A risk assessment is a task that a business completes, which entails the listing the likelihood, severity and the possibility of all negative events that could occur during the overall event. As well as listing the risk, possibility and severity of the risk, measures of control must also be provided, so the staff present at the event are both safe and know what to do incase of an accident or emergency.
Not only is a risk assessment an important and logical task to undertake, but also two laws state that a risk assessment is a compulsory task when holding an event. These two laws are the ‘Health and Safety at Work Regulations Act 1999’ and the ‘Health and Safety and Work Act 1974’.
An effective risk assessment should cover all possible risks of an event, no matter how feasible the risk is, even if it is unlikely, it should be covered in case of the worst, a risk assessment will cover both general risks and risks that are specific to the event itself, such as if there is a stage, risks that involve a stage will be included, whereas those risks would not be included on the risk assessment if a stage was not involved in the event. For our group we decided to conduct 3 different risk assessments, one each, and then we would collaborate at the end to see if some of us included risks that other did not, then we would create one joint risk assessment that would include all the risks that were included in all of the individual risk assessments. We believed that this would help in covering all possible risks as three minds are at use rather than one. A risk assessment is also never finished, if one of the group members thought of a possible risk at any time, then we would add it to the risk assessment.
There are a set of key principles that should be covered in every risk assessment, a template style set of principles that are applicable to every risk assessment, there are 5 of these principles and when a business or organisation is conducting a risk assessment, these principles come into play when a person is within an area of potential risks, these are:
- Identify all possible risks
- Identify who the risks apply to
- Analyse the severity and possibility of the risk happening
- Document the findings of the assessment
- Have external bodies review the assessment before the event
Principle 1 (Identify all possible risks):
This principle entails the coordinators of an event inspecting the venue where the event is being held and applying all possible risks to the assessment, during this inspection, it is key that the coordinators are very thorough and make sure not to miss out any potential dangers, as otherwise the whole assessment can be rendered not useful. Not only should the blank venue itself be inspected, but any activities that are being performed in the event should also be considered.
Principle 2 (Identify who the risks apply to):
The principle consists of the event coordinators listing all types of people that will be attending the event and allocating each group of people to the risk that applies to them, as not all risks will apply to all people, this is so the control measures can be specific to a group of people, an example of this could be disabled people may be open to risks that would not affect fully abled people, such as suitable access areas. All possible risks should be to be applied to each group as far as possible so that the control measures are as effective as possible.
Principle 3 (Analyse the severity and possibility of the risk happening):
For a risk assessment to be as effective as possible, once a business or the coordinators has a full list of risks (Principle 1), they should rate the likelihood of each risk happening and the severity of the risk, for example, slips and trips would not be rated highly in terms of severity in comparison to photosensitive epileptic fits. The risks with high severity and high possibility should be the risks that are spent most time being prevented and prepared for, and the risks with low severity and low possibility should not be prioritised but still prepared for.
Principle 4 (Document the findings of the assessment):
The fourth principle of the creation of the risk assessment is for the event coordinators to document the findings of their primary risk assessment, this is so no possible risks are lost or any of the ratings and applications of the risk assessment are lost, it should also be kept on file for the event and post event for analysis of the event. Not only is this principle important so that none of the identified risks are forgotten about, but it is necessary for the completion of the fifth and final principle, as without a documented risk assessment it will not be able to be reviewed by external bodies that are related to health and safety.
Principle 5 (Have external bodies review the assessment before the event):
The final step in creating an effective risk assessment is to have the overall assessment reviewed by external bodies, in this context, an external body means a member of health and safety that is not part of the group organising the event. For our external inspector, we are using the Head of Year 7, as he is very familiar with risk assessments for year 7 students and is also very familiar with risk assessments for parties and the jubilee hall, so he will be able to inform us if the risk assessment is effective, and this inspection will be based on years of experience, so will be very valuable to the group.
Not only is a risk assessment an important and logical task to undertake, but also two laws state that a risk assessment is a compulsory task when holding an event. These two laws are the ‘Health and Safety at Work Regulations Act 1999’ and the ‘Health and Safety and Work Act 1974’.
An effective risk assessment should cover all possible risks of an event, no matter how feasible the risk is, even if it is unlikely, it should be covered in case of the worst, a risk assessment will cover both general risks and risks that are specific to the event itself, such as if there is a stage, risks that involve a stage will be included, whereas those risks would not be included on the risk assessment if a stage was not involved in the event. For our group we decided to conduct 3 different risk assessments, one each, and then we would collaborate at the end to see if some of us included risks that other did not, then we would create one joint risk assessment that would include all the risks that were included in all of the individual risk assessments. We believed that this would help in covering all possible risks as three minds are at use rather than one. A risk assessment is also never finished, if one of the group members thought of a possible risk at any time, then we would add it to the risk assessment.
There are a set of key principles that should be covered in every risk assessment, a template style set of principles that are applicable to every risk assessment, there are 5 of these principles and when a business or organisation is conducting a risk assessment, these principles come into play when a person is within an area of potential risks, these are:
- Identify all possible risks
- Identify who the risks apply to
- Analyse the severity and possibility of the risk happening
- Document the findings of the assessment
- Have external bodies review the assessment before the event
Principle 1 (Identify all possible risks):
This principle entails the coordinators of an event inspecting the venue where the event is being held and applying all possible risks to the assessment, during this inspection, it is key that the coordinators are very thorough and make sure not to miss out any potential dangers, as otherwise the whole assessment can be rendered not useful. Not only should the blank venue itself be inspected, but any activities that are being performed in the event should also be considered.
Principle 2 (Identify who the risks apply to):
The principle consists of the event coordinators listing all types of people that will be attending the event and allocating each group of people to the risk that applies to them, as not all risks will apply to all people, this is so the control measures can be specific to a group of people, an example of this could be disabled people may be open to risks that would not affect fully abled people, such as suitable access areas. All possible risks should be to be applied to each group as far as possible so that the control measures are as effective as possible.
Principle 3 (Analyse the severity and possibility of the risk happening):
For a risk assessment to be as effective as possible, once a business or the coordinators has a full list of risks (Principle 1), they should rate the likelihood of each risk happening and the severity of the risk, for example, slips and trips would not be rated highly in terms of severity in comparison to photosensitive epileptic fits. The risks with high severity and high possibility should be the risks that are spent most time being prevented and prepared for, and the risks with low severity and low possibility should not be prioritised but still prepared for.
Principle 4 (Document the findings of the assessment):
The fourth principle of the creation of the risk assessment is for the event coordinators to document the findings of their primary risk assessment, this is so no possible risks are lost or any of the ratings and applications of the risk assessment are lost, it should also be kept on file for the event and post event for analysis of the event. Not only is this principle important so that none of the identified risks are forgotten about, but it is necessary for the completion of the fifth and final principle, as without a documented risk assessment it will not be able to be reviewed by external bodies that are related to health and safety.
Principle 5 (Have external bodies review the assessment before the event):
The final step in creating an effective risk assessment is to have the overall assessment reviewed by external bodies, in this context, an external body means a member of health and safety that is not part of the group organising the event. For our external inspector, we are using the Head of Year 7, as he is very familiar with risk assessments for year 7 students and is also very familiar with risk assessments for parties and the jubilee hall, so he will be able to inform us if the risk assessment is effective, and this inspection will be based on years of experience, so will be very valuable to the group.