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Risk Assessment is perhaps the most important part of Health and Safety planning. It allows you to find out about what could cause harm to people in your Church or Place of Worship.
Risk Assessment is not about pen-pushing or creating reams of paperwork for the sake of it. Done correctly it is beneficial as it determines what could cause harm to who and what can be done to prevent it happening or limit the severity of the harm. It is one of those tasks that is of real benefit when done right.
There is no set format to Risk Assessment, but there are some key elements to the process. The simplest form is known as the 'Five Steps' method. The Five Steps are:
- Look for the hazards
- Decide who might be harmed
- Evaluate the risks
- Record the findings
- Review and revise
Look for the hazards
Hazards are those things in and around the Place of Worship that could cause harm to staff, volunteers, visitors and other members of the public. They can be building structures, fitting and fixtures, equipment and tools or any other item that in on the premises.
Hazards broadly fall into a number of categories:
Physical hazards
Chemical hazards
Biological hazards
Psychological hazards
Physical hazards can range from items that could cause someone to slip, trip or fall, things that get hot that could burn, electrical hazards and hazards from equipment such as rotating blades, noise or vibration. These are physical hazards, and are some of the easiest hazards to identify.
Chemical Risk Assessments are often carried out using a slightly different technique, but the same general principles of Risk Assessment apply. Chemicals should be looked at to see if they are harmful, irritant, corrosive or could affect people's safety in any other way.
Biological hazards include viruses, bacteria and moulds that could make someone ill. For example, a water system could be contaminated with bacteria, which can lead to legionnaires disease.
Psychological hazards include violence, or threats of violence, that do not lead to physical harm, bullying, harassment and stress.
Identify the hazards
Look around the building to find those things that you consider being a significant hazard. You need to look in parts of the premises you don't often use such as boiler rooms, store rooms and towers as well as the parts of the building you use regularly. It is well worth asking others to help as they might spot things that you miss.
Look outside the building and see if there are any hazards that could affect people, including members of the public.
It is easy to overlook some hazards because they are familiar. You might use a piece of equipment without thinking twice or you might walk past a trailing cable without a second thought. Think about things carefully to make sure you don't ignore something that is a significant hazard but remember you don't need to be too concerned with trivial risks that pose little risk of harm to anyone.
It is useful to use a floor plan of the building and simply mark on it where each hazard is. The plan only needs to be a simple sketch of each floor level if the building is on more than one level. Simply mark a cross on the plan where the hazard is, and write next to it a brief description of the hazard. Sometimes, a hazard is common through the building, such as the electrical installation, so use a single place to identify this once on the plan.
Also consider those people that work away from the building, for example for pastoral visits. A Risk Assessment needs to be undertaken of these activities as well as for the main building. In fact, all events, activities and buildings should have a Risk Assessment applicable to them.
Decide who might be harmed, and how
Consider the people that use the building and how the hazard could affect them. While some parts of the building might be open to the public on a regular basis, other areas might only be used by one or two people on an occasional basis to a small number of trusted volunteers. This will affect the probability of an incident.
Some people might be at more risk than others. Consider the needs of disabled people and the elderly in the Risk Assessment who might need assistance. Also, take into consideration things that could pose a significant risk to young children or babies or new and expectant mothers.
People like Church Sitters, cleaners and Caretakers usually work by themselves. While this alone is not a hazard, it can exacerbate other hazards.
Most of the people who use a Church or Place of Worship must be thought of as members of the public, even if they worship there every week. It is not likely that these people would have had any training or instruction on safety issues and this must be considered in the Risk Assessment too.
It is also important to consider how the hazard could cause an injury or incident, and what is the most probably severity. While some hazards have the potential to cause only a small cut to the hand, others could be life-threatening.
Evaluate the risk
Risk is the likelihood of harm to a person. It is useful to categorise each item as 'Low', 'Medium' or 'High' risk for convenience. Use the following as a guide:
- Low: There is a little chance of a minor injury to a person.
