Routine / Operational / Annual

Routine Inspections - Looking at the basic condition of the equipment, especially faults due to recent vandalism, breakages and also cleanliness of the playground. These inspections can be carried out by the manager or by his / her staff, and should be recorded on a simple sheet or book. The equipment supplier should provide a checklist. Dependant on usage, these inspections should be carried out weekly as a minimum.

Operational Inspections - Looking in more detail at the condition of the equipment, providing a quality control check on the more regular inspections and identifying wear and tear on the equipment. Such inspections should be carried out by an appropriately trained member of staff, or alternatively by a suitably qualified specialist and should be recorded. These inspections should be carried out on a quarterly basis as a minimum. The Play Inspection Company can carry out these inspections for you, or alternatively, provide in-house training courses for your own inspectors.

Annual Inspections - To be carried out by an independent specialist not connected with the playground operator or owner. Essentially we are looking at vandalism, wear and tear, long term structural problems, standards compliance and design, along with risk assessment etc. This report essentially covers the overall safety of the playground. It would also be useful to include an annual oversight of the internal procedures and documentation.

Other Additional Reporting - at times it is beneficial to extend the area of reporting to assess for example: Play Value, DDA Accessibility, Equipment Life etc. Any of these services can be quoted as an individual report, or as part of an overall assessment.

The Play Inspection Company specializes in Operational, Annual and Post Installation playground inspections. Please call or e-mail via the Contact Us page for further details and pricing.

Playground Consultancy

With a wealth of industry knowledge and experience at our disposal, we can guarantee that we will be able to help with any aspect of playground design, installation and management. Previous clients for our Playground Consultancy work have included Local Authorities, Parish Councils and Manufacturers. We will provide a fixed fee quotation for any areas of work that may interest you.

Post Installation Inspections

BS EN 1176: 2008 now states that every new playground should be subjected to a Post Installation Inspection by an Independent RPII Annual Inspector, to ensure that the playground has been built and installed correctly, and meets with the requirements of the standards.

Whether you are a Local Authority, Parish Council, School, Housing Developer or Community Group, you need to ensure that this inspection is carried out. The Post Installation Inspection and Risk Assessment will form a vital part of your overall site Risk Assessment that is legally required.

The simplest way to achieve this is to specify that the assessment is carried out by an Independently Registered RPII Annual Inspector on the Purchase Order or in the Tender Documents for the playground. Alternatively, you can specify a Post Installation Inspection by the Play Inspection Company and be safe in the knowledge that only suitably qualified inspectors will be used by our company.

Web Based Inspections

We have developed a web based inspection system that allows clients to access their own playground records and reports on-line from any computer or mobile device that has access to the internet using a unique user name and password.

As well as providing the operator with instant access to the standard playground reports the system also contains a number of other reports that provide useful analysis and help to manage the playground facilities.

Web Based Inspections - Click Here

Accident Reports & Expert Witness Service

Unfortunately, sometimes accidents do happen, and this may or may not be down to equipment defects, failure to inspect, or inadequate remedial works.

With over 500 legal cases as a background Peter Heseltine has more experience than any other individual in dealing with accidents. We can provide comprehensive reports to help establish the root cause of the problem, backed up with years of experience and knowledge, should the need arise. Peter is available to help substantiate or defend any type of claim.

RPII Training Courses

The Play Inspection Company can provide RPII training courses for Routine & Operational Inspectors. We offer RPII Certification where required, or alternatively we can issue our own Certificates of Attendance should you decide against taking the RPII Exams. All of our trainers have a vast wealth of industry experience and are used to training a diverse range of people; from those that are completely new to the industry, to those that just require a refresher course.

More and more Authorities are now encouraging inspectors to become RPII registered to demonstrate a measurable level of competence and this can be included as part of the course if required. Specific training courses are available to Routine and Operational Levels.

At The Play Inspection Company we recognise that due to job commitments these courses can be inconvenient and sometimes expensive. We therefore provide training courses which are flexible and can be tailored to meet with your specific requirements. We will travel to your place of work to avoid the unnecessary expense of sending employees away for training, and we only charge for our time, not by the number of people sitting in the room.

Please note that we do not provide training for Annual Level Inspectors. Due to the amount of standards knowledge and experience required for this level of inspector, it is impossible to provide a specific time-frame or set course format.

Please call or e-mail us your requirements and we will be pleased to provide you with a fixed fee quotation.

Safer Surfacing (Triax Testing)

There are many myths about playground surfacing, but it is important to understand that the prime purpose of any impact absorbing surface is to prevent serious head injuries (brain damage) to children that may fall from the equipment.

The portable testing equipment we use gives a good indication of the impact absorbing properties of any surface and provides the operator with a written record of the surface performance.

We only test using a specially designed Tripod that gives accurate readings within 10mm of the actual drop height. The Tripod also ensures that the head form is dropped vertically to further ensure accurate readings.

Please contact us for further information and pricing details.

Project Management

Not enough time to manage your Playground Project? Why not call on the Play Inspection Company for some assistance? Initially working with you to develop a detailed specification of your requirements, we will then obtain quotations on your behalf, whilst at the same time following your normal tender procedures. Once we have obtained quotes, we will meet again to discuss the suitability, and once you are completely happy with the design, we will manage your project through to completion, efficiently managing the Contracting side to ensure a smooth and painless transition from start to finish. And just to make sure, we'll carry out a Post Installation Inspection and issue a report to add to your records for the play area!

