15.04.2011 - Ausgabe: 2/2011

Bumps yes – cuts no!? The playground expert’s here

What should operators of playgrounds do to avoid the charge of gross negligence regarding the choice of an inspector? How can they ensure that the performance given corresponds to that required? Exactly these questions, among others, have occupied experts for many years. Even though, in Part 7 of the standard DIN EN 1176 it is stipulated that after completion of construction work on a new playground, a qualified person must carry out an inspection to ensure that it corresponds to the relevant sections of the DIN EN 1176 standard, the prerequisites for this “qualified” person are not defined in any greater detail. The same applies for the main inspection which should be carried out once a year for every playground. Here also, it is noted in the DIN standard that the inspection must be carried out by a qualified person. But what makes a person qualified?

In order to clarify this question once and for all and to determine what qualifications an playground expert must have in order to be qualified, the German association for playground equipment and leisure facilities (Bundesverband der Spielplatzgeräte und Freizeitanlagen (BSFH)), made an application to the German Institute for Testing (Deutsche Institut für Normung, DIN) in 2007, requesting greater clarity through new regulations. As interest in this application was substantial, the DIN quickly occupied itself with the topic and after a founding meeting in October 2007, it was decided to draw up a corresponding paper. At the beginning of 2008, the newly created committee “Playground Inspectors” was created with equal representation from all parties and after three years’ work, a DIN expert paper was drawn up which, in the near future, will be made available to the public at large.

A step in the right direction. In many cases, the managers and operators of children’s playgrounds are not aware that German federal law does not accept ignorance of a fact as an excuse and has little comprehension in cases of negligence regarding playground safety. When children are involved in accidents caused because they are not capable of the strength and skills required for safe use of the playground equipment, it is considered a general risk of life. If it is proved that the accident was caused by insufficient control and maintenance work, the operator of the playground is responsible and liable to compensation claims. Accordingly, every operator should ask himself what the quality expectation can be, if a so-called expert can carry out an inspection at a cost of 20 Euros. For many years now, so-called “playground and maintenance experts” have been appearing in the market. Some have been exposed as con men, touts and tricksters. This will soon be a thing of the past, as the technical report designated DIN SPEC 161, contains all criteria which, in the opinion of the experts, is required for training and examination of qualified playground inspectors. Hopefully, the “cheap is cool” mentality will be shelved for good with this report and headlines such as “Playground Time-bomb”, “Our playgrounds: Life endangering” or “Death trap playground” will be banished from the press.

The international trade magazine Playground@Landscape contacted members of the “playground inspector” committee and interviewed representatives of different interested circles.

Statements regarding the technical report DIN SPEC 161

Berthold Tempel (TÜV Rheinland LGA Products, Chairman of the Standards committee for children’s playgrounds and playground inspection):
“I consider it basically positive that with this standardisation work the operators of playgrounds are provided with a possibility of specifying their calls for tenders according to this DIN SPEC. As the term “expert” is not clearly stipulated, the necessary and also required technical knowledge can now be demanded using uniform tendering criteria. I also think that it provides operators with a certain legal security that they can no longer be charged with, “gross negligence in their choice of an external inspector for a main annual inspection or release of a new playground”. (Excerpt from the court reasons for judgement of the Amtsgerichts Offenbach 27Ds 1120JS 68056/02).
This is the first step and ensures that all those who have completed their training and passed the examination according to DIN SPEC 161, can be considered to have comprehensive basic knowledge with regard to the standard requirements and the topic of playground inspection. It is now up to the operators that the standard DIN SPEC 161 can become established in the market and the corresponding verification is included in calls for tenders.”

Dipl. Ing. Ernst Stösser (Head of Public Parks and Gardens of the City of Regensburg and representative of the German conference of garden authorities, GALK, in many DIN committees):
“Qualification of playground inspectors causes additional costs for communities and operators of playgrounds. Public playgrounds are important locations for development of our children and the responsibility for their maintenance and safety lies with communities, building project organisers or property developers. The operators of these playgrounds carry a great deal of responsibility for the construction and maintenance of these public facilities. Even if playground accidents can never be completely avoided, it is necessary to prevent or avoid calculable risks right from the start. Insurers and courts of law base their requirements or decisions on the development of the state-of–the-art or on relevant safety standards and guidelines. With regard to conformance with safety requirements and implementation of regulations ensuring safe use of playgrounds, cities and communities have done a very good job in the last years. They have contributed to safety to the effect that only very few dangerous accidents have occurred on playgrounds. But even if every avoidable accident is one too many, I do not belief that the current standardisation work regarding qualification of playground inspectors will do much to identify the ‘black sheep’. As representative of the German conference of garden authorities (GALK), I have been a member of different committees over the last decades which have occupied themselves with standardisation of playgrounds and playground equipment.
I consider it my task to avert unnecessary and cost-intensive regimentation, and this is the reason why I spoke out, together with the representative of the Association of German Cities and Towns and a further large number of members of the committee responsible for the DIN-EN 1176, against a new standard for qualification of playground inspectors.

