Safety
Welcome to the Safety page!
This page is here to help you with general safety advice, pointers to where to go to for information, and how to contact me if you need help.
We aim to keep health and safety REAL
- R - realistic control measures
- E - Easy to understand risk assessments
- A - accessible information
- L - learn from accidents and any other adverse event
Realistic control measures
We all have a duty to ensure that whatever we do is conducted in a safe manner. This means that whatever we do whilst scouting, be it meetings, activities or camps/sleepovers, we have to ensure that everyone goes home in one piece. However, health and safety is not an excuse to stop fun, nor to prevent activities from going ahead. It's simply a set of rules and advice to make sure activities can be carried out without unnecessary risk and therefore minimize injuries or damage.
We want young people to have adventure and to learn about risk and how to manage it- after all, this is a skill for life.
There are a lot of resources to help you achieve this. The scout website has lots of information. You will find information under 'info for volunteers', then look under 'staying safe'.
If you need any help or guidance, please contact the Safety Advisor
Easy to understand risk assessments
Risk assessment is a process of looking at what you plan to do, identifying anything that might go wrong, and then deciding what needs to be put in place to stop it going wrong. Risk assessment can be really simple. It needs to be recorded - this can be a template, but it can be on your phone, or in a list. The important bit is that it is communicated to other leaders and helpers, so that they understand what might go wrong and what they are expected to do, or not do, the equipment they may need with them, etc.
One way of remembering how to conduct a risk assessment is using the vowels:
- A - Activity
- E - Environment
- I - Individual
- O - Oh my goodness, what could go wrong?
- U - What are you going to do about it?
Have a look at VOWELS.docx in the Downloads for more information.
Accessible information
In the Downloads section below you will find templates for risk assessments, presentations that have been given on risk assessment, and additional information. There is also information on the scout website (link)
If you need further information or help, please contact the Safety Advisor
Learn from accidents and other adverse events
If an accident occurs it is important that we learn from the situation and stop it happening again. This is one reason why certain accidents are reported to HQ. The Purple card contains all the information you need on what to report and how. There is a copy in the Downloads section, and also on the scout website.
An accident that has happened in your group may also happen elsewhere. By looking into what went wrong and why, what could be done differently, and then sharing this information, could prevent others from getting hurt as well.
If you have a near miss - where something goes wrong but no one was hurt - this also is an opportunity to look into why it went wrong and what needs to be done to prevent it happening again. By sharing this with others, it could stop something other people getting hurt.
You should share accident and near miss information with your Group and DC. They can then share this at meetings so we can spread the word and learn from any adverse event.
Guidance on Supervision and free time has been updated and is available in the downloads or on the Scout website.