Background
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Autscape has no paid employees and is not an employer for the purposes of the
Health and Safety at Work Act. Nevertheless, it is common sense that we should
aspire to follow the same rules and regulations insofar as they make sense in
our environment.
Autscape has the following characteristics:
* No premises
* Different people on the management committee each year
* For most of the year, the committee members are:
- home workers
- performing substantial VDU work
- with little or no opportunity for training.
* The conference is:
- hosted at an external venue
- with few opportunities to survey the venue
- attended by many disabled people.
There are quite different risks during:
* the time between conferences
* setup and teardown
* running the conference.
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General policy
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The general policy is to maintain a risk assessment, which involves
identifying risks, judging their likelihood and consequences, and
taking action to mitigate a risk where necessary,
Where possible, the actions taken should be reviewed to check that a risk
has in fact been mitigated. As there is only one conference each year, it
may be impossible to do this so common sense should be used to judge
whether or not an action was in fact effective.
Responsibility for health and safety ulimately lies with the chair,
however, maintainance of the risk assessments may be delegated, eg. to the
venue co-ordinator.
Anyone is permitted to raise an issue to be added to or removed from the
risk assessment, however, the person maintaining the risk assessments
shall decide whether the risk should be added or removed.
The risk assessment and the general policy may be reviewed at any time,
but should be always be reviewed before the annual conference. A shorter
policy is more likely to be effective, so thought should be given to items
that could be removed.
At the conference, an incident log should be maintained that includes
safety issues that have occured. Hopefully, this will remain empty, but if
not, items should be brought to the attention of the committee at the next
meeting, including any followup that was deemed necessary.
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Risk assessment - working at home
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It is impossible for Autscape to mandate or police working conditions in
people's homes. Everyone on the committee is a volunteer, and there is no
complusion on people to work in unsatisfactory conditions. What we can do is
to make sure that people are aware of what they are doing so they have the
opportunity to set up a suitable environment for themselves.
1) Nearly all the work is VDU work
- Issue VDU operator advice on correct posture, taking breaks etc
2) Some manual work is involved (manhandling boxes of conference materials)
- Issue advice on safe lifting
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Risk assessment - setup and teardown
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1) This is usually rushed and in an unfamiliar location.
2) Some manual lifting is involved.
Make sure that sufficient time has been allowed between arriving at the venue
and the start of registration.
People should be encouraged to say so if they are given a task that is beyond
their capability.
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Risk assessment - the conference
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1) First aid and minor accidents
The venue coordinator should check that the venue should provide first aiders
and first aid boxes. First aid should normally be left to a trained first
aider, however, sometimes time is of the essence and every organiser should be
aware of
a) where the first aid boxes are,
b) where to find the first aiders themselves or a list of first aiders, and
c) how to summon a first aider, including during the night.
The venue coordinator is responsible for collecting the information and
distributing it to the organisers.
2) Major accidents/incidents
Where possible, the venue staff should be informed and they should call the
emergency services - they know how to give directions to the venue and that
saves vital time. However this is not always possible so everyone on the
committee should know, or have a record of, how to call the emergency
services, including
a) the number to call (including any prefixes to get out of the
building's internal exchange)
b) where to find a telephone on a fixed land-line,
c) the full name and address of the venue, including postcode, and
d) telephone number of the venue.
The venue coordinator is responsible for collecting the information and
distributing it to the organisers.
3) Fire safety
Everyone on the committee should familiarise themselves with fire
extinguishers, break glass points, and related equipment. This should be
done by walking walking round the venue, preferably before the
participants arrive.
4) How the conference participants find out the above
The orientation session should include information on how to find help in an
emergency, either from an organiser or from the venue staff.
The orientation session is already full of information; there is no point
in listig the location of all safety equipment - people won't remember it.
Instead, participants should be encouraged to look for extinguishers,
break glass points and the closest emergency exit to their room, in their
own time.
The auditory sensitivity of some participants makes impossible to teach people
how the fire alarm sounds by simply ringing the alarm. The orientation should
make a point of telling people what the alarm sounds like, and if there will
be other loud noises, such as fire doors slamming shut.
It is the venue coordinator's duty to ensure that any relevant information
from the venue is delivered in orientation session.
5) Evacuation
For a variety of reasons, some participants may not evacuate when the alarm
sounds. It is essential that a roll call is performed to check that evacuation
is complete.
It is the registrar's duty to maintain up-to-date list of residential members,
incorporating any last minute modifications made to room numbers. The
registrar and the venue should both have this list so that a roll call can be
performed.
6) Electrical safety
The venue will have its own safety checks. Nevertheless if a defect is
spotted, it should be noted in the incident log and reported to the venue.
7) Violence and bullying
While this is a potentially safety issue, this falls within the scope of
the existing behaviour policy.