In DIN-EN 1176, Part 7 “Instructions for installation, inspection, maintenance and running of children’s playground equipment”, the requirements are laid out with sufficiently clarity. Also required in this standard is a corresponding training for the person to carry out this task. If the initial intention of the applying body was to promote qualification of all control intervals such as:
a. visual routine inspection
b. operative inspection
c. annual main inspection
it could at least be achieved that the planned training qualifications were limited to the annual inspection.

As the qualification of playground inspectors involves high financial and time outlay for communities and playground operators, many operators of playground equipment will be forced in future to delegate the annual inspection to a security firm or security experts. For small communities in particular, the outlay required for qualification of personnel will meant that delegation of these duties to external entities will become necessary.

I consider it a pity that training for qualification of playground inspectors does not cover all outdoor play facilities and I hope that the responsibility-minded control institutes and inspectors will also inform themselves in detail about the safety requirements of other facilities. As a community, we must also ensure that safety use regulations apply for skateboard, inline skates and climbing facilities and ball-game areas for basket ball, volley ball or soccer must be just as safe to use as fitness equipment or fitness parks, which exist in many communities and which are not included in the current inspector training plan. As a rule, garden authorities are usually responsible for all open-air facilities and their equipment from the point of view of safe use. Hopefully, the operators of these different facilities will not require more safety experts to carry out the necessary inspections at regular intervals. As a safety-minded city, Regensburg will send several employees responsible for matters of safety for further training after introduction of the corresponding training courses.”

Heinz Münstermann (BO-Münstermann, Advisory organisation for play, sport and leisure facilities):
“Qualification for certain activities is necessary in all walks of life. This applies especially to implementation of safety inspections. The committee on playground inspections took a long hard look at the question, “Which qualifications are required for a playground inspector?”. A paper was drawn up which is intended to provide the training standards for an annual inspection. A welcome step in the right direction! Despite this, I personally am sceptical that this training will achieve the target intended by the applying body. Anyone can read the standard, it is another matter entirely to implement the requirements it stipulates.
How else can it be explained that for 40 years now, differently certified inspectors have arrived at different results or provided different evaluations? That a circle for the exchange of experience (Erfahrungsaustauschkreis, EK 2) from the testing authorities are trying to find a uniform evaluation; that expert companies use different interpretations of the contents of the standard in order to appear less expensive or to differentiate themselves from competitors; that safety officers make incorrect evaluations; that legally sworn experts make different evaluations of factual content?
In addition, other questions are also posed, e.g.: Who is qualified to undertake the training work? Who will monitor that the training is carried out properly? Is it sufficient just to ask questions about the content of the series of standards DIN EN 1176, or should further factors such as skater parks, multifunctional sports facilities, climbing walls etc., be included in order to ensure that protective requirements are fulfilled?
The DIN technical report SPEC. 161 makes very clear which questions remain to be answered.”

Hans-Karl von Bodecker (Landeshauptstadt Hannover, Sector environment and urban greenery):
“The Playground Inspector is here! Basically, this is only to be welcomed. It must be in the interest of playground operators to create a standard for this service, which allows comparison and ensures that quality is guaranteed. Unfortunately, experience has shown that assumed expert knowledge and a ‘opulent’ business card are not a guarantee for quality. It has also been shown that competent inspectors and renowned manufacturers have also, in some individual cases, not been in agreement regarding DIN conformity in detail. This consensus will not be easy to achieve with this “new” playground inspector either. Especially as these controversial nuances are repeatedly topic of disputed discussion between qualified, experienced engineers. Along with a founded expert knowledge based on DIN SPEC 161, a playground inspector should also advertise his services as financially possible for smaller operators who traditionally have fewer funds at their disposal. What is the use of a really efficient inspector if his services cannot be made use of by smaller customers who also have a right to safety? With regard to playground equipment we have the principle that so-called “stamp safety” is not necessarily guaranteed. The same will apply for the playground inspector, he or she will have to prove themselves. We can expect an interesting process which will be played out in the market when the title Playground Inspector (as per DIN SPEC 161) is introduced. We look forward to this new “entity” with benevolence, although we are also aware that the market also has experienced and very efficient playground inspectors who have gained their qualifications in other ways. Priority must be given to safety of “our” children/wards and not the thought of added value.”

