Health & Safety

Risk Assessment Template

First Aid Kit Contents

Activities Emergency Procedure

Insurance Overview

Safe Practice Policy

Risk Assessments

"Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing."

Risk assessments are legal documents required under Health and Safety law. This form must be completed for any club or society activity you do, whether it be a regular sports fixture or a one off trip to Alton Towers.

There are 2 main types of risk assessment required. If your club or society hold a regular event such as playing hockey once a week all year, you can do a generic risk assessment for the whole year, adding to it should any incident occur. If you are holding a one-off event, you must fill out a form just for that activity.

The phrase "Risk Assessment" is likely to send most students running to the hills as it sounds complicated and intimidating or on the flip side because it means writing down the obvious which may seem like a waste of time.

They are simply a demonstration that you have considered all the possible risks relating to your activity. It shows you have been pro-active in putting controls in place to minimise the risk to the health and safety of all participants in the activity and anyone that may be in the vicinity of the activity taking place.

It helps to demonstrates that a duty of care has been taken to protect all participants and others involved.

"Duty of care is a legal obligation imposed on an individual requiring that they adhere to a standard of reasonable care while performing any acts that could foreseeably harm others."

Getting Started

What is a hazard? A hazard is something that has the potential to cause harm.

What is a risk? A risk is the likelihood of harm occurring from the hazard.

All activities ran by student groups have risks. This guide is here to help you start assessing factors relating to your activity that could cause harm to someone.

It is not a means of shirking your responsibility as a committee member when it comes to the health and safety of your participants. Health and Safety law is some of the most stringent; in standing for a committee position, you have assumed responsibility for the Health and Safety of all of your participants taking part in activities. This cannot be taken lightly; you must be vigilant and make sure all participants are aware of the health and safety implications before partaking in your activity, and what they need to do in order to avoid the risk of harm.

Legal liability needs to prove:

• A lack of duty of care (as above)
• Negligence (stopped by careful and sensible risk assessments)

Despite all your best planning accidents still happen.

We want you to maximise the fun you have on an event whilst being safe. Knowing how to respond to these situations is important. The reporting of any near misses is also important as it helps others to plan and prepare to avoid any possible dangers in the future.

Notification of an incident or near miss should be made using the Incident Report Form. On any trip or event you should have an incident report form in your possession - including in your first aid kit. Copies of the form can be found on the 3rd floor of the Students' Union.

The findings from these reports will be used to place more appropriate precautions in an activity, to prevent harm occurring again. These are also recorded in the risk assessment review.

Officers: Make sure procedures exist.

Committee: Follow procedures.

Group Leaders Do what procedure says.

Members/Students Behave responsibly.

How To Risk Assess

Step 1: Look for the hazards.

Break your event down into individual activities. Look for what could cause harm and what could go wrong.

Step 2: Decide who might be harmed and how.

Don’t forget new members/volunteers, members of the public, people with disabilities, vulnerable people etc. Describe how the injury could happen and the type of injury that could occur.

Step 3: Evaluate the risks and decide whether the existing precautions are adequate or whether more should be done.

Consider how likely it is that each hazard might cause harm. Decide whether the risk is very likely to happen, not likely to happen or if it is possible.

Consider the consequences of the hazard. How sever are its implications if it does occur?

Identify further control measures and steps to take to reduce the risk of the hazard happening if it is appropriate.

Also identify what action you will take if the hazard does occur?

Step 4: Record your findings.

Record your findings on the Risk Assessment sheet (Available from the Campus groups Website or from the Student Activities Safety Coordinator). Share your results with members of your group so that they too become aware of the risks involved with your activity.

Step 5: Review your assessment and revise it if necessary.

Reviewing risk assessments on a regular basis helps to ensure that a consistent high standard of safe practice is followed. There will be occasions where they need revising, in particularly due to a change in circumstance.

Incident report forms are very important for completion and are used for review, as they identify how an injury occurred so that a reasonable and practical measures can be investigated to prevent the injury occurring again.

You should be able to show that s proper check was made, you asked who might be affected, you dealt with the obvious significant hazards, taking into account who could be involved and the precautions are reasonable, practicable and the remaining risk is low.

A template for completing a risk assessment for your club or society is available from the Student Activities Safety Coordinator based on the 3rd floor in the Students' Union. If any further advice is required or you are unsure of what this document entails, please come in and have a chat, email me or phone me - Ioan Rhys Evans, 02920 781437.