Duty of Care

What is a duty of care?

• A Duty of Care is that which requires us to ensure the consequences of our acts or omissions do not give rise to a foreseeable risk of injury to any other person.

Why bother?• So less people are at the risk being harmed or injured

• The law says you have to

• You’re less likely to get sued

What should we do?• Plan ahead to ensure all the dangers are considered and

reduced to a reasonable level

• Do not put anyone into a dangerous situation

• Make sure everyone has all the information and training they need to stay safe

• Take a outsider’s viewpoint

So Who Is Responsible?

EVERYONE

Vice Chancellor

University Safety Office

Group Execs(Volunteers)

Members

EVERYONE

LUSU

What does LUSU do?

• Support you to have safe practices

• Safety Framework

• Risk Assessments

• Training

• Support and guidance

What do you have to do?

• Understand and accept your role and responsibilities as an Exec

• Plan all activities in advance

• Follow the Safety Framework, General Code of Practice and safety guidelines from LUSU and other official bodies

• Write risk assessments for events

• Follow all Risk Assessments

• Have completed paperwork to back you up

• Complete Accident Report Forms for all accidents

Follow the Safety Framework

• Your Responsibilities

• Risk Assessments

• Codes of Practice

• Accident Reporting

• First Aid

• Equipment

• Insurance

• Transport

• Trips and Socials

• Food Safety

• Disciplinary Procedure

• Other Information

The Safety Framework is the safety policy for all student groups

affiliated to LUSU and includes

What Happens If We Don’t?

A legal case could be brought against you or the University.

People could do things they are not supposed to do and put themselves and others at risk.

An accident could happen and someone could get injured or something damaged.

This could be the end of your activity.

Make sure you’re covered

• You need to follow the LUSU Framework and procedures. The LUSU insurance covers you if you follow our procedures

• Make sure you have the paperwork to back you up. If you can prove you were following it is much less likely that a legal case will be brought against you

• Make sure you remove all foreseeable risk!

Do you do anything dangerous?

Do you do anything dangerous?

• Unfortunately, all of these things are risky and need to be dealt with:

– BBQing or cooking

– Trips and using transport

– Socials with alcohol

– Bands/gigs

– One off events outside what you normally do

Electricity

• Don’t overload sockets• All equipment must be PAT tested• Power cables cannot cross walkways in

public areas

Staging

• Small stages can be borrowed from some colleges

• Steel deck staging can be hire from the Nuffield. You cannot transport and erect it unless you’ve been trained

One off events

• Make sure you risk assess it

– Founders Series

– Big Chill

– Pantomine

• Pop in and see us in LUSU, we can help

Campus Runs

• It is dangerous to run on the roads around campus

• There are paths around the whole of campus. Use the fitness trail and woodland trail

• High vis vests need to be worn when on the roads

Vacations

• All ‘tours’ must go through and be agreed by LUSU

• You can’t do anything as a group over the Summer vacation unless it has been agreed by LUSU

Transport

• If you’re going off campus on a coach, a trip list needs to be given to security before you leave

• All drivers need to be registered with Activities

• All cars used for transporting during your activity need to be registered with LUSU

Cooking & Baking

• There must be a supervisor with the basic food hygiene certificate

Socials

• How many people do you need on sober duty?

• You have to look after the group on a social regardless of how drunk they are

• The main causes of drunken injury include falls, alcohol poisoning, fights and traffic related incidents

• You cannot do drinking games

Accidents

• All accidents have to be reported to LUSU as soon as possible.

• Within hours not days• Quick & easy form at lusu.co.uk/accident • Any major incidents should be rung

through to University Security

What do you need to assess?

• Extravs• One off events

– South West Big Chill– Chinese New Year Celebrations– 15 hour bar crawl

• Club trips outside of Lancaster• Overnight trips

What don’t you need to assess?

• Bar Socials• Trips to places in town• Practice sessions• Inter-college sport – they follow the

relevant code of practice for their sport• You do still need to follow the Safety

Framework and General Code of Practice at all times

Training

• We’ll go through proper risk assessment training with people as and when they need it

• Often we have a risk assessment for one off events to work from so you don’t have to start from scratch

Thanks for listening

Why risk assess?