Andreas Hochstrasser (Grün Stadt Zürich, Head of the Work Group Playground Safety of the VSSG / Co-trainer for "Qualified playground safety personnel"):
“Different attempts at ensuring qualified training for “experts” are being carried out in various European countries. Basically, all these attempts are to be welcomed and sensible. Practical experience shows, however, that well trained workers can rarely be found. The fact that new products providing new possibilities for play and requiring new safety requirements are continually entering the market, shows how important it is to have qualified experts with in-depth and far-ranging knowledge. Playground equipment and facilities have increased in complexity in the last years and have not been topics for amateurs for a long time already.

Experience gained in Switzerland shows that participants in training courses would welcome a lengthier training course of more than two days and more in-depth knowledge, but only very few communities, landscape architects or planners are prepared to allow their employees to visit such long courses. Especially small communities and administrations will be forced in future to delegate inspection work of playground equipment to third parties or to join forces with other small communities in the vicinity. It is already obvious now that this will not be easy from either a political or organisational point of view.
Further education, exchange of experience and an overview of current markets and products together with their practical relevance are factors which should be compulsory for “Playground Inspectors” together with solid basic training! Playground safety cannot be reduced to the letters of quality standards and bulk numbers.
The future will show to what extent the “new” playground inspectors are successful. Everything has its price, even playground safety – and rightly so. However, a lack of funds or the increased inspection outlay etc., should not cause planners to abandon the idea of building attractive playgrounds. Only when planners, manufacturers, inspectors and also inspection authorities and trainers etc. are prepared to enter into and promote active dialogue with each other, can we continue to offer our children safe and pedagogically valuable playgrounds – training for a “playground inspector” on its own, will not make a great difference.”

Günter Bamberger (Expert and head of standardisation and technology for the German association, BSFH):
“Past experience has shown that the annual main inspection of public playgrounds, although offered and carried out by “experts” (playground inspectors) in a variety of cases, provided results which appeared less than convincing. Previously, the corresponding standard DIN EN 1176-7:2008, Point 6, demanded that the annual main inspection of playground equipment should be carried out by a trained person under strict adherence to at least those directives required by the manufacturer. The degree of required expertise was determined by the task to be fulfilled. In order to ensure a good and sensible training for these trained persons, the BSFH applied to the DIN authorities for the creation of a separate standard governing the qualification of playground inspectors. This intention of creating a separate and individual standard resulted in the creation of a DIN technical report (DIN – SPEC 161). This technical report now ensures that playground inspectors carrying out the main annual inspection must have undergone a stipulated training course and passed a corresponding final examination. The requirements of the DIN technical report however, only apply for approval for use of a newly constructed playground and implementation of an annual main inspection for existing playgrounds and will not be necessary for carrying out visual or operative inspection. Personnel who carry out this kind of visual and operative inspection during safety assurance management tasks such as control or maintenance work or repairs, should have this kind of competence. From my point of view as employee in the work circle NA 112-07-07 Playground Inspection, I hope that the result of our work in future will be an expert and qualified annual main inspection by trained and qualified playground inspectors as per DIN SPEC 161. Only then has the work of the committee and also the initiative of the BSFH been rewarded and can ensure minimum quality standards for playground inspection as per DIN EN 1176.”

Friedrich Blume (Dipl.-Ing., Head of training at the Deula Westfalen-Lippe GmbH, playground expert):
“We are nearly there. The DIN SPEC 161 will shortly be published. Since the first meeting in March 2008 in Berlin, the committee for playground inspection has fought its way through all the ups and downs of standardisation work, ranging from euphoric enthusiasm to a complete rejection of the whole project. Finally, however, we have now reached a result which I believe to be a good solution. The fact that this standardisation project, originally applied for by the BSFH (German federal association of manufacturers of playing equipment and leisure facilities), and the resulting uniform qualification of playground inspectors valid throughout Germany, was long overdue, was repeatedly shown in the very widely differing evaluations of playground equipment by so-called “experts”. Furthermore, after we had started our work, it became apparent that this standardisation project was being followed with great interest by expert circles both in Germany and abroad.
For us as a training institute which has already trained personnel in the control and maintenance of playground equipment since 1994, nothing much will change as we have already followed the basic concept of DIN SPEC 161 (theory and practical training, final examination and overall length of the training course) since 2004.
As a result, the Deula Westfalen-Lippe GmbH will also offer a training course for previous students who took part in our training courses (module I + II or module IV), as an examination preparation course of 2.5 days as soon as the DIN SPEC 161 has been published.
Finally it only remains for me to express my personal thanks to all those who worked on the playground inspection committee for their good and intensive cooperation.”

