PTA people - do you carry out risk assessments?

lexuslass

Hi..as the title says really...

Do you carry out risk assessments before each event?

Particularly, the question is aimed if the events are held in the school grounds? X

Brassedoff

lexuslass wrote: »

Hi..as the title says really...

Do you carry out risk assessments before each event?

Particularly, the question is aimed if the events are held in the school grounds? X

As a Chartered Member of the Institution of Occupational Safety & Health, I would say that anyone who carries out a risk assessment must be competent to do so. You should also find that the School themselves would normally require one. If you are unsure and you consider your activity has a higher set of risks than what you would consider normal, ask the School if they can get their qualified person to do it for you. You are, after all raising money for the organisation.

Saved you £60-90

Wywth

lexuslass wrote: »

Hi..as the title says really...

Do you carry out risk assessments before each event?

Particularly, the question is aimed if the events are held in the school grounds? X

To comply with Health & Safety legislation, a risk assessment should be conducted before any event you arrange (whether or not on school grounds).

Of course, if you held say a rummage sale last year, and plan to repeat one this year, then you can probably use the same risk assessment.
Check it over to ensure it still applies, and update it with any lessons learned from last years event (if any)

gingerdad

I prefer dynamic risk assessments, but most risk assessments i've come across are really a waste of time, common sense should rule the day.

Savvy_Sue

gingerdad wrote: »

I prefer dynamic risk assessments, but most risk assessments i've come across are really a waste of time, common sense should rule the day.

Of course there's a lot of common sense in a risk assessment, but equally common sense isn't THAT common!

You look at what might happen, how bad it would be if it did happen, and how likely it is to happen. Then you work out how much effort to put into making sure it doesn't happen.

Clearly a child being injured on the bouncy castle is a definite possibility, but you can reduce the risks by not letting 2 year olds on with 12 year olds, and not letting on too many children at a time.

Again, if you're doing a BBQ, then there's a serious risk of injury if one of the gas bottles blows up. So you keep any empty and spare gas bottles somewhere else. And you make sure that children can't push through to the hot bit.

And so on ...

ntb1

All common sense. If people can't see that than maybe they shouldn't be running activities.

Wywth

ntb1 wrote: »

All common sense. If people can't see that than maybe they shouldn't be running activities.

As Donald Rumsfeld said:

"...As we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know."

If you write down the known knowns, and the known unknowns in a risk assessment, then others can see later what actions (if any) you put in place for the known knowns and the known unknowns and perhaps highlight the unknown unknowns you failed to consider (and whether or not you reasonably should have known them)

ntb1

Wywth wrote: »

As Donald Rumsfeld said:

"...As we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know."

If you write down the known knowns, and the known unknowns in a risk assessment, then others can see later what actions (if any) you put in place for the known knowns and the known unknowns and perhaps highlight the unknown unknowns you failed to consider (and whether or not you reasonably should have known them)

don't get me wrong i do them for things but mostly the same one with some wording changed but they are a total waste of time. It just creates a paper trail to keep someone in a pointless job.

Savvy_Sue

ntb1 wrote: »

don't get me wrong i do them for things but mostly the same one with some wording changed but they are a total waste of time. It just creates a paper trail to keep someone in a pointless job.

Right up until the point when something goes wrong, and your insurance company want to know what you'd done to mitigate the risks of whatever it was ...

ntb1

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

Right up until the point when something goes wrong, and your insurance company want to know what you'd done to mitigate the risks of whatever it was ...

Good thing our audit trail is second to none - both in terms of the peoples qualifications and risk assessments, but when most of ours end in the risk of death being high, they need to be, but prefer dynamic ones as they live and grown with the issues. (still hate paperwork and are pointless for lots of things they are written for but we live in an H&S, PC !!!!!!!! world).

And don't get me going on the jokes that are CRB's/DBS - again takes away all the comman sense and i believe exposes people to more risk.

lexuslass

Thank you for your replies! All noted! Sorry for the delay!

We had a change of committee this year (new chair, secretary and treasurer {me!}) and have ran everything as has always been done! Had an incident when someone slipped on the grass which of course had to be reported and we were asked about our risk assessment!!!

We phoned the PTA people who were so helpful! We've also found out that we shouldn't be borrowing a BBQ (we had absolutely no idea!!!).. We've always borrowed the same BBQ at every event (very reputable family within the village who have never had a problem with us using it and have always really kindly never charged us for the gas!) of course we've always taken sensible precautions where the children are concerned! Now looks like we have to purchase one out of the PTA fund. Same with the bouncy castle (had since been donated to us, so that is ours to use now).

We are a small village school (50 kids) so fundraising is really tough!

One thing I've thought of this evening is that we usually get people making cakes for events. Always goes down really well... There must be some regulations on this surely?

Any info or advice will be welcomed x