Risk assessment

Risk assessment for den building 9-10 year olds

This entry is referring to an event we held a few weeks ago, during this time we created a scenario for school kids. In this scenario we had two year groups, year 5 acted as Britons and year 6 were the Vikings. The Image above is of a risk assessment calculator I designed on Microsoft excel, rating scaled is based on the work by Barton (2007).

This device is just an advice tool, not a guide! The way that this tool  works is by inputting the values in the correct box, for example if there was a frequent exposure to a hazard then you would put a 3 in the frequency box, and the same for the severity box. Once these values have been inputted then the total score would change to 9 (3x3), which would in turn change the advice box to a warning and to reassess their risk assessment.

The point of a risk assessment is to at the safety of activities (Perry, 2003), in this case of this risk assessment is looking at the event. Within a risk assessment it is used to address hazards around the activity, and what issues can happen because of the hazard. But most of all what are the best means to minimalize the risk or eradicate the hazard.

Having a risk assessment is an important factor to have done for every activity, this will help show if you know what the risks are, and if you are doing enough to prevent them (Ogilivie, 2005). This is important in a legal sense, if you have not done a risk assessment and have not address issues that become present. If something was to go wrong then you will be liable for the blame (Education Committee, 1994), for example if I haven’t conducted a risk assessment on a abseil location and a someone under my control was to have an accident, I would be to blame as I haven’t had the means put in place to prevent/minimise the issue.

Below is my Risk assessment for the main event. Risk assessments are there to look at all the possibilities, so including everything is important, such as getting lost, wildlife, boundary crossing and stings. Over the entire of the assessment I believe that compared to everything that the top 2 hazards are getting lost and trips and falls. These two aren’t the most serious hazards, they are the more likely to happen (frequent). I am not saying that these 2 hazards are acceptable risks, the point of this risk assessment is to try and limit the likely hood of it happening. With acceptable risk in mind, the students and the group leaders will be aware of the most blatant hazards which can happen. The lesser the severity the more that the risk is acceptable (Fischhoff et al, 1981), events such of these don’t become challenges without some form of risk. The worst kind of risk is the loss of equipment, limb or life. This rarely falls into mind with this activity as likely hood of it happen are so small compared to with kayaking a grade 5 rapid.

Den building was a section I and another group leader was assigned to, we had a total of twelve kids, along with two teachers. Having two teachers meant that when the groups were split we had two adults to six students. We had some trips over the course of building the dens, but nothing serious or demanding medical attention. Before we allowed the students to go into/sit in the dens we tested the strength of the roof and removed potential hazards. No issues occurred during out section of the event.

References

Barton. B. (2007). Safety, Risk & Adventure in Outdoor Activities. Hampshire. SAGE Publications.

Education Committee. (1994). Safety in Outdoor Activity Centres. United Kingdom. HMSO Publication Centre.

Fischhoff. B., Lichtenstein. S., Slovic. P., Derby. S. L., Keeney. R. L. (1981). Acceptable Risk. USA. Cambridge Press.

Ogivlie.K. C. (2005). Leading and Managing Groups in the Outdoors. Barrow-in-Furness. The Institute for Outdoor Learning.

Perry. P. (2003). Risk Assessments, Questions and Answer’s: A Practical Approach. Cornwall. Thomas Telford Publishing