ericgibbs said:
Am I the only one who's beginning to think we are getting a Nanny state.
Not at all, it's getting completely stupid!.
The Health & Safety rubbish is getting completely out of control!.
A friend of mine works as a builder, he was on a big site, and the Health and Safety officers asked him to put up a Health & Safety sign. So he got some wood, he got his saw, and he was just about to start sawing when they stopped him - they told him he had to complete a "Health & Safety assessment", in writing, before he could saw a piece of wood!.
My wife works as a 'Teaching Assistant" in a reception class (4 to 5 year olds, first year in school), and she has a BTEC Nursery Nurse qualification. Currently they have a lady in on 'work experience', she's doing an NVQ as a "Teaching Assistant", and the assessor was coming out to 'observe her' for her NVQ.
This is no joke - the assessor wanted to see her:
1) Put out pencil pots for the kids.
2) Put out papers for the kids (told she can't do that, the kids do it themselves).
3) Turn the overhead projector ON and OFF.
4) Prevent a child putting it's fingers in a mains socket (children don't do that anyway, and the sockets are too high for them to reach).
5) Examine a childs private records (told no way, neither the student or the assessor are allowed to see such information - Data Protection act).
For those outside the UK, NVQ's are commonly known as "Not Very Quality"