RISK ASSESSING YOUR ACTIVITY & REPORTING INCIDENTS

Transcription

1 Pick & Mix RISK ASSESSING YOUR ACTIVITY & REPORTING INCIDENTS As a committee member you are responsible for organising activities for the members of your student group. You need to make sure that these activities are as safe as possible as you have a legal responsibility towards your members for their Health and Safety. This guide explains how to risk assess your activity and keep your members safe. FURTHER INFORMATION Student Development Tel studentgroups@guild.bham.ac.uk Counter opening times Monday Thursday Friday Student Development student groups

2 Page 2 What is a Risk Assessment? Risk assessments are legal documents required under Health & Safety legislation. It lists all the risks that could potentially arise from your activity and how those risks can be reduced. A risk assessment is completed when you first start to organise an activity and you should continue to use it until your activity is over. It can also help you identify if there are any other risks to your event such as losing money or breaking the law. Why do I need to complete a Risk Assessment? Health and Safety law is some of the most stringent and, as an elected committee member, you have a legal responsibility for the Health and Safety of your groups members. This is called a duty of care. If someone is injured on your event and you have not done what you said you would do on your risk assessment, then you could be found negligent, which means you may be legally and financially responsible for the persons injury. Also, if you do not complete or use your risk assessment properly, then this may negate the Guild s insurance policy meaning your activity will not be insured. Different types of risks Risk assessments are required under Health and Safety law and are used to identify and control risks that could harm people. It should also be used as a tool to identify risks that could affect the success of the activity. There are many things that could go wrong whilst organising your activity which could lead to it not being as successful as you would like. If you have already thought about what these things could be before you organise your activity, then there is less chance of failure.

3 Page 3 There are FOUR MAIN AREAS OF RISK that you need to think about when you are organising an activity. These are Health and Safety: risks that can cause physical, mental and/or emotional harm. Financial: risks that could cause the event to lose money Volunteering with children/vulnerable adults: risk of breaking charity/ Safeguarding legislation Reputational: risk to the reputation of the University and the Guild Attached to the risk assessment form is a hazard checklist that will get you thinking about the different types of risks that could arise in the above areas. This list is not exhaustive and it will be your responsibility to make sure that you have included ALL risks, not just those that are on the checklist. IF YOU WOULD LIKE ANY ADVICE AND SUPPORT ON WRITING A RISK ASSESS- MENT FOR YOUR ACITVITY, STUDENT DEVELOPMENT CAN HELP YOU. How to risk assess an activity STEP 1: Look for the hazards. Break your activity down into individual activities such as preparing the room, setting up the electrical equipment, buying the food, ordering the transport and so forth. What potential risks can you identify in these areas? So, for example, if your room has cables trailing the floor, there is a risk that someone could trip over them. Or if the coaches do not turn up, then there is a risk that your members will not get to the venue.

4 Page 4 STEP 2: Decide who might be harmed and how. It is not only your members that can be affected by your activity. Ask yourself who else could be affected by the risks such as members of the public or the University/Guild s reputation. Some people may have particular requirements such as children, young people, elderly people and disabled people. You must consider this when you think about how you will reduce risks. Will you need to do things in a different way to accommodate people who have different requirements? STEP 3: Evaluate the risks and decide on precautions Consider how likely it is that each risk might occur and whether the risk is high, medium or low. Consider the consequences of the risk and how severe its implications could be if it does occur. This will help you decide what precautions you need to take. If there is a high risk of someone being physically injured, then you are more likely to have first aid available at your event than if the risk of injury is a low risk. Decide what control measures you need to put in place to reduce the risks you have identified happening and also what action you will take if the hazard does occur. BE REALISTIC ABOUT YOUR CONTROL MEASURES. Do not say you are going to do something if you realistically cannot do anything about it. If one of your risks is that the club you are going to could get too noisy, don t say that you will ask the venue to turn the music down as realistically they will not do that. if people find the music too loud, then they will probably have to leave the venue. STEP 4: Record and review your risk assessment Make sure that all of your risks and control measures are recorded on the risk assessment form that you hand into student development.

