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Post by scaredycats on Apr 16, 2014 13:12:35 GMT
We have our home safety assessment tomorrow.
Anything in particular to be aware of? We've filled in an initial form which covers things like fire, electrical, pets, glazing, medicines, alcohol, kitchen stuff, pull chords....
When do all the actions have to be completed by?
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Post by chotimonkey on Apr 16, 2014 13:31:30 GMT
we only had one on our first old style adoption, so it might have changed...
we had baby plug covers, cupboard locks, toilet clip, etc, didn't have oven guard, but fitted a high up hook to the kitchen, so if i had the oven on, i could lock the door from the outside and keep the kids away from the oven. we hadn't go things like stair gates, but said we would get them...functioning smoke and co2 alarm, fire blanket, made sure everything was out of toddlers reach ... it is surprising how you think a room is safe until you have an adventurous toddler... we have a dining table with v sharp edges and put those little corner guards on it. all of this could have been done after...they would give you a timescale and you could have it done, but we wanted to be ready to go and it gave me something to do that made me feel like an expectant parent.
the one thing that we didn't expect was they wanted to ask about the glass in our windows and french doors if it was new safety glass...we said it was...but i doubt it is...we are a v old house, but i wasn't about to replace every window...
it wasn't mentioned on either of the other's adoptions, so i wonder if they had just had some sort of incident and it was high on their radar at the time.
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Post by scaredycats on Apr 16, 2014 13:55:52 GMT
Thanks, Chotimonkey, we have plug covers, 1 stair gate (but we need another one - must look on Amazon or something), and one extendable fire guard (but need another one) , CO detectors and smoke alarms so far....We too live in an old house.
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Post by chotimonkey on Apr 16, 2014 14:09:00 GMT
this makes it seem like i am a terrible liar what with pretend glass and contraception etc...i am usually quite honest i don't think it is anything to worry about, anything you don't have, you can usually sort quite easily, i think we only had one stair gate come to think of it...i remember getting another the day before squirrel came... we ended up with three...one at the top and the bottom of the stairs, we used to have one on the living room door to confine wee one to one area at a time, and later when we used that one whilst howler was transitioning to a big girl bed to get her used to staying in her room, she never really tried to because she thought she couldn't as the gate was there and now its habit and both girls wait till we get up to come out of their room (unless they are upset when they can always come and find us)
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Post by moo on Apr 16, 2014 14:20:52 GMT
eBay is your friend scardeycats.... Back in the day they only used it to highlight coz unsure exact age of children being placed.... Just something needed to be double checked before placement so could have some weeks to get yourself a bargain off eBay!!!.... Fireblanket fridge thermostat etc...
Like choti I had to put the plastic clear film to glass doors of china cabinets & bathroom frosted glass etc..... Real bu€€er tbh.... Biggest nonsense was thermostat on hot water tank to prove the water temp didn't get to be boiling out of the tap.... farmhouse far too old for such nonsense....so I just slung one around on electric cable & made it look like it was attached to electric!!! They opened airing cupboard door spotted it & that was it....Didn't check.... ( as if I would have boiling water coming out of the taps!!!! )
They seemed completely pre occupied with electric fences !!! Seemed to think that us farmers had bits of wire fence attached direct into 240 volts!!! Bonkers I ask you... It would kill the cattle if even they touched it! !
Then the next hi jinks was a s/w somewhere in the department had read all about slurry pits.... Q one very long visit while they searched the farm from top to bottom convinced that I was bound to have one hidden somewhere!!! Took me ages to prove I didn't have one that I was concealing from them!!!!
They eventually shipped in a health & safety expert to do the check on the given day.... Their faces were a picture when I passed with flying colours & she was only on site for half an hour max.... They had spent MONTHS stressing me out about it.....
So No do not fret... My expert was lovely & took me to one side & said...." I can see you are really worried don't be... All you have to do if there is a problem is promise to do whatever they say to put it right & the job is done...". No-one else I know had any probs at all....
Good Luck Let us know how you got on (have you got any hidden slurry pits ??)
xx. moo. Xx
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Post by donatella on Apr 16, 2014 14:46:22 GMT
Plug covers - my son pulled them out.
Stair gates - had to be removed as he climbed them
Fire guard - ditto stair gates
Medicines - never been locked up, even my climber didn't like medicines
There is such a thing as commonsense and observation!
