Active Risk Management Services Ltd

– why they are important

PERSONALLY - It does not matter how expert you are, or how diligently you carried out those
checks on equipment or facilities, if you don’t make sure that the information you found out is
written down; that any subsequent actions or decision on what, of what not to do; are recorded,
you will not be able to show that your have acted appropriately or reasonably.
It is not just making sure that your line manager can see that you are carrying out your
responsibilities, you may, in the case of an accident, be asked by a court to substantiate your
actions either on behalf of your employer or personally to confirm that you were not negligent
in carrying out your duties. This could affect your employment and future career. As the users
of the facilities are often or in the main children, courts can take a stricter view of the duty of
care by operators than if they were adults. Major city authorities have lost expensive legal
cases, not because the necessary checks were not carried out, but because when it came to
court, they could not prove that the tasks were undertaken.

LEGALLY – Importantly, it needs to be clearly understood that this is not just a matter of self
protection, to ensure that you and your career do not personally suffer, because it was believed
that you did not carry out your duties. There are legal Statutes requiring certain actions to be
undertaken. Courts, through these laws, can impose severe fines and in extreme cases a term
of imprisonment. In addition there are civil laws, relating to the Torts of Negligence, that
enable a person to sue for compensation for damage or injury resulting from negligence.
The following 15 areas of legislation are the main Acts of Parliament and Statutory Regulations
and demonstrate the substantial legislation that relates to sports, recreation and children’s
play activities:

-The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974
-The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1992
-The RIDDOR Regulations 1995
-The Workplace (Health, Safety & Welfare Regulations 1992
-The Occupiers Liability Acts 1957 & 1984
-The Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977
-The Disability Discrimination Act 1995
-The Construction (Design & Management) Regulations 1994

-Environmental Protection Act 1990
-The Litter (Animal Droppings) Order 1991
-Dangerous Dogs Act 1991
-Dogs (Fouling of Land) Act 1996
-Trades Description Act 1968
-Consumer Protection Act 1987
General Product Safety Regulations 1994 (Implemented 1 October 2005).

INSURANCE - What is also not often appreciated is that a call on your organisation’s insurance
cover may be refused by the insurer if they consider that legislative or reasonable codes of
conduct have not been followed or applied. Without insurance your organisation would not be
able to continue to operate. An insurer may also select to impose, within its insurance policy,
conditions or additional requirements and increase its insurance premium if it considers that
your organisation is not currently insurable. It should be noted that if you are refused
insurance by one company it can be extremely difficult to obtain alternative insurance.

 

RISK ASSESSMENT – Crucially under the implementing regulations of the Health & Safety at
Work Act 1974 there is a legislative requirement to be proactive and not reactive and to carry
out regular risk assessments. Legally, it is not permissible to wait for an accident to occur and
then to carry out the necessary work; it is a legal requirement to ensure the safety of facilities
by carrying out regular risk assessments and to make necessary adjustments to ensure that the
facilities are safe for use. It is advised that a risk assessment process is undertaken for every
activity or problem found. This must be recorded. It will be seen that our reports carefully
provide a detailed risk assessment and a risk level advising on the appropriateness of the item
or facility to continue in use and indicating time period for action should there be a problem.
It is important to understand that there is a risk in everything that we do, for example the
latest official accident data (HASS 2002) shows that in the home the second highest category
of accident are those resulting from difficulties with clothing and footwear (national estimate
695,663 accidents). This does not mean however that we need to stop wearing clothes or
shoes! Using the advice of the Health and Safety Executive we utilise a professionally
accepted methodology. We urge caution however not to utilise simplistic approaches such as
low, medium and high risk, these provide insufficient assessment protection should there be
ensuing difficulties, they are considered to be just too much of a guess and lack
professionalism.

MAKING A RISK ASSESSMENT - In carrying out a risk assessment there are two crucial
factors that need to be assessed, scored and recorded. Firstly is how severe the injury would
be, this is given a score of 1 to 5. Secondly how likely it is that an accident would occur
(importantly not how likely it is that that level of injury would occur), this is given a score of 1
to 5.

