Standards Australia has published the long-awaited, internationally aligned Playground Equipment Standard. Committee Chairperson Dr David Eager, explains the changes and how they will affect councils and other playspace managers.
Ten years have passed since Standards Australia last updated the document that set out the requirements for playground equipment in Australia.
The new standard, AS 4685—2014, is based on the European Standard EN 1176-2008 (Parts 1 to 6 and 11) with changes that reflect Australian requirements and practice. Specifically, it addresses the fall height, protection from falling, fall zones, entrapment and a number of other hazardous situations based on international injury data. 
The new Playground Equipment Standard will be published in early 2014 and applies from the publication date. Local government and playground providers will be happy to know that the existing playground equipment standard will continue as an alternative for a period of one year from the date of publication.
The new Playground Equipment Standard is not intended to provide risk-free play environments, but rather to specify the minimal acceptable standard for playground equipment. The new Standard takes into account developmental and anthropometric data specific to children, sets out general safety requirements for playground equipment, and incorporates a number of internationally recognised risk management strategies for injury prevention.
We live in a global society and a prime objective of this document is to remove existing barriers to trade by aligning the minimum playground equipment safety requirements with internationally recognised technical requirements with minor safety-related deviations that are specific to Australia; such as increased UV exposure protection and the increased timber protection.
Another prime objective of the new Playground Equipment Standard is to minimise risk of injury to children using playgrounds by providing internationally aligned general safety requirements for playground equipment.
The new Standard is for use by designers, consultants, manufacturers and installers of playground equipment as well as operators, inspectors and maintenance professionals of playgrounds. The new Standard specifies requirements that will protect children from hazards they may be unable to foresee when using playground equipment as intended. The Standard does not intend to remove risks that are obvious to the child, such as height exposure, as these kinds of risk allow the child to develop a sense of what is safe and what is not safe. In keeping with current Australia Consumer Law, the Standard specially requires designers and providers of playgrounds to reduce the potential for foreseeable misuse of their products.
The development of a sense of what activities are safe (i.e. where is the boundary between what may be considered safe and not safe) is an important learning skill for children to master, as it is a life-long skill that every child needs to acquire. It is essential that children have opportunities to explore and experiment in an environment that provides a degree of managed risk.
What is required is the capacity to achieve safe play environments and equipment while still enabling children to take part in risk-managed learning experiences. Too little challenge for a child can often lead to inappropriate risk-taking – getting the correct balance is the key.
An overview of the internationally aligned Standard
The Standards comprises seven parts. The first part contains the general requirements and test methods of playgrounds while the remaining six parts are dedicated to specific items or types of equipment, namely: swings, slides, runways, carousels, rocking equipment, and spatial nets. Part 1 also contains additional safety requirements for specific pieces of playground equipment that are specified in Parts 2 to 6, and 11.
Part 2 contains the safety requirements and test methods for swings intended for permanent installation for use by children. Part 3 contains the safety requirements and test methods for slippery slides intended for permanent installation for use by children. Part 4 contains the safety requirements and test methods for flying foxes intended for permanent installation within children’s playgrounds. Part 5 contains the safety requirements and test methods for rotating playground equipment with a diameter greater than 0.5 m intended for permanent installation for use by children. Part 6 contains the safety requirements and test methods for spring and rocking equipment intended for permanent installation for use by children. Part 11 contains the safety requirements and test methods for spatial networks.
The new Standard retains the term free height of fall, which is defined as the greatest vertical distance between a part of the equipment to which a child has reasonably foreseeable access and the playing surface or part of equipment beneath.
The most obvious change is the increase in the free height of fall from 2.5 to 3.0 metres. Another notable change is that the minimum height of equipment for which tested impact-attenuating surface must be installed has increased from 500mm to 600mm. The European Playground Standard has allowed these more lenient fall heights for 15 years and to-date there is no evidence that these ‘more risky’ exposures have led to either a greater number of injuries or more severe injuries. Quite the contrary. The research has concluded that the increase in height has allowed playground designers the opportunity to provide play experiences that are more exciting and challenging for children while not increasing the likelihood or severity of accidents. The more challenging equipment has allowed children all around the world to extend their personal boundaries in a controlled but more challenging risk-managed environment, thus better equipping them for life’s more demanding experiences. The maximum free height of fall from upper body equipment remains at 2.2m.
The internationally aligned Standard requires the manufacturer/supplier to provide maintenance information that includes the frequency with which each item of equipment should be inspected. The manufacturer/supplier is also required to provide drawings and diagrams necessary for the maintenance, inspection, checking and repair.
The Standard places the onus on the manufacturer to test and label equipment to confirm that it complies with this Standard. The concept of impact area is introduced and the concept of spaces has been retained. The minimum space (three-dimensional) consists of three components, namely:
i) Space occupied by the equipment;
ii) Free space (if there is any – resulting from movement forced by the equipment e.g. sliding, gliding, swinging, spinning, or rocking); and
iii) Falling space.
The impact area (two-dimensional) is the surface (ground below) that can be hit by the child falling through the falling space from the playground equipment.
The marking requirements are also more onerous and require all playground equipment to be marked legibly and permanently with the following:
a) Name, address and ABN of manufacturer, importer or supplier;
b) Equipment reference and year of manufacture;
c) Basic level mark of the impact-attenuating surface;
d) The designation (number and date) of this Australian Standard i.e. AS 4685—2014.
Manufacturers making a statement of compliance with this Standard on the playground equipment, packaging, within contractual documentation, internet, or promotional material related to their product are advised to ensure that compliance is capable of being verified. The use of the word ‘permanently’ means for the life of the equipment and must take into consideration the environment in which it is likely to be installed.
The new Standard also introduces the classification Supervised Early Childhood Services (SECS). This classification allows the differentiation and specification of playground equipment specifically installed for supervised children under school age in an educational environment. For example for SECS the free height of fall is explicitly limited to a 1.8 m maximum with a corresponding impact area of 1.7 m minimum. The SECS classification, among other things, allows the usage of moveable equipment – a range of purpose-made manufactured equipment that is not permanently fixed in place and can be adjusted and moved by educators on a regular basis to vary the play configuration.
Conclusion
The most important consideration for councils is not to panic.
Playgrounds have not all become more dangerous just because the new Standard has been published, even though existing playground equipment may not comply with the new Standard. Like all new Standards, its introduction needs to be managed giving due regard to existing use rights and common sense. Standards are meant to be used intelligently and the strict compliance with the relevant Standard will not automatically eliminate all accidents. Replacement equipment will obviously need to comply with the new Standard. Councils and other playground-owning organisations should plan and budget for a phased-in compliance with the new Standard. If they haven’t already done so, it is recommended that councils undertake risk management audits (AS/NZS ISO 31000) and make appropriate additional provisioning within their 2014/15 budgets.
Finally, to assist councils and other playground industry bodies, UTS:Engineering is conducting one-day familiarisation seminars in all capital cities on the new Playground Equipment Australian Standard AS 4685:2014. Check the website for details.
Dr David Eager is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Technology Sydney. He is the Chairperson of the Australian Standards Committee Children’s Playground Equipment and Surfacing CS-005.
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