2010 The Importance of Safety

As a Unit, we have been very careful, and have a good safety record on our activities.  We are proud of what our young people have achieved and how they behave on events.

We have, however, had incidents and we are all fully aware that Scouting provides access to adventurous activities in a managed environment.

We have two main ways of reducing risks on activities: Risk Assessments and Headcounts.

Risk Assessment

A risk assessment must be carried out for all activities but this does not need to be a time consuming process. More important is that a risk assessment is regularly reviewed both before and during an activity. Experience shows it is often the activity which is run regularly with little perceived risk where incidents may occur. Regular re-assessment of familiar activities will allow those running the activity to identify changes in the risks over time. Further information can be found in factsheet FS120000 Activities – Risk Assessment.

The basic process of a risk assessment is simple:

1. Look at the environment and the event and work out what could result in harm to a person

2. Work out who could be harmed and how

3. Work out whether their are reasonable precautions, and if not, what else needs doing

4. Write it down or discuss it with all involved

5. During and Afterwards, update your risk plan as events unfold

At its simplest, Risk Assessment only work if you put the time in to consider before the activity starts, if you discuss it with all, and if you update everyone during and afterwards.

Head Counts

We have two ways to ensure we don’t lose anyone.

1 – We work a BUDDY PAIR system. You never, ever, leave your buddy. The system is in place from the second we set off to an activity to the second you are home. This system is very effective, and the Unit asked for it and know how it works.

2 – leaders and Unit members in groups (i.e. Duke of Edinburgh) do regular headcounts to ensure everyone is together. It is difficult to be prescriptive as to when head counts should be done. It is important that these are considered for all age groups in all outdoor activities and, specifically, when young people are moving as a group. A considered view is that these should be done when there is a change of terrain or overcoming a particular hazard. In the younger age groups this could be done when a walking group moves from one terrain to another (eg from one field to another or from a road to a track) or crossing the road. For those in adventurous activities it could be when paddling around a bend, moving around a rocky outcrop or, generally, when moving in poor visibility. Furthermore, for larger groups, it should be agreed as to who conducts these to remove the expectation that these will be conducted by someone else.

Explorers are sensible young people, and we hope that we can encourage them to be safer and still have huge fun, by equipping them with the ‘common sense’ tools to manage risk in what they undertake.