Assessing and managing risk is an important aspect of young people’s development and involving children and young people in the risk assessment process should be an integral aspect of preparing them for an off-site visit. Having an understanding of the risks, and co creating relevant control measures with participants, is more likely to result in children and young people complying with those measures. Even the youngest learners can be involved in the risk assessment process – examples of this process can be found in the Involving children and young people in planning off-site visits Toolkit.
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.
Generic risk assessments provide a template, providing an overview of the foreseeable risks that might be met on a visit. It is the responsibility of the Visit Leader to use a generic risk assessment and develop it for their specific visit (ideally in partnership with participants) to ensure that it is relevant – 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 assessments and sample specific risk assessments can be found within the Toolkits section of the website.