Thanks to our contacts within the industry, you can rest assured that we will be able to deliver competitive rates and excellent service to undertake your projects.

Risk Assessments

Risk assessment is an important part of safety management if used correctly. We are looking to highlight the hazards that users cannot expect to see and therefore require remedial action; rather than remove the challenge provided by the design of the equipment.

We calculate our Risk Assessment on a 5 x 5 matrix scale, assessing the likelihood of an injury occurring, against the severity of the potential injury. Risk Assessing in this manner helps to achieve a sensible overall rating, and gives a clear indication where remedial action is required.

The Play Inspection Company believes it is pretty much impossible to inspect a playground without carrying out some degree of Risk Assessment. It is therefore included free of charge with all of our inspections.

2D Inspection Probes

Our Probe set is priced at £275.00 Excl. VAT. This price includes postage and packing. For further information and availability, please post an enquiry though our contacts page.

An Essential Guide to BS EN 1176 & 1177: Including 2008 Revisions

An Essential Guide to BS EN 1176 and BS EN 1177. Children's Playground Equipment & Surfacing: updated for 2008.

This popular publication does exactly what is says on the tin! Priced at £9.99 including postage and packing, this value for money guide is essentially a condensed version of the full standards. A good starting and reference point for all playground owners, operators, designers, builders and manufacturers.

To order your copy please post an enquiry through our contacts page, or give us a call. You can alternatively send an order by post: Please make cheques payable to "The Play Inspection Company Ltd". You will find our address on the contacts page of this website. Please feel free to order as many copies as you like!

Natural Play Area's

With heavy government funding available through the Pathfinder and Playbuilder schemes, short timescales and a strong recent push toward the more natural type of play area, the Play Inspection Company can assist with your projects in many different ways.

The Play Inspection Company are your perfect choice for assistance in this area as we have many years of experience and expertise in dealing with all types of play area's. Listed below are some of the services that we can offer. If you have any further requirements that are not listed below, please get in touch and we will see if we can help.

Design:

We can help you through the design stage with pre installation checks of your site plans, which could help to avoid the un-necessary cost of alterations after the installation has been completed.

Project Management:

We can help you manage the implementation of these area's with our Project Management Service catering for as much or as little assistance as you require.

Post Installation Inspections:

We can carry out Post Installation Inspections of your play area's to ensure that they are fit and safe for use.

For further information on any of the above services, including pricing details, please get in touch via the contact form on this website, or alternatively give us a call on 01202 590 675 for a free consultation.

Inspecting the Children's Playground

Inspecting the Children's Playground: A Guide for Small Operators: updated for 2008.

This useful publication was designed to help small playground operators to inspect their playgrounds on a regular basis. It does not go into great technical detail or Standard compliance and Risk Assessment, other booklets cover these areas. It will help with the Routine and Operational inspections as recommended by BS EN 1176.

The booklet contains a host of useful checklists that can be adapted to your specific requirements. Another value for money publication from the Play Inspection Company, this publication is priced at £9.99 including postage and packing.

To order your copy please post an enquiry through our contacts page, or give us a call. You can alternatively send an order by post: Please make cheques payable to 'The Play Inspection Company Ltd'. You will find our address on the contacts page of this website. Please feel free to order as many copies as you like!

inspect.IT - Paperless Inspection Reporting System

the Play Inspection Company are delighted to announce the arrival of our new inspection reporting system, inspect.IT.

inspect.IT has been developed for local authorites who wish to record details of Routine and Operational playground inspections of their play area's. The system is completely internet based so no software is required to be stored on any machine.

For an extremely competitive annual license fee, the Play Inspection Company will allow you to access inspect.IT via a secure internet connection from a mobile PDA. Inspections can be carried out online and are instantly available to view from any computer, with the aid of a unique username and password.

You can also be safe in the knowledge that all inspections are securely backed up in case you ever need to access them, providing you with all the protection you need in the event of claims or accidents.

inspect.IT has been developed to ensure that it is extremely simple to use and is sure to save your organisation both time and money.

For a full brochure outlining all of the features of this system, or to arrange an online demonstration, please contact us at Head Office or use the enquiry form on the Contact Page of this website.

3D Inspection Probes

With the introduction of the revised standard for playground equipment BS EN 1176:2008 coming fully into force on the 1st June 2009 there are a number of important changes to the probes used for the testing of equipment.

• Probes A & B are no longer used, it is determined that all equipment is accessible to all age groups unless they are specifically excluded.
• Toggle Test: the chain length has been shortened to 400mm from 600mm
• Test Template: this probe has been changed significantly to reflect the updated process for checking head & neck entrapment.
• Probe E: a new probe for checking flexible bound openings in nets etc.
• Ring Gauge: a new gauge to check the diameter of handgrips and footrests on Rocking Equipment

Also included in the set are 8mm, 12mm and 25mm finger probes, probe C (Torso probe) & probe D (Large head probe)

The 3D Inspection Probe Set is priced at £395.00 Excl. VAT. Please note that this price does not include carriage. Probes can either be collected or delivery can be quoted.