5 Page 5 MAKE SURE THAT YOU ARE FOLLOWING THE CONTROL MEASURES ON YOUR RISK ASSESSMENT. If someone is injured and you have not done what you said you would do to reduce this risk, then you could be held liable legally and financially liable for their injury. How do I identify risks? The risk assessment hazard checklist is attached to the risk assessment form and this can be used to identify basic risks that may affect your activity. Look at risk assessments that have been used by your previous committee. If they have organised similar activities, their previous risk assessments should cover the same risks. Use your common sense! Most risks you identify will be straightforward and easy to control. Be realistic and do not write down risks and control measures that you have no control over. You cannot physically stop your members from getting drunk and starting a fight so do not write as a control measure tell members to not get drunk or split up members if they are fighting. This is not realistic and means you have not thought deeply enough about how you will prevent your members getting drunk and fighting in the first place. A more realistic control measure would be to give a briefing to members at the beginning of the night about the behaviour that is expected from them. A dedicated non-drinker could then keep an eye on your members through the night and if they show signs of being too drunk, encourage them to drink water or to go home.

6 Page 6 If they do not listen and become so drunk that they become aggressive, then you should report their behaviour to venue security and ask them to deal with it. You could then decide after the activity whether they are able to attend your groups activities in the future. Health and Safety risks The risks during physical activity are wide ranging in both likelihood and severity. These risks can be found in most types of activity including dance, drama, performances, social events, alcohol events, sports events and so forth. Have you warmed up? Do you have first aid procedures? Are people aware of what risks they may face if they are dancing, running, building stage sets, etc? Do you have to use specialist safety equipment? Is everybody aware of game rules? Is the activity too rough to be safe? Is there someone to referee an activity, or to ensure that people are being safe? Is the equipment being used in these activities up to standard? Do you have a stewarding process to reduce the risk of students hurting themselves when they are drunk? Are there any leads or wires on the floor that people could trip over? Financial Considering financial risks might not seem like anything to do with Health & Safety. However, if your activity runs at a loss then this could affect the health of your society and its ability to function. Think about any extra external income, such as sponsorship, donations and membership fees. Do you have a budget? Have you budgeted to include a profit to cover any potential for your group to lose money. This profit can then be put into the next event to make it bigger and better! Is your ticket price realistic if it is too cheap you won t cover costs but if it is too expensive people won t come.

7 Page 7 You must also think about cash handling in the run up and on the day. Have you got a process in place to ensure money does not get lost or stolen? How many people will be collecting/counting/banking the money? How will you ensure their safety when carrying large amounts of money? Volunteering activities If you are working with children/vulnerable adults then there will be risks that you MUST consider. How do you know if your volunteer is able to fulfil the role you are asking them to? Have they been properly trained, including compulsory Guild training? Have they had a CRB check? Do you know what to do if a child/vulnerable person discloses information that legally needs to be passed to social services? As many risks are controlled by legislation you MUST come and talk to student development before you organise your activity. Even if your volunteering activity does not involve children/vulnerable adults there may still be risks that need to be controlled in a certain way. Student Development will be able to help you with this. Reputational As an elected representative of the Guild, you are responsible for making sure that your activities do not bring the Guild/University into disrepute. Your activities can have a major impact on the reputation of your group, the Guild and even on the University. Has your external speaker/film ever expressed controversial views that may offend other students/members of the public? If so, how will you ensure that he/she does not do that at your activity? How will you ensure that your members do not behave in a way that could bring the Guild/University into disrepute such as being aggressive or other types of anti-social behaviour?