Dr. Peter Eckstein (Publicly authorised and legally sworn expert on playground equipment):
“I took part in drawing up the DIN technical report, “Qualification of Playground Inspectors” because I support the idea behind this standardisation project and have the expectation that the result of its implementation in practical work will be that inspection of playgrounds and playground equipment will be carried out at an overall higher quality level than before. Interested persons who already have the required professional training and experience have the opportunity of visiting a training course lasting several days, to learn about the contents of DIN EN 1176 and to improve their knowledge with practical work before sitting a demanding final exam. Award of a certificate confirms that the candidate has passed this final exam.
Despite this, miracles cannot be expected. Even when the candidates are trained and examined according to nationally valid guidelines, a successful exam result cannot make up for a possible lack of experience in inspection work or in the evaluation of results obtained.
Playground operators may be able for the first time, to choose between candidates with the same qualifications for the inspection tasks which they must delegate to external third parties, but with a rapidly increasing number of certified inspectors, further technical criteria for selection will be needed. I continue to consider presentation of references to be an effective instrument in this regard.
A playground operator must naturally still undertake appropriate measures to ensure that the work is carried out properly, even when delegating the tasks to a certified inspector.”

Mario Ladu (Spielplatzmobil GmbH):
“A quality standard has been created which makes it easier for communities and residential construction companies to select a qualified expert. Safety of decision with regard to founded qualifications of the person chosen is now practically certain!
For manufacturers of playground equipment, landscape architects and GALA-Bau companies, a uniform fundament for decision-making in the shape of good inspection reports is a technically faultless basis for handling possible warranty claims.
The position of experts who are trained according to DIN SPEC 161, differs in a qualitative way from other experts.
I see one regrettable downside in the fact that this qualification is only intended for approval of new construction projects and annual inspections. In general I miss a required objectivity for all kinds of inspection as there will probably continue to be experts who e.g. for further reasons / other economic interests, have an interest in an objective, incorrect testing result.”

Klaus Mettke (Deputy chairman of the standards committee ‘Playground equipment and playground surfaces’ and member of the working committee ‘Playground inspections’):
“Expert playground inspector? Whoever inspects playgrounds in Europe must be an expert. This is dictated by Part 7 of the standard DIN°EN°1176, without defining more closely the expertise required. It would be relatively obvious that expertise in this context means knowing and understanding all the special parts of DIN°EN°1176 and the most important cross-references. Unfortunately, reality paints another picture.
But how do you recognise an expert playground inspector? Can this knowledge be derived from the price? Does it help to know that someone has done this job already for a number of years? Or can confirmation that the person was trained at the institute of X or Y, be taken as a reliable reference? The spectrum of this kind of criteria is wide and up until now, unfortunately provides no sure conclusions about the quality or expertise of a playground inspector.
The application to the DIN authorities to provide content for the previously not closely defined required expertise was therefore to be expected, and the technical report “DIN°SPEC°161” for the qualification of playground inspectors was created. This technical report includes minimum criteria and specifications which must be fulfilled for the training and examination of qualified playground inspectors. The examination questions for the final exams will not be available to the public at large and will be provided to the training centres only shortly before the date of the final exam by an independent institute. In this way, a challenging minimum level is demanded not only of the candidates being tested, but also of the training centre. As quality assurance measure, the report determines a repeated further training to be carried out at least every 3 years.
I consider this final and now standardised examination process in particular, to be an acceptable way of monitoring at least the future playground inspector’s basic knowledge of the contents of the standard and of providing a documented minimum standard. Naturally, it cannot be expected that all problems in this sector are now resolved. There will continue to be operators who allocate inspection tasks according to the lowest price tag and there will also be playground inspectors who receive tasks even though they do not have a certificate of expertise. It is also clear, however, that a certificate “certified playground inspector” does not necessarily create an “expert”. This requires not only constant and intensive study of the contents of the standard but also a great deal of practical experience.
The technical report ‘DIN°SPEC°161’ lays down what is actually self-explanatory – for this reason, we are awaiting with interest future developments in the quality of playground inspection.”

TM
Photographs: Mario Ladu, Bertold Tempel, Friedrich Blume, Thomas R. Müller