Repair Cafes in Essex - Help Sought

Hi Andy,

This morning I've been to a meeting to discuss setting up a Repair Cafe down here in South East Cornwall, and accidentally found myself on the "not a committee" to organise it. As we get into it I'm very happy to swap ideas and experiences.

The subject of PAT testing came up, not surprisingly, I'll probably end up being the one deciding what our strategy is for that. If any one here has any experiences it would be good to know.

Cheers,

Andy

I run an occasional repair cafe here in Banbury as part of our Community Action Group.  Of which there are a network across Oxfordshire.
Our insurance requires 'competent people' to be repairers.  And no we don't want a detailed specific definition of competent.

So we put anyone who will be doing PAT testing unsupervised through a one day training course.  And then a competent person assesses their repair skills.  If they pass that , then they are good to do PAT testing.

During the cafe, items are PAT tested on arrival before repairs are attempted (to safeguard the repairers)

Repaired, if possible.  If not then plugs cut off and item marked do not use.

A final PAT test once reassembled before handing back to member of the public.

We also stress that PAT is much more than plugging into the test box and getting an OK light. The visual pre-checks usually find the majority of issues.

I run an occasional repair cafe here in Banbury as part of our Community Action Group.  Of which there are a network across Oxfordshire.
Our insurance requires 'competent people' to be repairers.  And no we don't want a detailed specific definition of competent.

So we put anyone who will be doing PAT testing unsupervised through a one day training course.  And then a competent person assesses their repair skills.  If they pass that , then they are good to do PAT testing.

During the cafe, items are PAT tested on arrival before repairs are attempted (to safeguard the repairers)

Repaired, if possible.  If not then plugs cut off and item marked do not use.

A final PAT test once reassembled before handing back to member of the public.

We also stress that PAT is much more than plugging into the test box and getting an OK light. The visual pre-checks usually find the majority of issues.

Hi Jim,

Really useful, thanks. Do you mark the tested equipment as tested? We had a bit of a debate about this, some weren't happy about it as they saw it as accepting liability.

We've got 4-5 ex-Navy electronic systems engineers (we're not far from Plymouth) who may never have PAT tested but have very much tested things that can go wrong in more exciting ways than desk lamps! So yes, that was my feeling, that a briefing (and a check list, I like check lists) would be an appropriate approach. I'm also thinking of getting a list of local testers who do it as a their job so that if anyone does want a certificate we can refer them to them - if they want a professional service we'll refer them to a professional.

Any other general advice on Repair Cafes you can share with myself and Andy?

Thanks,

Andy  

Yes we fix a tested sticker to the items.  We don't offer certificates.

Here is a guide to running repair cafes https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ofWEGzvFVkEZ3LALDWuUi-neHSCl9fXa/edit

Example Risk Assessments in here including repair cafes https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tLP75N13AaQ95IdDXbSf9XUtytYw8MZF/view

Plymouth repair cafe (part of Restart project) may be able to offer local advice (although events seem to have stopped in 2019)  https://therestartproject.org/groups/repair-cafe-plymouth/

List of Devon repair cafes https://www.recycledevon.org/reuse/repair-cafe seems more current, again part of restart project

Thanks Jim, really useful, we're also getting very good support from Cornwall County who are supporting the Cornwall Repair Cafe network we come under. I had a very enjoyable chat with the chap from County, turns out his father is a (clearly very pragmatic and sensible) engineer turned H&S adviser - the chap from County and I ended up chanting in unison "no, there is NO legal requirement to PAT test, no, you do NOT need to be formally trained to PAT test" He had a particularly interesting conversation with someone who's offering bike maintenance, which was a really good example / test case. The Cornwall County line is that although this may be based on expert experience, it is clearly given on a voluntary basis - it is down to the person bringing in the article to get it professionally checked if they have safety concerns. Cornwall have a standard disclaimer form for anyone bringing in items to sign which we'll be using (although I haven't seen it yet).

https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/rubbish-recycling-and-waste/recycling/repair-cafes/