Topic: How do I do a Risk Assessment?

[Squash64]

We have been asked by a local school who are planning a visit if we have a risk assessment.

Can anyone tell me if they have done one for their site, and what this involves please?

[Dandytown]

Make a list of potential hazards in one column andf then in another list was has been or what can be done to minimise risk to people.

Not a fun task

[grawrc]

Most risk assessments weigh the possibility of something against its likelihood, so it is possible that someone could for example put a fork through their foot, get tetanus and die but the likelihood of its happening is low so it doesn't require anything beyond normal supervision. More likely are minor injuries. Anyway they are the ones doing the visit so they should be doing the risk assessment not you.

When I took groups of kids abroad I did the risk assessment - not all the places we visited.

[Unwashed]

It's just a case of identifying the hazards and then guestimating both how likely they are and how severe the harm would be, and then combining the liklihood and severity to get the risk.  Here's a simple way to do it:  Rate the liklihood of the thing happening on a scale of unlikely=1, possible=2, likely=3, and the severity of the harm on a scale of sob=1, wah=2, arrgh!=3.  The measurement of the risk is the product of liklihood and severity, and if it's over 5 you do something about it.

Like this:

Risk Assessment for a School Visit

Hazard                               Liklihood                Harm                     Severity                  Risk
Kid falls into water butt            possible=2               Kid drowns               Arrgh!=3                  2x3=6

The risk is 6 which is too high and it tells you that there's a possibility of a very severe accident and you need to do something about it.  So if you have uncovered water butts on site then you need to have covers made for them.  Then assess the risk again until you get the score below 5

Do this for all the hazards you can think of, for example kids eating some poisonous plant, poking their eye out on a garden cane, drinking pesticide, getting a clip round the ear for walking on a grumpus' plot, and of course getting buggered by the local perv.  If you can't reduce all of the risks below 5 then the risk to the children is too high and can't go ahead.

It's a useful exercise because it spots genuine problems that common sense appears to miss, and it does prevent accidents.  It's also useful to be able to demonstrate that the health and safety of the site has been managed.

[Dandytown]

If the kids were on my plot, say some time in the summer, possible risks might be having a giant pumpkin roll on and squash  someone  :)

[saddad]

As already said Betty... they should be doing it. For Open days etcetera you should have one...  :-X

[djbrenton]

Of course they could be thinking the other way. As in, our school is full of little horrors, what risk would they pose to the allotments.

[tonybloke]

Hiya Betty!!
have a look on here
http://www.farmgarden.org.uk/ari/

there's everything you need there
rgds, Tony

[Unwashed]

The landlord, and for that matter the individual plot holders, owe a duty of care to visitors, invited or otherwise (Occupier's Liability Act 1984) so if there was an accident the site management could be sued for negliagence, and a formal risk assessment would go some considerable way in mitigating any claim.  But it's common sense really isn't it, you want your site to be safe for visitors don't you?  The school will certainly want to do it's own risk assessment, but that's in addition to, and not in stead of.

[Trevor_D]

We don't have a formal risk assessment document as such, although our site manager - an ex-policeman - did a health & safety overview last year. And we do have public liability insurance.

But when we have school parties, we always get the teachers along first and walk them around pointing out potential dangers. And when the children arrive, we do lay down some basic ground-rules (Keep to paths, don't run, etc).

[Squash64]

Thank you for all the replies (and Unwashed for making me laugh)

I think the best thing would be for us to do one, and also to invite the teachers to come along before the day to do their own.

It doesn't give us much time though, they want to come next Tuesday.

[Squash64]

I've printed the forms from the ARI site (thanks Tony) but I've just had a thought - is the risk assessment just for the public areas on the site, or are we supposed to go around every plot? It's going to take hours if it's every plot.

[tonybloke]

normally, risk assessments should be on all of the public areas.
tenants should be encouraged to do their own risk assessment !!


Karen will help with this on Saturday, don't forget to say 'Hello' from Me.  ;)

[Unwashed]

In general the Council isn't liable for accidents on plots because it's the tenant that owes the duty of care, but from the visitor's point of view they'd like to be confident that the risks of the site as a whole had been managed.  To be honest it's a bit of a pickle because most of the dangers like broken glass for example are going to be on plots and to a large extent there's nothing the landlord can do about it.

But the short answer is that for a school visit the risk assessment should include the plots as well as the common areas.  But it's not so very difficult because most of the hazards are generic, like glass, up-turned rakes, pokey sticks, pesticides, ponds, etc.

[pumkinlover]

Thanks for the info. in this shed.
I was asked recently if the local school could come and visit and we did what was suggested. Just had the children come this morning and it went really well.
The children looked at my chickens, went to quietly see one sat in the brood box. Then they went and had a look round the plot and got the chance to stroke a little bantam.  Interestingly a quick handpoll vote suggested 1/3 rd of the children like sprouts!!!