8 Page 8 RISK ASSESSMENT PROCESS New committee submit annual risk assessment no later than 8 weeks after being elected for all activity you know you will be organising. Risk assessment is signed off by Student Development Update annual risk assessment throughout the year with all activity you did not know you would be organising when you were elected and submit to Student Development. If your activity is classed as low risk then you do not need to complete any other forms apart from your annual risk assessment. If your activity is classed as high risk you will need to complete additional forms and let us know more detail. No Does your activity fall into one of the following high risk categories Yes Include activity on annual risk assessment Include activity on annual risk assessment Include activity on annual risk assessment Include activity on annual risk assessment Include activity on annual risk assessment Include activity on annual risk assessment Include activity on annual risk assessment Include activity on annual risk assessment The event costs 250 or more in total or 50 or more for an individual item Travelling abroad Takes place in remote areas / trip outside of Birmingham/ extreme sport A bar crawl Any event held in a pub/bar/ club Bringing food onto campus or making it/cooking it on campus An external speaker/film on campus Is a volunteering activity with children or vulnerable adults Complete budget notification (3 weeks before activity) Complete trips/remote activities/extreme sports notification (8 weeks before activity) Complete trips/remote activities/extreme sports notification (2 weeks before activity) Complete pub/bar/club notification (4 weeks before activity) Complete pub/bar/club event notification (2 weeks before activity) Complete stall and food catering form (2 weeks before activity) Complete speaker request form (2 weeks before activity) Volunteering notification (2 weeks before activity)

9 Example Page 9 The tea society organises 10 activities a year. They have four meetings which involves preparing and drinking tea and discussing the best brands of tea. They have one workshop on Fair Trade and the impact this has on tea producers. They also organise three trips per year to a local tea making factory outside of Birmingham and two social events at a local pub for new members to meet each other and socialise. Instead of writing 10 risk assessments per year, the tea society submit one risk assessment that covers the risks in all of their annual activities. All 10 activities will have different risks but they will also have similar risks, such as, hazards in the room which people could injure themselves on, hot water urns which people could burn themselves on and so forth. Completing an annual risk assessment means that you only have to record this risk once rather than 10 different times. They will have to complete a trips/remote activities/extreme sports notification for their trip to the local team making factory as it is outside of Birmingham. They will also have to complete a Bar/Pub/Club notification form for the 2 events they are holding in a pub. They would not have to let us know about the rest of their activity as they are not included within the high risk categories (see page 8). However, all activity MUST be recorded in their annual risk assessment. If, after you have submitted your annual risk assessment, you identify a risk through your activity that you were not aware existed, you MUST add this to your annual risk assessment and re-submit it to the Guild. Remember, if someone is injured and you have not identified how you would deal with the risk in your risk assessment, you may be held legally and financially liable.

10 Notification forms Page 10 The type of student group activity that is considered high risk falls into the following areas: Activity that costs over 250 to organise or if an individual item costs more than 50 Trips abroad Trips outside of Birmingham Activity that takes place in remote areas which may make it harder to obtain assistance if needed Extreme sports Bar Crawls Events that are held in a pub/bar/club Activity involving homemade food/food preparation Volunteering with children or vulnerable adults Activity that involves external speakers and/or film showings If your activity falls into the one or more of the above areas then you will need to complete the appropriate notification form which requires additional information about your activity. Why do we ask for more information for high risk activity? Just as you have a duty of care to your members, the Guild also has a duty of care to our groups. We need to know that the activity you are undertaking is as safe as possible for you and your members. This includes making sure that you have thought about an emergency plan if something goes wrong; that you and your members have the correct insurance and equipment; that the company organising your activity has the correct processes in place; and that you are adhering to any legislation that may impact on your activity. The forms we ask you to complete, on top of your risk assessment, act as a checklist for you so you can be sure that you have done all you can to keep your members safe whilst on their activity.

