To ensure we are following our legal obligations with Health & Safety, every Student Group event and activity must have a Risk Assessment attached to it. We will not be able to approve your event/activity without a valid Risk Assessment.
What is a risk assessment?
A Risk Assessment is the process of identifying what hazards could potentially exist or appear during your events, and how likely they are to cause harm to those attending your events. Once you’ve identified these possible threats, you can identify measures that will help you reduce any potential hazards, and protect your members and everyone attending your events.
How to fill in a risk assessment?
- Section 1 - Identify the Hazards
This first section can help you give you an idea of what to look out for. The best way to identify these hazards is by understanding what kind of activities you are planning to do, where you want to host these, and who will be coming along. Don’t forget to tick the boxes of the hazards you find!
We recommend you also use our Event Safety Checklist, as it aims to help you identify potential risks that may be present at your event. - Section 1.2 - Fill out the Hazards & Measures
After identifying what potential hazards you could face at your events, it’s time to identify why these are dangerous, who could be at risk, and what measures you can put in place in order to protect your attendees. When explaining both the hazards and the measures, be as detailed and as thorough as possible. - You will see that we've already listed some hazards in the template; these are hazards that will most likely be present at your event. Please list all the control measures for these hazards; if you think one of them won't be present at your event, write "N/A" and explain why it won't present a risk at your event.
We recommend you re-visit your Health & Safety Training if you are unsure of how to fill this out. Please reach out to us if you need any extra support and we’ll be more than happy to help you!
Example:
So let's say, for example, your group is going ice skating. One of the main risks that you should think about is what if a person slips due to the ice, lack of experience, improper equipment, etc. This could potentially lead to quite severe injuries.
In our document we’d write:
- The risk: Slips, trips & falls - Improper equipment and/or lack of experience would not allow attendees to skate safely and therefore could lead to a severe injury.
- Who's at risk: In this example, the people skating would be at risk, as well as those around them.
- Control measures: Getting people that are not that confident in their skills to stay near the border, adding balance aids for people with no experience, having a suitable instructor to help ensure correct technique is in place, etc.
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