• Why do we risk assess? • We do it all the time without thinking

– Not crossing roads when cars are coming– Wearing seatbelts– Making sure food is cooked

• Have you taken enough steps to prevent harm?

Hazards• A hazard is anything that can cause harm

– Equipment– The way the you do something– Weather– Location– Other people

• Looking for stuff that is likely• Assume that it has never been assessed

before

Hazards

• At Extrav, hazards could be– Trailing cables– Poorly constructed staging– Overcrowding

• Take five minutes, in groups, think about an event and identify 5 hazards

Risk & Injuries• What could the hazard cause?• What injuries are possible and likely?

– Trailing cables cause slips trips and falls– Could lead to bruising, lacerations and breaks– Death is unlikely– Crushing at an event could cause severe injuries or

death

• Start with the lowest and work up• Take 5 minutes, work out what are the risks for

your hazards

Who is at risk?

• You need to think about everyone– Participants– Staff– Volunteers or Exec Members– Contractors– Spectators– 3rd parties

• Take 5 minutes, work out who is at risk for your hazards

Reducing the risk - Controls & Actions

Method of control

Elimination Remove it entirely

Substitution Replace with a less hazardous process

Isolation Create a barrier between hazard and people

Modification Installing or using additional equipment to control the risk

Behaviour & Training Increasing awareness through training or signage

Personal Protective Equipment Last line of defence. If not of the others are possible, PPE should be used

Controls

• Activity in water risk reduced if:– Participant has done swimming assessment– Wears life jacket– Location has been assessed as safe

• Wouldn’t need to assess the roof of the pool caving in

Reducing the risk - Controls & Actions

Method of control

Elimination Can you remove the cables by using a power supply closer to the activity?

Substitution Can the cables be replaced with something else?

Isolation Can you fence of the cables or run them against walls?

Modification Could you get protective ramps? Can you tape the cables down?

Behaviour & Training Can you tell everyone at the event about you’re the cables? Could you put signs up?

Personal Protective Equipment Is there any PPE that could be used?

Controls – Quick check

• Do your controls meet standards set by any legal requirements relevant to your activity/event?

• Do the controls comply with a recognised NGB/Local Guidelines recognised standard? You can refer to these in your assessment.

• Have you done everything you can?– Do your controls reduce the risk as far as is

reasonably practicable?

• Work through your controls for your hazards

Risk Assessment Forms

• We’ve done the hard part• We just need to transfer it to the risk

assessment form

Risk RatingLikelihood

Very Unlikely 0

Unlikely 1

Possible 2

Likely 3

Very Likely 4

Certain 5

Risk RatingSeverity

No Action No injury 0

First Aider Bruising, minor cuts, grazes 1

Doctor Strains, Sprains, concussion 2

A & E 1 Loss of consciousness, blood loss, burns, breaks or injury resulting in Visit to A&E. Corrosive toxic, flammable substances, mild chemical irritation of eyes or skin. Harmful, irritant substances

3

A & E 2 Permanent or partial or total disablement or other reportable injury/disease

4

Death Single Death or Multiple Death 5

Risk RatingLikelihood Severity

Death A&E2 A&E1 Doctor First Aider

No Action

Certain 25 20 15 10 5 0

Very Likely 20 16 12 8 4 0

Likely 15 12 9 6 3 0

Possible 10 8 6 4 2 0

Unlikely 5 4 3 2 1 0

Very Unlikely 0 0 0 0 0 0

Risk RatingRisk Rating

Score Action

Trivial Risk 0 - 2 No further action required unless incidents occur

Low Risk 3 - 4 No additional controls may be needed overall, but specific hazards may be reduced. Monitoring is required to ensure controls are maintained. Review if an incident occurs or more effective controls become available.

Moderate Risk

5 - 10 Efforts should be made to reduce the risk over a defined period of time.

High Risk 12 - 16 Work should not be started until the risk has been reduced. If work is in progress Urgent action should be taken to reduce or control risks.

Intolerable Risk

20 - 25 The activity should cease until risks have been reduced to an acceptable level.

Responsibility

• Every control needs to be the responsibility of an individual or small group

• Writing everyone is not good enough• Use positions not names• Can name 3rd parties if yo uhave agreed

this with them

Communication

• Activities Office needs to see every risk assessment you write

• Need to communicate your assessment to people involved;– Your Exec– Participants