These two scores are then multiplied together to give a Risk Priority Level that provides a
guide to operators of facilities on which items should be sorted out first with initiative time
scales. Under the Regulations you as the operator are the body responsible for your facilities
whilst we as the inspection agency, with our specialist competencies, are there to assist you
with our additional areas of expertise. As with everything local knowledge is most important and
if you consider that the severity or likelihood of the accident should be adjusted then please
adjust and record it.

ASSESSING THE SEVERITY OF INJURY – how severe would the injury be, 1 is the lowest
severity and 5 is the highest severity.
1 = No injury
2 = Only a slight injury such as minor cuts or bruises needing first aid by parents or nursing
staff
3 = Visit to the doctor or hospital is necessary
4 = Significant injury such as concussion or bone breakages
5 = Most serious injury such as loss of a body part, permanent non repairable damage or death

ASSESSING THE LIKELYHOOD OF THE ACCIDENT HAPPENING – how likely is it that an
accident would occur (importantly not how likely it is that that level of injury would occur), 1 is
the lowest likelyhood and 5 is the highest likelihood.
1 = Not at all likely
2 = Unlikely but it could happen for example something being deliberately ignored by the user
that they would recognise as hazardous; such as a player chasing a ball over the white line into a
patch of brambles that are a significant distance away
3 = Likely to happen but only if factors that the user has no control over occur; such as a worn
locking pin on a trampoline working loose during usage
4 = Very likely to happen and the user would not be able to prevent it happening; such as
tripping over a substantial rabbit scrape located in the penalty box of a football goal
5 = It is certain to happen, maybe not today but it will occour

RISK PRIORITY LEVEL – considering the result of the Severity multiplied by the Likelihood

1 to 6 = Low; use as normal, all items have some level of risk, it is not possible to say there is
zero risk.
7 to 9 = Medium; use as normal, ensure that a detailed risk assessment on the problem part is
undertaken on an annual basis or more frequently if there is a significant change in its usage
pattern. Replacement parts, modifications or repairs are required; these should be carried out
when finance becomes available and before new equipment is purchased to avoid the permanent
continuance of an item with a recognised risk. It should be understood that the Health and
Safety Inspectorate, may and have in the past, considered that the overall budget of the
operator be made available and not just the allocated budget of a specific section.
10 to 16 = High; use as normal checking the problem area daily/on each assembly/prior to use
and ascertain whether the problem can be made good within a reasonable time period (normally
considered by the Health and Safety Inspectorate to be 3 months). If on assessment, parts,
repairs or finance is not available to ensure that the problem is rectified within 3 months, the
item’s risk priority level should be increased to Immediate and the item removed from use
straight away. It should be placed in secure storage area or disposed of. It should not
continue in use for the remaining period of the 3 months.
20 to 25 = Immediate; the item should be removed or secured from use straight away and not
used again until the problem has been rectified, if this is not possible or finance is not available
the item should be removed and placed in secure storage or disposed of.

RISK MANAGEMENT – It is most important that it is recognised that life involves day to day
hour to hour risk assessment that we all undertake as part of our normal lifestyle. That dash
we take across the busy road to the paper shop is fraught with split second risk assessments
that we don’t record or probably even register in our mind. However in the litigious society we
live within, especially where we are responsible for others and in particularly children, we need
to both undertake and record our risk assessments. The majority of sporting and play
activities by their nature and rules of the game involve the taking of risks. What is required of
us, as enabling or supervising adults, is to manage the level of risk so that users are not
exposed to unacceptable risk of death or serious injury. We recommend the national Play
Safety Forum’s leaflet ‘Managing risk in play provision’ on this subject which is available through
the Children’s Play Council on 020 7843,6016 or by emailing cpc@ncb.org.uk

 

Active Risk Management Services Ltd hold considerable more detail on their Risk Assessment system, which will be provided on request to customers.