Choosing How to Inspect

There is no single right way to inspect in Civic.ly. You can start with the lightest possible check and add detail only where the risk justifies it. This page sets out every option in one place, from simplest to most thorough, so you can choose deliberately. The same options apply to parks, playgrounds, buildings, rooms, trees and vehicles.

Every option comes down to one trade-off: speed on the round against the strength of your evidence if something goes wrong.

The options at a glance

Option by option

1. Pass or fail only

Create the inspection without a checklist. The inspector swipes it passed or failed on the mobile app, and raises a defect on the specific item if something is wrong. It produces a clean dated record that the check happened, but no record of what was looked at. See How to Create an Inspection.

2. A checklist, filled every time

Attach a checklist and the inspector answers every question on every visit. Checklists come in three levels:

The deeper the level, the stronger the evidence and the longer each visit takes. Choose a level per type of asset rather than one for everything. Play equipment uses the name Operational Check for its detailed level, matching the operational inspection in BS EN 1176-7, with a recommended quarterly cadence. Browse every checklist in the Checklist Library, and see The Simple Checklist and Play Equipment Operational Checks.

3. Negative reporting

The checklist is attached, at any of the three levels, but the inspector only fills it in when something is wrong. On the mobile app, swipe right passes the task in one gesture. Swipe left marks it failed and pops the checklist up, so they record exactly what failed and can raise a defect from there. Most visits take seconds, and every fault still gets the full checklist. Swiping only works on the medium card size, not the large cards. See Working in the Field.

4. A whole place in one task

Draw the park, playground, building or room as an area, then inspect that with its walk-round checklist: the Park Sweep or Playground Area Sweep, or the Building Sweep or Room Sweep. One task per visit covers everything inside, item group by item group. It is fast and easy to train, but the evidence is at site level: you can prove the park was inspected, not that a particular swing was. The individual items still need to be in your register, because defects and jobs go on them.

5. Mix them

Most councils that have thought it through land on a hybrid. For example: a weekly Playground Area Sweep over the whole play area, plus a quarterly Operational Check on the zip wire and the multi-play unit, plus negative reporting on the benches and bins. Each is simply a separate recurring inspection, usually set up as a routine. Name them clearly so the team knows which is which. See How to Create a Routine.

On top: the external inspection

Whatever you choose, some checks come from a specialist on a fixed cycle: the annual RoSPA play inspection, the fire alarm service, gas safety, the electrical test (EICR), an arboriculturist's tree survey. Record each as a one-off inspection on the asset it covers, set to repeat at the certificate's interval, and add each problem in the report as a defect or job. See recording an external inspection.

Where the defect goes

When a checklist answer fails, the app offers to raise a defect and pre-fills the title with the asset and the fault. You choose whether to create it. Raise it on the specific item wherever you can, because that builds the asset's own history of inspections, defects and jobs, which is what justifies a repair and what you reach for if a claim lands.

One behaviour to know: a defect started from a whole-place walk-round (option 4) attaches to the site, not the bench or swing. If you want it on the item, raise it there yourself from the mobile + button. The work to fix a defect then goes in jobs. See How to Raise and Manage a Defect.

How to choose

1. Check your insurance wording first. Some policies require play equipment to be inspected weekly, provably, item by item. If yours does, a whole-place walk-round alone will not satisfy it.
2. Put the detail where the risk is. A zip wire, a multi-play unit or a fire alarm panel may justify an Operational Check or a Sweep. Benches and bins rarely do.
3. Be honest about your team. A diligent, long-serving team can be trusted with a light check. If you suspect rounds are completed from the van, per-item sign-off helps, because it cannot be done without visiting each item.
4. Start light, add detail later. Changing level means creating a different recurring inspection. No history is lost.

For the same choice worked through with the real checklists for each kind of asset, see parks and playgrounds, buildings, trees and vehicles and machinery.