- Medium: There is some chance of an injury to a person which could be significant.
- High: There is a significant chance of a serious injury to one or more people.
As you evaluate the risk, think about those things that are already in place to reduce the risk. Do they comply with current codes of practice and regulations? If they do not reduce the risk to a low level, think about what else you could do.
As a guide, 'Low' risks do not need any significant attention (but do not rule out making any improvements). 'Medium' risks need some attention to try to bring them to a 'Low' level. 'High' risks should be prioritised as needing improvement to bring them down to a 'Low' level and in some cases immediate action is needed.
Additional measures
In most Risk Assessments, a number of extra measures will be decided upon. The additional measures you put into place need not be complex. Most of the time it is just a case of making some simple changes that should not cost anything or take much time. You might need to purchase some items (such as fire extinguishers, a first aid kit and exit signs), but these should not be too expensive for most Churches and Places of Worship.
When deciding what measures to put into place, consider:
If the proposals would be effective.
The cost of the proposals.
The time needed to put them into place.
The effort needed.
The control measures that are put into place could balance the risk with the time, effort, trouble and money they cost, and only those controls that would effectively reduce down the risk to a low level should be considered.
When deciding what else to bring in, think about who will implement it, and when it should be done by.
Record findings
Risk Assessment is a legal requirement and you might need to prove that you have done a Risk Assessment in the future. Risk Assessments must be written down if you have five or more employees. In all cases, it is recommended that the Risk Assessment be written down because they are useful to refer to in future.
The Risk Assessments should be dated and preferably signed by someone responsible (ideally by whoever is in charge) then filed somewhere safe for future reference. The Risk Assessments you have would be used when writing a Health and Safety Policy and you should refer to them regularly. It is perfectly acceptable to alter the assessments as time passes.
There is no set format for Risk Assessments, however ChurchSafety produces a Risk Assessment Form that you can use (PDF file, 59kB).
Review and revise
Risk Assessments should be reviewed occasionally to ensure that they remain valid. For most Places of Worship, a review every 12 months should be adequate. You do not have to 're-do' your risk assessment at set periods, contrary to popular belief, if there have not been any significant changes that affect the validity of the whole assessment.
If you have never done a Risk Assessment before, it is a good idea to review them in about six months time as you are likely to be more able to spot hazards and make a judgement about the risk. This is a skill that improves with practice and knowledge.
If there are significant changes, the Risk Assessment might need to be reviewed and this should be seen as part of the planning process of any new project or change.
Each time you review and revise your Risk Assessment, you are likely to identify new hazards, think of new control measures and make further improvements. These changes and improvements should be added to the assessment.
Advanced methods
There are many different Risk Assessment systems in use and the choice can seem overwhelming. There is no single method of Risk Assessment that can be used in every situation, so a number of methods have been developed. Some of these use scoring systems and often consider more specific details about the hazard. These techniques can be very useful for evaluating larger Places of Worship but is it not recommended that they are used by those unfamiliar with the Risk Assessment system being used.
Downloaded or copied Risk Assessments
On some Websites, it is possible to download completed Risk Assessments and documents are sometimes distributed by organisation offices. These Risk Assessments can be useful for background information but must not be used as the Risk Assessment in your Church or Place of Worship as they do not meet the requirements for Risk Assessments.
The requirement is not to have paperwork with the title 'Risk Assessment', but the requirement is to have considered what could cause harm in your premises. Any paperwork you do keep must reflect what you do.
Every Church or Place of Worship is required by law to undertake Risk Assessment – you need to think about the hazards in your own building. Every Church or Place of Worship is different – different buildings, different congregations, different safety precautions etc… But remember that this does not always mean large volumes of paperwork!
The purpose of Risk Assessment is to identify hazards and take appropriate action to reduce risk or eliminate hazards. It is not an exercise in creating paperwork.
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