15.12.2016 - Ausgabe: 6/2016

Changes for German child day care centres ‒ the regulations of public sector accident insurers

By Peter Schraml (Massstab Mensch)

Child day care centres provide facilities for teaching and the socialisation of children at quite different stages of development across a relatively wide age range. In Germany, they come in the form of crèches for children aged less than 1 year to 3 years of age and kindergartens for the 3- to 6-year-olds. Child day care centres are required to promote the individual skills of children and have the educational task of ensuring that they become as self-reliant as possible. To provide a suitable environment for successful learning and to help the supervisors do their work, it is essential that the children are kept safe and are not exposed to risks to their health and well-being.

Children learn a considerable amount through physical activity. As their own self-confidence grows, they seek out new challenges and ever more risky situations; this is, of course, both desirable and natural. As they learn to deal with an acceptable level of risk, their social, mental and physical capacities are enhanced. It is only when children are taught to be self-assured that they are able to evaluate potential hazards appropriately and master these as an aspect of a stimulating and exciting environment.

At the same time, there are relevant standards and safety guidelines that child day care centres are required to comply with in order to provide for a consistent level of protection of the children in their care. They thus need to be regularly inspected to ensure that the safety regulations are being adequately implemented. Those responsible for such inspections need to be familiar with the valid regulations and the corresponding relevance of these and know how these are to be applied. Where this is not the case, the result could simply be an erroneous assessment ‒ in the worst case, expensive or even life-threatening mistakes could be made. All those tasked with the inspection of playground equipment used by day care centres must therefore be aware of the stipulations relating to statutory accident insurance. They must also inform themselves of any changes to this in a timely manner.

 

The hierarchy and relevance of regulations and guidelines

In Germany, while children are present in a day care centre, on their way there and during their journey home, they are covered by the provisions of German statutory accident insurance. This means that these children enjoy in this respect the same level of cover as working employees, for example. If they suffer an injury or become ill, they are thus entitled to the appropriate medical treatment, rehabilitation care and even life-long support if this is necessary.

The regulations and guidelines of the German accident insurance providers supplement the corresponding state legislation and ordinances. However, they may only set out stipulations for aspects that are not already covered by state health and safety legislation. They define such things as measures for the prevention of accidents at work, occupational diseases and work-related health risks. The organisations that provide statutory accident insurance cover are permitted to issue their own regulations, guidelines and information leaflets for the persons they insure. Among other things, there are versions that explicitly deal with the cover of children attending a day care centre or school in which it is assumed that these will be supervised by appropriate personnel. There are also specific regulations that apply to the supervision of children in crèches (formerly GUV-SR-S2 ‒ now DGUV regulation 102-002).

It is mandatory that playgrounds at child day care centres and schools conform to the requirements of these regulations.

 

Changes to provisions

As a result of the amalgamation of the two umbrella organisations of the relevant professional association (Hauptverband der gewerblichen Berufsgenossenschaften, HVBG) and of the insurers (Bundesverband der Unfallkassen, BUK), it was decided to standardise the regulations. The content was retained in mainly unchanged form; 'DGUV' (German social accident insurance) was adopted as the abbreviated title for the whole of the provisions. The regulations were also provided with a consistent numbering system conforming to the various sectors. Hence, for example, what had formerly been known as 'Accident prevention regulation - child day care centres GUV - V S2' became 'DGUV regulation 82 - child day care centres'. A good overview that shows how the old sections have been renumbered can be found on the DGUV website.

Specific regulations issued by one insurance provider only have not yet been collated in the DGUV publication database. These are to be reviewed within a certain interim period and will then either be included or abandoned. The North Rhine-Westphalia statutory accident insurance provider (Unfallkasse NRW) provides detailed information on the incorporated and other regulations via its "sichere Kita" web portal.^[1].

An information brochure is also in the course of preparation. This will also provide, separately from the specifications in table F.1 of German standard EN 1176, definitions of the permitted maximum fall heights onto various kinds of surfacing on crèche playgrounds. The objective is to take into account the differing levels of ability of the very heterogeneous age group of children in crèches.

 

Special regulations for crèche children

It is not just in child day care centres in general that the age groups and thus corresponding development stages of children differ greatly. Even in the age group attending a crèche ‒ in other words, the group of children aged less than 1 year to 3 years of age ‒ levels of ability vary considerably. Those who have not yet learned to walk do not have the motor skills to easily overcome larger distances and reach and use play equipment, but in the case of a 2½-year-old the situation is quite different. And it might even be the case that a 2½-year-old with well-trained motor skills can cope with playground equipment and their challenges better than a less practised 4-year-old. Yet the former is, by definition, a crèche child and the latter a kindergarten child.

The current stipulations of the regulations do not take such aspects sufficiently into account and it is this omission that the information brochure ‒ still in preparation at the time of writing this article ‒ is intended to deal with. There is already speculation as to what it will contain. On the one hand, it is expected that there will be greater emphasis on the didactic value of equipment, something that for operators, external inspectors and manufacturers will doubtless create certain problems. The further that such regulations move away from purely technical specifications with regard to construction and safety, the more difficult it will be to objectively evaluate whether requirements have been met and also to comply with these.

In addition, it is probable more attention will be paid to the variations in skill levels in the first years of children's lives noted above. There will be specific regulations for 1-year-olds and correspondingly tiered and extended regulations applying to 2- and 3-year olds. The requirements with regard to free fall heights can serve as an example here. The specifications in table F.1 in standard EN 1176 apply specifically to outdoor equipment. The new information brochure will not only take explicitly the various kinds of ground surfacing in crèches into account, but also the differing ability levels of the children present there. The introduction of nuances of this kind is not only appropriate to the actual situation but will ultimately provide greater assurance for all those involved in the planning and inspection of play facilities and working with the children, and thus also ensure enhanced protection of the children themselves.