How To - Risk Assessments Guide
What is a risk assessment and why does my activity need one?
Where your Core Activity Risk Assessment covers your regular activity as outlined in your constitution, we know that clubs and societies do so much more than this!
Each of these additional activities require an activity proposal submission, attaching a specific risk assessment that covers the relevant hazards linked with this activity.
This risk assessment is a legal requirement, ensuring that all clubs and societies working within Imperial College Union help us meet the regulations laid out in the Management of Health & Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
You can download the Activity Proposal Risk Assessment Template here.
Assessing Risk: What does this mean?
We conduct informal risk assessments in our daily lives, making judgements on whether it is safe to complete tasks and what steps we might take to avoid harm to the health or safety of ourselves and others.
e.g. You are leaving your house and it is raining heavily. Before leaving, you may consider how heavy the rain is, whether the ground is stable, uneven or flooded – is it safe to leave? Would a coat be needed? Should you take an umbrella?
A risk assessment looks at what may cause harm and how likely or severe the harm may be; the assessment then explores reasonable precautions to reduce the risk of harm.
Take a look at these 5 simple steps to completing a risk assessment:
Step 1: Identify the hazards
A hazard is anything with the potential to cause harm.
- Identify which elements of your activity are potential hazards.
- Think about the activities which will be taking place, the space you will be using and the people involved or impacted.
- Use your activity description to help you. Hazards should be identified from the beginning of event set up to the end of pack down. For trips, all coordinated travel should be considered too.
Step 2: Evaluate the risk
Risk is the measure of how likely a hazard is to cause harm and how severe this harm may be.
- Per hazard, you will need to calculate the risk rating using the risk matrix below.
- The risk rating is Severity x Probability.
The rating is impacted by the type of activity, where it is taking place, who is involved, how many people are involved and how frequently it is taking place.
Who may be harmed
Think about all the possible people who would be exposed to your activity.
The level of risk is impacted by:
- Under 18s
- Vulnerable adults
- Those with specific accessibility needs
- Pregnant people
A hazard may impact them differently and raise the probability or severity of harm. You may also need to consider if the hazard should be controlled differently in these cases.
Step 3: Control measures
Control measures are actions or procedures put in place to reduce the risk of harm occurring as a result of each hazard.
- The most effective way of reducing risk is to remove the hazard! Always do this where possible. After considering this, consider the next most effective method of harm reduction.
The graphic below explains the process of identifying effective actions to minimize harm. If you follow this process per hazard, you should be able to apply the most effective or reasonable control measures.
- Make sure that control measures are relevant to your activity.
- Actions should be reasonably practicable – only apply controls which are needed for the level of risk and that are reasonably able to be implemented.
TIP: PPE should be considered after all other options or in addition to other methods of managing risk as it is only effective in protecting the individual who is using it.
For more tips and information about control measures, you can read our Control Measures article.
Step 4: Re-evaluate the risk
The level of risk should be re-assessed once controls are in place.
- Make sure you have applied the most effective controls to determine an accurate minimum revised risk score.
- Depending on how the risk has been managed and the type of activity, the severity or the likelihood may reduce but not always both.
- E.g. PPE may reduce the severity of an injury to the person wearing it but may not impact the probability of harm occurring.
- Faulty equipment for some high-risk activities should be checked and audited to reduce the likelihood of this causing an injury, but the severity of an injury may remain SEVERE or FATAL.
TIP: New risk ratings should be realistic. Frequent use of 1s is often an underestimation. If the activity is higher risk by nature or due to scale, for example, your revised risk may still be SERIOUS/POSSIBLE or MAJOR/UNLIKELY.
Step 5: Any other action?
- If there are further actions agreed or actions managed by a facility or instructor, for example, these can be recorded in further controls.
- If steps need to be completed before the event to limit harm, make sure you set a date to complete these controls and test them.
- Who is responsible?
- Share the risk assessment with anyone named!
Emergency Actions
This should detail a step-by-step process of what you would do in case of an emergency including:
- Fire safety
- Evacuation procedures
- First Aid provision
- Security
- Local emergency facilities and contact numbers (Trips/Off campus activity)
On South Kensington Campus, Security are first aid responders and will escalate to emergency services if needed. You can call Security on 020 75891000 from any phone or dial 4444 from any internal handset.
What if I'm not on campus?
- What are the venue’s emergency procedures? You can ask for their risk assessment prior to the event.
- Does the venue or event have designated first aiders?
- Local emergency services and contact numbers.
- What to do in remote areas if applicable.
- How you will be communicating the evacuation procedure to attendees and when.
TIP: Named first aiders from your committee must be willing volunteers and aware of their role. They should have a certified First Aid qualification. Other life support trainings (e.g. BLS) are not a replacement for a First Aid certificate.
TIP: Event attendees cannot be named as first aiders as they are attending the activity not in their capacity as a first aider and should be allowed to enjoy the activity without this responsibility!
Monitor and Review
This section for you to record how often the risk assessment will be reviewed. Depending on the frequency of your activity, this will vary.
- You should consistently check control measures effectiveness when activity is repeated.
- If you have any accidents or near misses, you need to review you RA immediately and assess what you can do to avoid the same incident happening again.
Specialist Training Record
This is where you can record a list of the trained individuals responsible for running or facilitating your activity, e.g. first aiders, coaches, instructors, teachers or any committee members that have relevant training.
TIP: If you mentioned a trained or competent person as part of your activity description, or in any of your controls, we would expect to see the details of their training.
Glossary of Terms
Risk - the measure of how likely a hazard is to cause harm depending on how it is controlled and how severe the harm would be
Hazard - anything with the potential to cause harm (an injury or ill health)
Control measure - action or procedure to reduce the risk or remove the hazard
Reasonably practicable - the balance of effectively managing the risk with the cost, time and resource needed to control it
Accident - unplanned or uncontrolled event with the potential to cause injury, damage or other loss
Near miss - an accident that did not cause injury, damage or other loss- should be investigated to prevent future serious accidents
Competent person - someone who has sufficient training and experience or knowledge to advise on, assist or undertake a task
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