How to Ensure your Nursery is Legally Compliant!

Your day care nursery or childcare centre looks after and cares for babies from birth to between four or five years old – these are some of the most important times in a child’s life, so parents are rightfully thorough with their investigation and choice of nursery. On top of this, due to nurseries having to dispose of large amounts of offensive waste every day, there a certain laws and legislations that you need to follow.

Here’s how to make sure your Nursery stays legally compliant and appealing for potential customers:

Register yourself

First off, all nurseries and day care centres must be registered with the appropriate body and regularly inspected.

Displaying your certificate from your registered party in a prominent and noticeable place will put trust into the minds of your clients. It shows you’re registered and compliant with all the correct governing bodies.

Invest in quality changing facilities

It is important that you and your visitors have a pleasant experience every time whilst using your baby changing facilities. This can involve the changing unit itself being sturdy enough, adequate sterilising facilities and easy to access bins which can legally hold nappy waste (see below)

When setting up your washroom and changing facilities, think about installing the following:

A sturdy, reliable, baby changer (Picking a stylish one that suits your washroom is an option, but wouldn’t go unnoticed)
Sanitary wipe dispensers for cleaning the changer before & after use
A nearby sink and soap facilities
Paper towels
Hand dryers
Nappy disposal bin
An automatic air freshener
Sanitary bins

Ensuring that your washrooms and changing facilities are well equipped, sterile, and easy to use is a must for a Nursery.

Read our FAQ’s on Baby changers here!

Dispose of all your waste correctly

An obvious follow on from using a baby changer is the waste that you’re left with. This isn’t normal waste, and cannot be thrown into the general waste bin.

The environmental health department states anything that comes into contact with bodily fluids (blood, plasma, mucus, etc.) that cannot be sterilised must be treated as hazardous waste. Nursery waste is considered biohazardous material, this means you cannot dispose of it into normal waste streams. Materials and equipment used by Nurseries that qualify as hazardous waste (after use) and cannot be sterilized include (but are not limited to):

Nappy’s
Protective gloves & aprons
Liners
Paper towels
Hand care

General and Nappy waste are the two main waste type produced at your nursery, but it certainly isn’t limited to those two. For more information on waste disposal at nurseries, read our quick FAQ’s below!

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Can I dispose of my own waste?

For your general waste, it is hypothetically possible for you to stick it into the back of your car and take it to the landfill every day, after paying the required landfill costs, but you would first need a registered waste carriers license. For any other type of waste such as medical or offensive waste, there are strict laws and legislation governing it, as well as certain pre-treatment processes before landfill – this isn’t something you could do on your own.

We would always advise using a certified waste collector, no matter how much or what type of waste you produce. In the long run, it will most likely end up saving you money, time, stress and paperwork.

How often should I have my waste collected?

How often you have your waste collected depends entirely on how much waste you produce, and what your capacity is for storing waste. If you produce a lot of waste, it is advisable to have a regular collection to avoid a build-up of bags and overflowing bins outside your premises. When disposing of hazardous or potentially harmful waste, it is always best to ask your waste company what they would suggest for your business, as everyone is different!

How many bins do I need?

Once again, this varies from business to business, but when it comes to waste there are strict laws and legislations that govern where waste can or cannot be stored.

As standard, you should have a general waste bin and an offensive waste bin (nappy bin) for your nappy waste. If you’re looking into recycling, then there are a variety of different recycling bin options you could also go for.

You’ll need to think about what waste your nursery produces – If you have a first aid kid, or regularly have to dispose of any medical waste for whatever reason, such as tablets, solid dose medicines, drug destruction kits, or cytotoxic and cytostatic waste then you’ll need to look into getting a pharmaceutical waste bin and collection as well.