1. Having an awareness of what is around you is an important aspect of safety.
* Draw up a plan of your setting identifying fire doors, extinguishers, and other safety equipment.
* Take your assessor on a tour of your facility and talk about health and safety issues regarding fixtures and fittings, the kitchen, furniture and floor coverings. Expect to be asked many questions as you go round.
* The outdoor environment requires particular attention to ensure it is safe and can be accessed by all children. Write an account of how the outside area of your setting is adapted to enable children with special needs to participate fully.
2. Statutory requirements relate to various aspects of the childcare environment.
* Ensure you know the relevant adult:child ratios for different types of settings. Write them down for your portfolio.
3. Note how many universal symbols appear on toys, furniture, equipment, and cleaning materials.
* Draw a chart showing the symbols with a description of what they mean.
4. Provision for first aid treatment should be adequate and controlled.
* Show your assessor the first aid box, describe the contents, produce documentation showing who checks and replaces contents and how often this is done.
5. Caring for animals is a valuable learning aid for children.
* If you have pets in your setting, ensure you know how to care for them properly, the health precautions for staff or children handling them, and what diseases adults and children could catch from them.
6. You need to be familiar with emergency procedures.
* Collect relevant documents from your setting for your assessor to question you on.
* If your assessor is not present when an emergency evacuation takes place, get a witness testimony statement from the person in charge, indicating the role you played.
7. You are required to have a knowledge of basic first aid, how and when to provide it, and when to get help.
* Take a first aid course and include the certificate and syllabus in your portfolio.
8. The suitability of the setting depends on furniture, fixtures, and materials selected for the age group.
* On an A3 sheet draw a plan of your own, or an imaginary, playroom. Cut appropriate illustrations of equipment from an early years catalogue and stick them in relevant places on the plan. Write notes to indicate why you chose those particular pieces, and the thinking behind the room layout.
9. Maintenance of a setting is as vital as the initial set-up.
* Write a checklist of cleaning materials required for a setting, their use and storage.
* Describe to your assessor how consumable staff in the setting maintain supplies, identify deficiencies identified and order new stock.
10. Top tip! Lynn Ashwell, NVQ assessor at Burton Care Assessment Centre, says 'Always make a checklist for fire drills and accidents.'