The Employer has a legal responsibility to ensure risk assessments are in place for off-site visits and to have a system that ensures these are being implemented. It is appropriate for the Employer to provide generic risk assessments and these could be incorporated into an online recording tool where these are being used. This task LOW HIGH may be assigned to an appropriately competent person.
Generic risk assessments provide an overview of the foreseeable risks that might be met on a visit with the aim of managing risks so that they are acceptable. In general ‘acceptable’ would be free from significant risk of death or permanently disabling injury.
Leaders should use a generic risk assessment as a starting point, and add any significant and foreseeable risks specific to their visit. This should take in to account:
- The aims and benefits of the visit
- The participants (including leaders and helpers)
- The venue
- The activity
- Getting there
- Time of year
Routine and Expected visits are by their nature low risk activities and should be quick and easy to risk assess. Higher risk activities require more detailed risk assessments which record how the risks will be reduced to an acceptable level.
The findings of the risk assessment and the relevant precautions/controls should be agreed with and understood by all participants including Visit Assistants (and parents where appropriate).
A range of generic risk assessmentsandsample specific risk assessments can be found within the Toolkits section of the website.
