Assist the Management of Health and Safety at Events Sites

1 Understand health and safety for events sites  

• Venue/site safety plans: e.g., details for the event to control safety and security, to ensure legal requirements are complied with, to ensure local and environmental requirements are compiled with, rules are agreed with local government officers, emergency services, contractors
• Typical contents: e.g., specific responsibilities for areas and activities, reporting procedures, contingency instructions, site plan, site safety rules, access and egress, sanitary facilities waste management, electrical installations and lighting, barriers, structures, food and drink, special effects, communication, crowd management, traffic management, first aid, major incident planning
• Employee Welfare facilities: e.g., toilets, drinking water, breakrooms, reasonable working temperature, good ventilation, and lighting
• First-aid facilities: e.g., triage areas, first-aid rooms, ambulance parking areas, who is responsible for maintaining
• Emergency assembly points: e.g., designated points across the event site to gather people for use in an emergency, how to ensure site maps show these clearly and accurately, how to place them in safe areas e.g., in a large open space, that is big enough to safely accommodate everyone
• Access and egress: e.g., for different areas of the site, rules for controlling access and egress for each area, rules for controlling the perimeter, rules to ensure safety and lack of obstruction.
• Types of emergencies: e.g., fire, adverse weather, accidents, illness, security incidents and alerts, structural failure, crowd surge and collapse, crowd disorder
• Emergency procedures: e.g., contact and liaison with emergency services, implementing incident control points, implementing evacuation routes, organising assembly points, deployment of security and stewarding personnel, ensuring safe evacuation of disabled persons, scripting PA announcements, coded security alerts/messages

2 Understand the health and safety responsibilities of employees and others at events sites

• Employee responsibilities: e.g., legal, organisational, industry best practice, duty of care to ensure own safety and wellbeing, the safety and wellbeing of others, cooperation with employer or other person, comply with safety and health procedures, use of provided PPE, reporting of hazards
• Other people working on site: e.g., security staff, contractors e.g., sound and light engineers, stage technicians, catering staff
• Health and safety responsibilities of others: e.g., the requirements for everyone to work safely and be responsible for others’ safety, to follow organisational and manufacturer’s instructions when using equipment, to handle and move equipment and loads safely, to respond to injury or illness correctly; liabilities of all on site
• Site supervisor additional responsibilities: e.g., liaising with authorities and emergency services, supervising contractors, management and recording of control procedures, ensuring facilities and staff are adequate to ensure safety and wellbeing, preparing operational plan, emergency plan, contingency plan, briefing event staff
• Communication: e.g., using clear language, using handouts or visual aids to reinforce key messages related to health and safety, team meetings, pre-event briefings

3 Understand risk assessment and control at events sites

• Site specific risk assessment: e.g., a risk assessment completed for a specific item of work. It takes account of the site location, environment, and people doing the work, identifying what hazards exist, how they may cause harm and to take steps to minimise harm
• Dynamic risk assessment: e.g., the continuous process of identifying hazards, assessing risk, taking action to eliminate or reduce risk, monitoring and reviewing, in the rapidly changing circumstances of an operational incident
• Use both forms of risk assessment: e.g., to respond to and control incidents, to manage contingencies, to evaluate changing situations
• Risk assessment steps: e.g., identifying the hazard, deciding who may be harmed and how, evaluating the risks and the actions to prevent them, recording, and implementing findings, reviewing the risk assessment
• Typical hazards that may occur at an event site: e.g., event and production equipment, crowd management, employee safety, unpredictable weather, potential fire hazards, food safety, aggressive behaviour, traffic management
• Possible risks: e.g., potential injury or fatality, damage to public health, loss of amenity, delay in event schedule, breach of security, loss of personal possessions, damage to the environment
• How to manage the risks: e.g., following contingency plans, following the organisation’s method statement; the importance of designating key personnel to monitor specific areas and activities; setting out reporting intervals and protocols; using different methods to monitor and control risk, e.g. observation platforms, CCTV, radio, personal surveillance, patrols
• Method statements: e.g., a document that describes how to do a task safely e.g. risk assessments, staff required, staff training and competencies, equipment required, checking compliance with safety legislation
• Importance: e.g., to prepare and plan effectively, to meet local authority and emergency services requirements, to highlight shortfalls, to identify specific venue or event requirements

4 Be able to assist the establishment health and safety and at events sites

• Site-specific risk assessment: e.g., a risk assessment completed for a specific item of work. It takes account of the site location, environment, and people doing the work, identifying what hazards exist, how they may cause harm and to take steps to minimise harm
• Risk assessment steps: e.g., identifying the hazard, deciding who may be harmed and how, evaluating the risks and the actions to prevent them, recording, and implementing findings, reviewing the risk assessment
• Method statement completion: e.g., undertake a risk assessment, provide relevant company, and job information, list hazards and outline safety responses, include additional details, write step-by-step instructions, revise statements for new locations, tools and equipment, and guidelines.
• Set-up: e.g., checking available space, unpacking equipment, and items, checking equipment and items, assembling equipment and items, setting up equipment and items, positioning equipment and items, safety, and security checks use of tools and equipment
• Take-down: dismantling of equipment and items, packing ready for transportation, loading onto transport, removing off site, clearing the area, cleaning, and restoring the area, use of tools and equipment
• Health and safety induction: e.g., company health and safety policy, specific workplace/site rules, emergency procedures (including fire, spillage and accident reporting, relevant risk assessments and safe systems of work (including COSHH, manual handling), site map/plans (including noise exclusion zones), personal protective equipment, inspection regime, housekeeping
• Delivering training: e.g., formal presentation with case studies, workshop-based training with practical demonstrations, toolbox talk format, on the job training, distance learning.

5 Be able to assist the management of health and safety and at events sites

• Monitoring: e.g., through personal observation, receiving reports from others, using method statements to check key activities have been completed
• Risk assessment steps: e.g., identifying the hazard, deciding who may be harmed and how, evaluating the risks and the actions to prevent them, recording, and implementing findings, reviewing the risk assessment
• Other people working on site: e.g., security staff, contractors e.g., sound and light engineers, stage technicians, catering staff
• Own behaviour: e.g., setting an example from own behaviour, complying with all legal and organisational requirements, checking that others are complying with requirements

6 Be able to assist the response to emergencies on events sites

• Emergency procedures: e.g., assisting contacting and liaison with emergency services, supervising incident control points, assisting with evacuation routes, assisting with managing assembly points, helping to coordinate security, and stewarding personnel, ensuring safe evacuation of disabled persons, delivering PA announcements using a script, passing on coded security alerts/messages
• Reporting: e.g., obtaining situation reports, organisational policies