(DJH Oct/09)

Procedure No. 4 - UVH Risk Assessment Procedure

1. To ensure the Village Hall facilities are to proper H &S standards for all its Users

a)The whole of the Village Hall area will be risk assessed every 12 months bearing in mind the state of the facilities and the different activities that go on in the hall. Other part or whole assessments will be carried out if or when the need arises e.g. if there has been significant change or if there is a User Group activity seeming to need particular attention.

b) Assessment will be carried out by the Committee safety officer together with one or two other Members (or a representative from a User Group who may have a special involvement or expertise e.g. the drama group).

c) The methodology to be used can be seen from the Risk Assessment Record Sheet attached. This is the format to be used wherever possible for reporting and recording the Assessment. If another format is used then the same methodology to that shown should be used. (A good question to keep in mind during the assessment is "What if.....?")

d)The results of the Assessments will be discussed at the next Committee Meeting where actions necessary will be agreed. Risk Assessment will also be discussed at any User Group meeting where their input will be obtained. If there is a recommendation or action applicable to a particular User Group or Groups, this will be taken up directly with them.

2. To ensure the health and safety of (the employed) Caretaker

a) A formal assessment of the caretaker’s work (both within the Hall and externally in the garden etc.) is carried out and recorded once per year by the caretaker and the Committee Member having a special responsibility for health and safety. At this, the various tasks she (and any one else helping her) has to carry out, the proper methods for carrying them out and the risks involved both to herself and to others are discussed, the precautions she should take are defined and any necessary actions to improve safety identified.

b) With any new task carried out, the caretaker is expected to think of the possible risks both to herself and to any other people that may be around her and ensure any necessary actions are taken i.e. carry out an informal risk assessment. (Again a good simple question for her to ask herself is “What if…..?”)

3. To ensure the health and safety of (the unemployed) Committee Members when working in the Hall

Members will be reminded annually at the time when they are reviewing the Hall Risk Assessment, that if they are doing the same kind of jobs in the Hall that they are comfortable with doing safely at home, then they can proceed using the same precautions that they use at home. If the job is something they are not used to doing then they should carry out a simple risk assessment (asking "What if...?") and take any necessary precautions. (An example would be doing something at height using the tall step ladder. In this situation it is expected that a second person will always be asked to foot the ladder and when at the top the person there should always be using one hand to hold on to something for extra support.)

3. Background

UVH Management Committee has the clear responsibility to provide facilities that are to proper H&S standards for all users of the Hall while User Group Representatives have a clear responsibility to ensure their activities do not pose unacceptable risks to the H&S of the people in their groups. They also have the responsibility to ensure their activities do not create unacceptable risks for others who use the facilities and also for the safety of the facilities themselves. These responsibilities are made clear to the Representatives in the UVH Terms and Conditions for hire of the Hall. It is up to them how they discharge these responsibilities. There may well be an uncertain grey area in the split of responsibilities between the Committee and each User Group and it is the Committee's responsibility in particular to minimise any uncertainty.

This Procedure addresses how we discharge our responsibilities as the UVH Management Committee. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) regard the process of Risk Assessment as being the basis of controlling health and safety in "the workplace". So the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations (1999) requires an employer to make "a suitable and sufficient" assessment of the risks to the health and safety of both his employees while they are at work and of persons not in his employment, arising from his activities. It also requires this assessment to be recorded if there are five or more employees.

The Village Hall has only one employee at the present time (February 2009) and will never have more than five employees. The HSE recommends that places such as village halls should be regarded as small businesses, particularly as different User Groups and the general public will be using its facilities, and we should carry out Risk Assessments, though these need only be simple.

The process they recommend is:

- identify the hazard i.e. the potential to cause harm

- consider who might be harmed and how

- evaluate the risk of being hurt i.e. the combination of chance and severity

- review existing precautionary measures and decide if more is needed and what

- record the findings and ensure any actions are implemented

- decide when to review the Assessment and update it when necessary.

In 2003 a formal process of risk assessment was started. The Hall was divided up into eight areas and responsibility for carrying out an assessment for each area assigned to different small groups of Trustees. For each area hazards were identified, risks evaluated for each of them by rating both severity and chance on a scale of 1 to 6 and then adding the resulting numbers together to give a "Risk Rating". Consideration was then given as to whether the existing control measures were adequate and then where necessary to suggesting improvements and defining actions (with time-scales) - particularly for a hazard with a Risk Rating of 5 or more. In late 2006/early 2007 these same areas were assessed again, this time by individual Trustees not part of the particular earlier area assessment. Hazards identified before which had a Rating of 5 or more were reviewed, any remaining hazard with a score of 4 or more identified and actions agreed where thought necessary and particularly for all hazards with a Rating above 5. This methodology was adopted at the time following the recommendation of Chester Council's Safety Department. (Other methods commonly used are similar to this but multiply the chance and severity factors together to give the Risk Rating. The Council’s addition method seems better as it reduces the chance of those important high severity but low frequency hazards being overlooked.)

As indicated above the HSE recommends that places such as Village Halls do carry out Risk Assessments. In fact in the last couple of years they have given an example of an assessment for a village hall. The method shown uses more of a walk through approach of the complete hall, suggests a check list of some generic hazards, is simpler in not using a Risk Rating numerical methodology and recommends a review every year.

The process now to be used for the Village Hall is a combination of that shown in the example for village halls given by the HSE and that used by us in the past. In particular the hazard Risk Rating system will be used but only when a difficult decision on the hazard and the need for action is needed.

A similar approach should be used when considering the tasks carried out by the caretaker, the one Village Hall employee, and ensuring her safety (and anyone helping her) and those around her when she is carrying out her work.