11 Activity that costs over 250 to organise or if an individual item costs more than 50 Page 11 If you are organising an event that costs a lot of money then the first thing you should do is complete a budget to see if your group can afford the event. You must then submit your budget form to Student Development 3 weeks before your event. Staff will look at the budget to identify if there are any financial risks such as the activity having to sell a lot of tickets to break even or make a profit. If staff feel there is a high financial risk associated with your activity then they will contact you to talk it though and see if there is anything that you can do reduce those risks. Deadline: 3 weeks MINIMUM before an activity (or before you start incurring any costs or collecting income) Trips abroad Organising a trip abroad can be high risk because you and your members may not be familiar with the country, the emergency services, the law and customs. It is important that you think of these things before hand and write an emergency plan to identify what you would do if any risks occurred on your trip. If you are planning a trip abroad you must submit a trips abroad notification to Student Development as well as certain information that is requested on the form. Deadline: 8 weeks MINIMUM before a trip Activity that takes place in remote areas This refers to activity that takes place in remote areas such as mountaineering and hill walking. This is considered high risk activity because it can be more difficult for you to get assistance if needed. If your activity takes place in a remote area you must complete the remote activities notification. We will also collect information from you at your handover. Deadline: 2 weeks MINIMUM before an activity Trips outside of Birmingham This includes any trip that involves leaving Birmingham as, if anything goes wrong outside of Birmingham, it may be more difficult to resolve than if something went wrong if you were in Birmingham. Deadline: 2 weeks MINIMUM before an activity

12 Extreme sports Page 12 This refers to sports where this a high risk of injury if something goes wrong such as motor racing or skydiving. The majority of groups will undertake this activity with a company who should have the appropriate processes in place. If your activity is an extreme sport you must complete an extreme sport notification. Deadline: 2 weeks MINIMUM before an activity Bar Crawls Bar crawls are considered high risk due to the amount of alcohol that students can drink in a short space of time. This can lead to risks that may not be present if the activity did not involve alcohol. If you are organising a bar crawl (more than 2 venues) then you must submit a Pub/Bar/Club notification. This form is then sent to the police, who may give advice or request changes. Deadline: 4 weeks MINIMUM before activity. Pub/Bar/Club event If your event is being held in a pub/bar/club (with only one or two venues) then you must complete a Pub/Bar/Club event notification. We would like to assess how much alcohol will be a part of your event. Just because its being held in a Bar/Pub/Club it doesn t mean that a lot of alcohol will be involved. But if it is, then we want to make sure you risk assess the activity properly. Deadline: 2 weeks MINIMUM before activity. Activity involving food Due to the risks that could happen if someone eats food that is not prepared properly or that they are allergic to, the university require a stall and food form to be completed if your group would like to distribute food on university grounds. This form is submitted to roombookings@guild.bham.ac.uk who sends it to the University s catering hygiene manager. The University then make a decision about whether you can bring the food onto campus. Deadline: 2 weeks MINIMUM before activity Volunteering with children or vulnerable adults Volunteering activities can produce a lot of risks due to legislation and good practice that groups involved in charity work must adhere to. If you are planning a volunteering activity then you must complete a volunteer notification form. You may also need to attend child protection/vulnerable adult training and complete a CRB form. If you have not organised a volunteering activity before then come and talk to Student Development who can advise you on what you need to do. Deadline: 1 weeks MINIMUM before activity

13 Activity that involves external speakers and/or film showings Page 13 If you are planning to invite an external speaker to talk at you activity or to organise a film showing, then you must complete a speaker request form and submit it to Student Development. The form will then be sent to the University who will let you know if security staff will be needed (at a cost to the group) and if the speaker/film showing can happen. This applies to anyone that is not a University staff member or student, and must also be completed for films or video clips Deadline: 2 weeks MINIMUM before activity Insurance The Guild s insurance policy will cover the majority of student group activity AS LONG AS A RISK ASSESSMENT AND OTHER RELE- VANT INFORMATION HAS BEEN SUBMITTED TO STUDENT DEVELOPMENT. For personal insurance cover you will need to take out a separate insurance policy. Our insurers INSIST ALL activities must be risk assessed to be covered by insurance. No risk assessment = No insurance. Media queries If an incident is serious enough, there is a chance it may be reported in the media. It is very important that if you are approached by the media about an incident your group was involved in, you DO NOT give them a statement. Unofficial statements from individuals other than Guild/University officials may affect proceedings if any legal action is taken against the Guild, the University and/or the student group committee members. Refer any media queries to Student Development and do not discuss any aspect of the incident with anyone who is not connected to the emergency services, the Guild and the University.

