RAs and Method Statements

[Jivemaster]

OK, I've done the same mobile disco show for ten years, 20 pieces of easy carry "luggage", arrive by car, carry in, play cheesy party, carry out and drive away. Now I am asked for Risk Analysis and Method Statement for a show in a very nice venue. (grade 1 listed Royal Palace ). I keep drafting it and it reads so badly verbose I need some help!

 

Has anyone any guidance for me please, or even is anyone willing to share their RA and MS for something similar that I may take inspiration from. It's not Cirque de Sol..... on my own I can rig in 45 minutes and wrap in 30.

[kerry davies]

OK, I've done the same mobile disco show for ten years, 20 pieces of easy carry "luggage", arrive by car, carry in, play cheesy party, carry out and drive away. Now I am asked for Risk Analysis and Method Statement for a show in a very nice venue. (grade 1 listed Royal Palace ). I keep drafting it and it reads so badly verbose I need some help!

 

Has anyone any guidance for me please, or even is anyone willing to share their RA and MS for something similar that I may take inspiration from. It's not Cirque de Sol.....  on my own I can rig in 45 minutes and wrap in 30.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Check out www.hse.gov.uk and you can get a basic idea of what you need from 5 Steps to Risk Assessment. Don't use anyone elses as it should be a "live" document. If you have trouble with a method statement check out a good one on Steeldecks website under set-up and safety.

Nothing to do with mobile discos but, again, better to do your own.

[Jivemaster]

Agree it has to be my own but I dont want to spend time re-designing the wheel.

[kerry davies]

Point being that if you use someone elses it will only fit where it touches AND you won't have learned anything. Things are constantly evolving and what was sound practice a few years ago when RA's started to become normal practice are not acceptable today. I was trying to point you in a general direction but there are plenty of sites you can copy from, they won't apply because you will have differing equipment, working practices and safety measures.

Risk assessments are absolutely useless unless they are put into operation, a square of Andrex would be just as good. As usual the PSA website is a good place to start a search...not for Andrex though!

[NM13]

Just to add to Kerry's post, risk assessments are also part of your defence if an accident occurs, they should prove that you have considered all risks and done everything practicable to make your part in the event/situation safe. The various legislations that require risk assessments require them to be completed by competant persons, ie competant in health and safety matters not lighting and sound. By asking these questions you are demonstrating you are not legally competant and not capable of completeing a risk assessment. If I were you I would look at a training course or paying a professional to do them for you. Chances are in most situations if an accident happened and environmental health, HSE or a member of public did charge you with breaking health and safety legislations then you would have to prove you were competant to complete the risk assessment, this would include how detailed your knowledge of health and safety legislation is, what specific regulations require risk assessments and risk assessment law in general. Accidents happen due to many factors, you need to be able to prove that you have done everything you reasonably can to make what you do safe for everyone involved.

[Jivemaster]

So as I read the replies

1/ its got to be my RA

2/ get a pro ( someone else) to do it

?????????????????????????????????

 

As I said in the OP Ive done a risk assessment but the wording seems so verbose, It is in the style of a 60s military manual ( prob cos I used to have to maintain a copy of the Air Nav Order for my job once) whereas it should read like a 2005 piece of tech authoring.

[V.A.]

So as I read the replies

1/ its got to be my RA

2/ get a pro ( someone else) to do it

?????????????????????????????????

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I think the point being made is that it should be specific to you/your activities/your workplace; but it should be done by someone who is experienced in writing RAs....

[Brian]

The various  legislations that require risk assessments require them to be completed by competant persons, ie competant in health and safety matters not lighting and sound.

 

I'm sorry but this statement is fundamentally wrong. A risk assessment must be completed by someone who understands the hazards and risks involved not how to fill out paperwork.

 

Otherwise why would the HSE publish a booklet called 'Five Steps to Risk Assessment' which is written for companies to carry out their own assessment?

 

To pick up on one specific point of law; in Jivemaster's case since he doesn't employ more than 5 people he doesn't actually have to write anything down,

 

There seems to be a general air of confusion about what is needed for an RA. Thousands of pages of word will not protect you in the event of a prosecution. Doing an RA is not an absolute defence - it might persuade the court the you take H&S seriously but if you then go on to injure someone you're still in trouble. The HSE/court will look at the content of the RA not how many words it contains and the prose involved or whether you spelt 'assessment' correctly.

 

The HSE booklet I mentioned has the following sentence early on...

Don't be overcomplicated

 

As an example of this; any of you who have done the pyro safety awareness course will have been given the RA for the Millenium night firewroks display on the Thames. Hundreds of tonnes of explosive on barges on the river in front of thousands of people. And it all had to be loaded onto them and fused. And the risk assessment - 3 pages people, that's it, nothing else. And you can bet that document was scrutinised by absolutely everyone.

[David Ripley]

We have a three stage process to Risk Assessment at RSAMD

 

The initial risk assessment is obviously as paper and mental exercise as you haven't got all the actual elements in place ie set, lighting, props, cast etc. So the risk is judged on what you know the circumstances will be.

 

So first we assess with no controls and come to a risk factor. we then reassess with controls in place. Doing it this way makes people check the controls each time so hopefully nothing is missed.

 

Once the controlled Risk Factor is calculated then either you proceed or an Action Plan to address the remaining problems is started.

 

Once the show is actually onstage, the Risk Assessment and Action Plan if required is reassessed with everything actually in place. If everything is OK then the RA is signed off and put into a Production File, if not then another Action Plan is started.

