Playground compliance gaps centre on surfaces and markings
Periodic and annual playground compliance inspections are often not maintained in schools, according to EduMarking, which sells playground safety assessments, resurfacing services and thermoplastic line marking to schools.
The company said the most common compliance gap it encounters is not broken equipment but surfaces and markings that have gradually deteriorated without anyone on site noticing. EduMarking said impact-absorbing surfaces can appear intact yet fail the AS 4422 impact attenuation test because of compaction over time, while faded line markings can leave structured activity zones no longer defined.
Australian Standard AS 4685 is the recognised national benchmark for school playgrounds. Compliance is not mandated by regulation in the same way as electrical safety, but AS 4685 becomes the measure a court applies when assessing whether a school met its duty of care after a playground injury.
AS 4685 sets four inspection levels
AS 4685.0:2017 sets four inspection levels: routine checks by supervisory staff, monthly operational checks by a competent person, periodic inspections every one to three months, and a comprehensive annual inspection by a qualified assessor producing a formal report with risk ratings.
EduMarking said its assessments consistently find routine and operational checks are carried out, but periodic and annual cycles are not maintained. It said those gaps can leave compacted impact-absorbing surfaces beneath equipment unidentified until a formal inspection occurs, even when a surface looks intact from a distance.
Sally Reiter, Sales Manager at EduMarking, said: “The compliance gap is almost never a piece of equipment that looks obviously broken. It is usually a surface that has compacted over years of use and rain, or markings that have faded to the point where structured activity zones are no longer defined. Neither of those things triggers a work order when someone walks past the yard. They show up in a formal inspection, and by then the school has been running a yard that does not meet the standard it is being assessed against if something goes wrong.”
Falls caused one in three injury hospitalisations among Australian children in 2021-22, or about 29,000 cases, with playground equipment the most common single cause. Regulation 103 of the Education and Care Services National Regulations requires premises, furniture and equipment to be safe, clean and in good repair, with a $6,600 penalty for non-compliance.
EduMarking said it provides playground safety assessments and resurfacing services nationally, operates across New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia, and has worked with more than 10,000 schools worldwide. The company said its thermoplastic line marking is rated to last seven years or more under daily school use and carries a five-year product warranty.