14 REPORTING INCIDENTS & ACCIDENTS Page 14 Incidents are events that cause harm, or could cause harm, to someone or something. These include direct accidents or dangerous events that could lead to an accident, and near misses. Why do I need to report incidents & accidents? Reporting incidents and near misses will help the Guild to create a safe, environment for students. Therefore, knowing the cause of incidents will help us put measures in place to stop it happening again. The Guild is also legally obliged to report accidents that occur on its premises. Examples of things you should report are: Minor injuries that require medical attention, whether that be a doctor, first aider or a first aid kit, such as cuts, sprains, burns and knocks. Major injuries that require formal medical attention or hospitalisation. Near misses where no on is hurt but it s a close call, such as a light falling from a ceiling. What to do if there is an incident? Act quickly, but act safely. Follow these procedures and your risk assessment. Make the area safe so that the incident can t happen again. Seal off the area to stop other people entering. Contact a First Aider if anyone needs first aid. Make sure any injured people are safe from further harm. (Don t move anyone who is unconscious or may have broken bones or back injuries, unless they are in immediate danger.) Tell us exactly what has happened. Even if an incident has not caused an injury, you must report it. Follow Guild/venue policy about what to do next. For example, you may have to make an entry in the accident book. Treat each and every accident seriously people s safety is at stake!

15 YOU NEED TO REPORT NEAR MISSES AND DANGEROUS INCIDENTS TOO! Page 15 A near miss is an accident waiting to happen, and constitutes any incident that did not, but could have, resulted in injury. For example, two vehicles passing in a narrow space almost collided. As there were no pedestrians in the area, there was space to avoid a collision. However, if people had been walking in the same area, there could have been a fatal accident. If you report such an incident, your employer may decide to separate pedestrians and vehicles, or to install a one-way system, to prevent the incident happening again. In this situation, the danger has been removed and a future accident may be prevented before someone is injured or killed. You can download the incident report form from our website The form should be completed and handed into Student Development no later than 24 hours after the incident. In the event of a serious incident Stop and think! Assess the situation. Stay calm. Do not become a victim yourself. Follow the control measures in your risk assessment Only attend to casualties if it is safe to do so. Ensure your members are safe and accounted for Gain all information that may be required by the Emergency Services such as names, location, what first aid has already been given, timescales of incident, medical conditions of people involved. Inform Student Development as soon as possible about the incident either

16 Pick & Mix Pick & Mix leaflets are available on a variety of topics, designed to assist you as thoroughly as possible with running your group or understanding the Guild of Students generally To find out more information, visit the Guild online: The Student Development department is located on the ground floor of the Guild of Students, and supports student groups, volunteering and training. Student Development Counter: The first port of call for any queries and for any administration regarding your group, volunteering or training. During holidays, we re open 12-3pm Mon-Fri, and our general Term-time opening hours are: 11am-5.30pm Monday - Thursday 11am-4.30pm - Fridays. The general student group area for committees is open 9am-9pm on weekdays and 10am-8pm at weekends, which you can use for committee meetings, checking s and organising your group. You have access to computers, a printer and photocopier, workspace and your pigeonholes. Disclaimer: The information in this leaflet only provides general guidance. The leaflet should not be regarded or relied upon as a complete or authoritative statement. University of Birmingham Guild of Students will not accept any liability for any claims or inconvenience as a result of information in this leaflet. studentgroups@guild.bham.ac.uk