 

The review part is usually undertaken by someone different from who created the initial RA as this cross checks all the hazards so no assumptions are made

 

All the staff and students have obviously had RA training, most recently on the Staff side by Geoff Joyce from the ABTT. It's very useful having training done by someone in the industry.

 

David

 

Hope that helps

[NM13]

I'm sorry but this statement is fundamentally wrong. A risk assessment must be completed by someone who understands the hazards and risks involved not how to fill out paperwork.

 

You misunderstand me, I never mentioned filling out paperwork, I would strongly argue that the person who should fill out the assessment is the person who will carry out or supervise the task as they are the ones who are going to be at risk. If I see a working at heights risk assessment covering relamping a lantern then I dont want it accompanied by safe working practices thought up by someone who sits in an office and goes nowhere near a ladder, scaffold tower or however you access the lanterns, but I would expect the person doing the RA to have knowledge of the legislation covered by the risk assessment, training which should be provided by the employer.

The point I was trying to get across to jivemaster is that if you do your own risk assessment and you still have an accident and are prosecuted in a civil court (which most health and safety cases are) then you will have to prove it wasn't your fault and you did everything you could to make your part in the event/task/whatever safe. Whoever is prosecuting you does not have to prove anything.

A few years ago I was working for a youth theatre company who were performing shakespeare at an outdoor country park, as part of the set up one of the rangers cordoned off a public path with bright orange rope for ten minutes to keep the members of the public away from the set up area, in accordane with the risk assessment. A member of the public on a bicycle then tripped and fell over the rope hurting himself a bit, nothing that required hospital treatment though and a few weeks later attempted to sue the youth theatre company for breaking health and safety rules. As they did not set up the barrier themselves and could prove it in the RA control measures that stated that "all security cordons had to be set up by parks staff" the accuser then sued the local county council who ran the park. He was awarded damages in his favour because the park had not risk assessed the hazard the cordon, which in itself was a control measure posed, and even though the rope was bright orange hi visibility, a warning sign should still have been in place as it was a public access path and the park was responsible for the publics health and safety. In short they broke their duty of care by putting up a cordon, even though the hazard, had the cordon not been there was much greater. such a small error cost the council when combined with court costs, over £3000 pounds

 

If you want a 3 page document to show your approach to health and safety then thats up to you, Once you have a scheme in place risk assessing should become very manageable, especially if you repeat the task, a word or excel template can make a fine looking RA that you can complete in two minutes but if the content, thought and understanding isn't put in then it isn't effective. Personally in my theatre (which I do the RA's for) each RA is 1 page, each event however might have anything from 5 to 30 RA's covering the tasks in the event, from manual handling scenery in the get in, to the risks of fatigue after a long period of working.

 

RA's are seen as a chore and are boring to complete, but I would rather be thorough in my RA's and control measures rather than have to defend myself in court and if found in breach of H&S legislation face the consequences.

 

Finally Jivemaster a good source of ideas if you do want to do your own RA, control measures and safe systems of work is Marco Van Beeks "A Practical Guide to Health and Safety in the Entertainment Industry" published by Entertainment technology press. £14.95

It contains sample risk assessments covering live events as well as lots of other helpful safety info that you will find very helpful and is an excellent starting point. I have nothing to do with the author or publishes, just found it a very helpful book.

[Jambo_UK]

Marco Van Beeks "A Practical Guide to Health and Safety in the Entertainment Industry" published by Entertainment technology press. £14.95

 

I second that I used it to draw up my dance shows Method Statement, If you message to your email I will send you a copy. Also the Risk Assessments template is very good and the advice given is great speciality when you can just update them at a later date for other venues.

 

EDIT: Just realised the initial posting date only three years late sorry.

[Stewart Newlands]

I am not that much of a fan of that book, it is a good start but it uses the quite common points system, which can be flawed you need to think the task through and if possible relate it to the venue. The generic approach only goes so far.

 

If you want a long read about risk assessment methodology you could try this http://www.hse.gov.uk/research/crr_pdf/1998/CRR98204.pdf

 

But I would keep it simple, to the point and about yourself as the owner and operator, and refer to your H&S policy, which is a useful generic statement of intent to have and that should be short and simple.

[Stewart Newlands]

At the end of the day, the RA and MS are just to document that you have thought about the risks involved with the task, and the content should help to demonstrate that you are competent to do it.

 

I the case of your disco you could I feel jivemaster you could, just mention noise, pat testing or equivalent, trip hazards, fire hazards, manual handling and attention to your environment (the historic building). sign the statement and hand it in.

 

In most cases the signature is the key thing, it is you acknowledging the task and taking responsibility for your actions and any resulting consequences, while providing some evidence of mitigation for your defence in the result of unpredicted disaster.

 

I have submitted three line versions of a RA, MS, and completion certificate that have been accepted by the authorities involved in some events, as they know who I am, the training I have completed and who is insuring me underwriting the risks, and that they where of the opinion that I fully understood the nature of the statement the potential consequences of what I was signing off and that I had completed the necessary work to underpin the statement.

[Jivemaster]

Please!

 

The topic started so long ago that the whole show is over now!

 

Yes RA and MS is important and gets to be more so as managers want documantary evidence of competence. However the original (now GONE) need was for help with the litterary style, not the content. My written words at that time sounded too officious, almost military. Which didn't go down well with the new breed of female venue managers. More 05-21 than 5179. for those that kinow old standards numbers.

 

 

This thread may deserve the dancing locks now.