by James » 07 May 2013, 09:31
Chris S has produced some excellent notes on a risk assessment for Punch and Judy, which I believe are still on the main section of this website. Take a look.
However, these are notes towards a risk assessment, which really the client themselves should be producing. In reality they won’t want to do this. A formal risk assessment would look rather different and would detail the activity, the chance of an accident happening, the severity of the accident, who it would affect, and what precautions you have taken to avoid it. However, for most bookers these excellent notes provided will suffice. They'll be filed away and a box will have been ticked.
I regularly get caught up with writing H&S paperwork for my day job, and whilst it is tedious, and often an exercise in box ticking, it is very important. If your booth did blow over and hurt someone and you hadn’t done a risk assessment you’d look rather foolish. More importantly, and this is where so many event organisers go wrong, if you had done a risk assessment, but then chosen to ignore it you’d look even worse.
How many fetes do we go to, where having provided a risk assessment, insurance certificate etc ourselves, there are gazebos and tents that haven’t been tied down properly by the organisers that blow across the field. Or the classic “all vehicles must be off site by 9am”. We get up early to be there on time, but the organisers wife drives her Volvo through your pitch just as your about to start a show?
Arnott's Gowns for Clowns, Est 1985