Council playgrounds in New South Wales: compliance with safety guidelines

Despite initiatives to improve the safety of play environments, playground-related injuries continue to be a major public health problem. Efforts to address playground safety in New South Wales were consolidated during 1994 through the Kidsafe Playground Safety Project. In stage 1 of the project (described here), 240 council playgrounds were assessed to determine the extent to which playground equipment complied with safety guidelines. On-site inspection of the selected playgrounds provided data on 862 separate pieces of playground equipment. Of the 723 pieces requiring undersurfacing, less than half (45.4 per cent) had the recommended type of undersurfacing while only 42 of those pieces had undersurfacing to the recommended depth. However, when the fall height of equipment was considered in addition to the undersurfacing guidelines, only 13 (1.8 per cent) of the 723 pieces of equipment simultaneously satisfied all of the safety guidelines. Regrettably, none of the 240 council playgrounds assessed complied fully with the key safety guidelines. The results underscore the need for a collaborative effort on the part of local government, Kidsafe and health promotion and regional public health units to ensure that council playgrounds in New South Wales comply with recommended safety guidelines.