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Post by chotimonkey on Apr 16, 2014 15:10:22 GMT
ohh donatella i am with you on this... we put everything in but...those stupid plug things have never been any good, dh hasd broken most of the cupboard door guards...medicine has never been locked away, all the table corner things have fallen off... they are carp if you ask me... but we felt we had to show willing... i feel baby proofing is mostly moving what you don't want children to break/ eat/ draw on furniture with/ tip in the floor
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Post by donatella on Apr 16, 2014 15:22:15 GMT
My middly was an adventurer - anything designed to keep him safe was a mere challenge to beat - and beat them he did. I have a photograph of him - would have been around 18 months - on top of the toy storage in my eldests bedroom. His head was touching the ceiling. He was into everything. Think we went through 3 or 4 toasters - he kept sticking things in the toaster. We had to take him out of his cot before 2 as he used to climb out. He survived and so did we.
One tip - choose the car seat very carefully. He got out on his regularly and on one occasion - he was 2, his sister 1, unclipped hers too!
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Post by serrakunda on Apr 16, 2014 16:05:21 GMT
With my first SW I had huge problems , she was upset that I didn't complete the sections about garden ponds, lawn mowers and cars.
Apparently the fact that I did not have a garden pond, lawn or car was of no consequence
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Post by ladybug on Apr 16, 2014 19:38:45 GMT
Having recently had our assessment which finished in November we didn't have to fill anything like that in at all!
We were on the old process not the new two part one. From what I remember we only needed to provide gas and electrical safety certificates, MOT and insurance certificates and copy of driving licences and our SW did do a risk assessment but nothing was ever mentioned about stairgates, cupboard and draw locks or anything else for that matter.
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Post by scaredycats on Apr 17, 2014 8:49:47 GMT
Thanks for all your thoughts, guys, I'll let you know how it goes after tonight's visit.
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Post by gilreth on Apr 17, 2014 22:01:34 GMT
I hate socket covers with a passion - they can actually make things worse as in certain situations can be turned round to make plug socket live by just having earth pin in. We had removed all ours but now we have a adjournment on AO going to have to put them back as need another statutory SW visit
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badwolf
Bronze Member
Married Adopter and Home Educator
Posts: 93
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Post by badwolf on Apr 17, 2014 23:04:03 GMT
We ended up covering our pond with three layers of bars, chicken wire and net till SS were happy (you couldn't see the fish!)..... I was tempted to fill the silly thing in, but mr wolf was determined to keep the pond... wolf boy never went near it (not that he was left on his own in the garden anyway). Now most of the layers of cover on it are gone he put his foot in it last week, then complained his foot was wet! When he was baby wolf he mostly just ran headfirst into door frames and terrorised the cats....
Badwolf
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Post by scaredycats on Apr 18, 2014 7:20:56 GMT
After a 4 h SW meeting with LOTS to discuss, I've started a new thread... See "Actions stations and change in attitude....."
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Post by scaredycats on Apr 23, 2014 7:27:23 GMT
Well, apparently the fire brigade are going to come over and do a fire safety assessment. We've moved all medicines to a high cupboard but have many items still to sort out: - we have stairs gates - just have to figure out how to fit them as we have wonky shaped stair banisters; - still need to fix cleats to hold blind chords; - fix 2 fire guards to the walls around fires in sitting room and dining room; - need to put a lock on the garden gate; - "child resistant" safety covers to be fitted over accessible power points; - now where to move the booze?!
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Post by pingu on Apr 23, 2014 9:34:10 GMT
We were told that , if we got an under 7 we would have to put a cover over the pond and child locks on kitchen cupboards. We put medicines and drinks up high and sorted out adequate smoke detectors and a first aid kit ( sw sent all adopters in our county on a first aid for children course and supplied a kit so we ended up with two!) Actually only risk we missed in the end was a tiled corner , where you turn from kitchen into living room , where a 90 bend had been poorly tiled and snagged slightly as you turned the corner. It was just at a10 yr olds head height and ds1 bumped into it, so it now has a bit of towelling taped over the corner to pad it ! Ds1 took great delight in explaining to ds2 when he came, why the padding was there! And now he is that age he commented it is just his head height now !
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Post by scaredycats on Apr 23, 2014 14:48:49 GMT
Thanks, Pingu, your post made me smile :-)
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