange of experience between the controlling agencies and the standards institute (DIN). As members of the standard committee, we constantly strive to improve the quality of the regulations to ensure that inspectors, operators and thus ultimately the children using playgrounds are provided with the best level of protection. The content of DIN SPEC 79161 is thus once again under review and the standard committee is currently in the process of producing an updated version of it."

Dr. Peter Eckstein, publicly appointed andsworn playground equipment expert:

"In my view as a trainer who has to date supervised five courses with some 60 participants, I consider the procedure specified in DIN SPEC
79161 for the qualification of playground inspectors in principle the right one.But I also feel that it is somewhat too easy to obtain a certificate as a 'qualified playground inspector'. Very few candidates find it difficult to pass the theoretical examination and the oralpractical part of the exam with the test wall is similarly undemanding.
The fact that over a period of nearly two years, several hundred candidates have successfully completed the course at the various training institutes and are thus authorised to undertake the safety review of newly installed playground equipment and the annual inspection of playgrounds does raise the question of whether qualifications held by these course graduates are actually of the highest quality. Insufficient or a complete lack of practical experience of conducting inspections cannot be fully offset by training courses. It is not currently proposed to introduce a practical examination using genuine playground equipment as part of the requirements of DIN SPEC 79161.
Playground operators thus do still need to verify accordingly that the services provided by a commissioned outside certified inspector have been appropriately carried out."

Dipl.-Ing. Hans-Karl von Bodecker, Dept. Of Environment and Urban Parks, OE 67.31.0, Hanover:

"I would like to concentrate on the knowledge and the know-how that is acquired by the course graduates in order to assess whether the current training in playground expertise represents a successful concept. In the case of many of those who take a course in playground expertise as part of training to become a planner, operator, inspector or expert, this aspect is probably seen a minor hurdle on their path to their future profession. After all, the subject of children's playgrounds can't be all that complex, can it?
Surely all that is important here are aspects like 'colourful', 'attractive', 'child-friendly' and, of course, 'safe'. It is only when course graduates start to look at the subject in more detail that they discern intricacies that they might not have expected. Key terms such as 'impact surface', 'minimum space requirements', 'snag points on XY' may seem straightforward enough, but one does need to be aware of them. The qualified person will also make additional “personal discoveries” when the vast range of children, (older, younger, boys, girls, differently developed, perhaps with physical or mental handicaps) formulate the same desire of playing. Gender-specific play behaviour in general down to the concept of 'inclusion' are factors that also need to be taken into account.
This complexity does make this field particularly interesting and offers a complex specialist field in a niche area, which requires thorough training. To some extent, the training helps sharpen the awareness of the course graduates and is thus completely justified on the market. After all, what is at potential risk here are the lives and health of children.

Once graduates have grasped the implications of their duties and the resultant responsibilities, they will understand what their vocation requires of them and do their work conscientiously. In my view, the training of playground experts has proved to be effective in practice. We can count this as a success and use it as a basis for further improvement. The widespread demand that training needs to be standardised is correct as this ensures that comparable quality can be maintained."

Andreas Hochstrasser, Co-training supervisor of the Swiss Council for Accident Prevention (bfu) and work group director VSSG safety consultant Grün Stadt Zürich:

"At a time at which health and safety requirements are becoming ever more stringent, it is important that expertise in playground construction and other areas is appropriately taught and defined. With this in view, I consider DIN SPEC 79161 to be an appropriate instrument to achieve this aim.
However, experience shows that this standard contains recommendations that are specifically designed for the situation in Germany (deviations, legal aspects, appendices) and are only of limited relevance here in Switzerland. There have already been discussions here about how playgrounds and play equipment should be assessed. It is still the case that there are insufficient appropriately qualified specialists in Switzerland to undertake these tasks. There has been a continuous demand for specialist training since 2008; in fact, in 2012 it was necessary to provide four courses to satisfy this demand in the German-speaking cantons alone.
But because of a lack of resources, it will not be possible to upgrade the courses so that these comply with the stipulations of SPEC79161. Surveys also show that participants would be less willing to attend courses if their duration were to be extended. (Note: The failure rate in the case of the bfu/VSSG examination is 20 - 25%. Some 400 persons have taken the examination since 2008)..
It would also be desirable to have a harmonised solution/standard that would be applicable throughout the whole of Europe. DIN SPEC 79161 represents a start in this respect. It should be revised so that it takes into account the legal situation in other countries and be applied throughout Europe."

Julian Richter, Richter Spielgeräte GmbH:

"By and large a good idea, but the form it takes is not appropriate as DIN SPEC gives the impression that it is a standard!
With regard to the content, it is doubtful whether DIN SPEC really contributes significantly towards improving the quality of inspections.
It is clear that it is possible to determine to what extent there is conformity with DIN requirements but it is not so apparent whether the extremely important aspect of risk assessment is being implemented with the necessary stringency.

In the interests of all involved and if the objective is really to provide better protection to playing children, the inspectors must to a greater extent than at present observe the principle of 'same level of safety but by other means' and thus learn to evaluate what is defined as a 'risk' as acceptable even if, for example, there is no compliance in this respect with the requirements of DIN EN 1176.

Friedrich Blume, Deula Westfalen-Lippe GmbH

"DIN SPEC 79161 on the qualification of playground inspectors was published in December 2011. Nearly two years have since passed and the question is now whether this DIN technical report has been successful.
As a tutor at DEULA Westfalen-Lippe GmbH, I can only conclude that the training and examination stipulated in DIN SPEC has proved to be attractive. We have provided 240 course/examinations here in the last two years. These are quite impressive figures in view of the fact that the qualification is relatively new.
I think we should move away from the original assumption that this qualification is something that is only appropriate for freelance experts, in other words, service providers. More than 30% of those who attend our courses at DEULA Westfalen-Lippe GmbH work for local authorities. This also shows that DIN SPEC is highly regarded by the local authorities.
It should be pointed out that it is still the case that playground inspectors are not obligated to acquire the qualification specified in DIN SPEC 79161.
However, I also work as a consultant and I have noticed with increasing frequency in recent months that many local authorities and other playground operators are tending to ask for the DIN SPEC qualification as a minimum requirement in their invitations to tender for annual playground inspection work so that they can be sure that the inspector has sufficient expertise.
I hope that in future DIN SPEC 79161 will be more widely employed and that we can convince those remaining few who are still critical of this DIN technical report that sufficiently extensive and good quality training of playground inspectors is a matter of priority.

Acknowledgements /// Images: Mario Ladu, Bertold Tempel, Friedrich Blume, Thomas R. Müller