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Stage Management Guide - Risk Assessments

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What is a risk assessment?

A risk assessment is an examination of what, in the process of an event, could cause harm to people. The aim is to identify any hazards, decide the probability of the accident occurring and to decide what (if anything) should be done to reduce the risks or effects.

Hazard: anything that can cause harm (eg. hot lights, electrically unsafe equipment)

Risk: the chance that somebody will be harmed by the hazard

Why assess risk?

The point of a risk assessment is NOT to eliminate all risk. It is to reduce risk to acceptable levels.
For example, by doing a risk assessment, you may find that a show requires more fire extinguishers than in the venue or that some need to be moved to better locations. The risk assessment is there to open your eyes to potential dangers and to plan how to prevent problems before they occur and to reduce the effects of accidents.
Many people (in the Student's Union, the University and Industry) require risk assessments. It an ability that you almost certainly will use in future life and in some instances, is required by law.

Its not complicated!

Life is unpredictable, and so identifying absolutely everything that could go wrong is unnecessary. You could look at the chance of a meteorite crashing into the ALT but it there wouldn't be much point.
Breaking every danger into its precise parts isn't needed; eg. specifying hazards on each and every type of light is just going to extremes. In this instance you would usually state the hazard as a defective light which could cause injury. A way to reduce the risk would be to make sure all lights have been electrically tested (PAT test), ensure all lights have effective hook clamps and safety wires and visually check each light as it is rigged.

Who should do it?

There is no specified person who should carry out a risk assessment, but the event manager should ensure that it is done. If you are in any doubt, please ask the Backstage Safety Officer for help.

What do I do with it?

As part of a risk assessment, you'll produce a series of measures that would reduce the risk or effect of the hazard. By ensuring that you actually do this, everybody's safety is improved.
Make sure everyone is aware of it: you're not the only one in danger. If people don't know that certain things need to be done then they won't do them and the entire process is a waste of time.
If situations change, then the risk assessment will need to be reviewed to ensure that it actually matches up with what's happening at your event.

DOING A RISK ASSESSMENT

There are five steps:

Look for the hazards
Decide who might be harmed and the severity of this harm
Evaluate the risks
Decide whether the existing precautions are adequate or whether more should be done.
Do it! Ensure that the risk assessment is up-to-date.

So going through the process with an example,

Step 1 (the most important):
Identify hazards
Have a walk around the venue, look at the lighting plan, work out where all the set is going to go. Have a think about the timetable, are you transporting anything? any heavy lifting? any unusual equipment? What could go wrong?
A method that works well is to think through the event in chronological order. So for a show:

Collection of equipment: any heavy lifting?
Get-in: safe equipment? first aid kits? competent flying? falling? dropping? knocking over set? cuts? overwork? fainting? lack of food? fumes? spilling?
Rehearsals/Performance: burns? fire? ear damage? strobes? slipping?
Get out: as get out, performers in danger?

eg. Hazard of hot light causing person to burn hands

Step 2:
Decide who might be harmed and by how much In Backstage work, the people involved usually falls into one or more of three categories: crew, cast/performers and public. It should also be divided into numbers of people; individual, small or large.
The severity of the harm is split into

minor: small cut/burn/bruise
major: severe cut/burn/bruise
fatality: you kill someone

It is common to give the severity as a range of categories, eg. Individual crew member burns hands on hot light during get out with severity minor-major.

Step 3:
Evaluate risks
Is the chances of this hazard high, medium or low?
eg. Depending on the competence of the crew, the chances of this happening is probably medium.

Step 4:
Decide on precautions

What needs to be done to reduce the chances of the accident occurring? Can anything be done to reduce the effects of an accident?

If possible (in this order):

Try a less risky option (eg. use a gantry instead of a ladder)
Prevent access to the hazard (eg. prevent performers from being on stage during rigging)
Organise work to reduce exposure to the hazard (eg. only set up pyro firing box just before show starts)
Issue personal protective equipment (eg. use safety hats whilst rigging)
provide equipment and facilities for accident occurring (eg. first aid cover, mop)

Step 5:
Do it!

Write it out, make people aware of it and ensure that the precautions are carried out.

Part of a risk assessment example

Hazard	People involved	Consequences	Level of risk	Control Measures
	Individual, Small, Large, Crew, Performers, Public	Minor, Major, Fatality	Low, Medium, High
Burns from handling of hot lights	Individual, Crew	Minor-Major	Medium	Briefing to encourage wearing of gloves allowing lights to cool First Aid available
Electric shock from equipment failure	Individual, Crew	Major-Fatality	Low	Safety Briefing visual inspection of equipment before use all equipment to be PAT tested location of cut switches emergency procedures First Aid available
etc.

Extra information

Risk Assessment Template (definitely worth using)

Backstage Safety Guidelines

Backstage Safety Officer (bts-equip@bath.ac.uk)
University Safety Officer (x6834, safety@bath.ac.uk)
Five steps to risk assessment, HSE

Credits:
The Backstage Risk Assessment Guide was written by Colin Hodges and is © BTS 2007.
No reproduction in whole or in part in any means whatsoever is permitted without written consent.

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