Risk Assessment - Brentwood Trampoline ®

Background to Risk Assessment

Brentwood Trampoline Club (BTC) operates in accordance with British Gymnastics (BG) Code of Practice and other relevant guidelines as may be issued and varied by BG from time to time. Additionally it operates within the Brentwood School Sports Centre which has its own Risk Assessment and Safety procedures. The BTC Risk Assessment procedure is designed to meet the requirements of BG and also to dovetail with the Brentwood School Sports Centre (BSSC) in order to ensure end-to-end cover is attained.

It is explicitly understood that Trampolining is a ‘risk’ sport. The purpose of this procedure is not to eradicate risk; rather it is to take sensible measures to control risk in a manner that does not impede the underlying purpose of enabling participants to take part in an exhilarating sport.

Scope

The scope of this procedure and the underlying Risk Assessments includes all activities undertaken by the club including training, competitions, rigging/de-rigging etc… The scope does not include other uses of the trampolines by the centre even where such use may be by the club’s coaches; it is expected that BSSC will undertake its own risk assessment in respect of those activities. The fact that such use may occur, however, is within scope to the extent that storage and access controls are within scope with an audited link to BSSC’s own controls.

Procedure

The BTC Risk Assessment Procedure is undertaken in two parts and is intended to be subject to ongoing review as and when new risks arise or circumstances change for any reason. At a minimum each assessment should be reviewed by the Head Coach on a 6-months cycle.

Review metrics

Risks will be assessed against two metrics and a ‘risk rating’ or ‘control level’ assigned accordingly as follows:

Severity Rating

Risks will be assigned a rating of between 1 & 6 in accordance with the extent of damage that might arise as a result of the risk manifesting as follows:

Negligible injury(ies);
Minor Injuries requiring first aid;
Major Injuries potentially requiring HSE report by centre management;
Fatality (to one person);
Multiple fatalities;
Catastrophic.

Likelihood Rating

Risks will then be assigned another rating of between 1 & 6 reflecting the likelihood of the risk manifesting as follows:

Highly improbable;
Remotely possible;
Occasionally;
Fairly frequent;
Frequent;
Almost a certainty

Risk, or control, rating

This next measure is calculated as the product of the Severity and Likelihood rating and will be used to determine whether further action is required to be taken as follows:

Rating between 1 & 6 is considered Low and, under normal circumstances, can be tolerated. This is not to say that precautionary measures need not be taken where they would be reasonable but this ought only be as part of the day-to-day routine of normal coaching and other club activities.
Ratings between 7 & 11 are considered to be a Medium Low (Medium on BSSC rating) risk meriting further investigation in order to find mitigations and resolutions.
Ratings between 12 & 15 are considered to be Medium High (High on BSSC scale) and would require significant effort to be expended in finding mitigations and resolution as soon as is reasonably possible.
A rating greater than 15 (i.e. 16 to 36) is considered to be High (Very High on BSSC scale) and would require a cessation of directly related activity until a resolution or mitigation can be found.

Reviews

Part 1 – Summary Level

For each major aspect of BTC activities a Summary Risk Assessment will be undertaken. This document is in Microsoft Word form with an embedded Excel spreadsheet and has, in part, been modelled on BSSC’s own Risk Assessment template. The following high level elements are completed first:

Area/Activity – the name of the high level activity;
Activity number – a simple sequence number to aid filing and reference;
Assessed by – the name of the person completing the Summary Risk Assessment.

Completion of the following columns is then required for each hazard/risk identified in respect of the relevant activity:

Significant Hazards Identified – this is intended to be a brief description of all conceivable risks that the reviewer identifies such as “Somebody might trip over a floor mat” – each Hazard has a sequence number;
Assessment of Risks; SR – this is the Severity Rating described above and is rated at between 1 & 6. Any ‘risk’ considered to have a zero severity rating is NOT a Risk and need not be recorded.
Assessment of Risks; LR – this is the Likelihood Rating described above which is also rated at between 1 & 6. Any ‘risk’ considered to have a zero likelihood (i.e. impossible) is NOT a risk and need not be recorded.

The spreadsheet will then automatically populate the remaining columns (Risk Rating and Risk Level) and highlight all those risks requiring further action as follows:

Low – no specific further action required;
Medium Low – a detail risk assessment must be completed and actions assigned as necessary to mitigate or control the risk;
Medium High – a detail risk assessment must be completed immediately and actions assigned as necessary to mitigate or control the risk. Executive Committee members (and/or BSSC management) will be asked as a priority to assess whether the actions are sufficient to manage the risk or whether additional resources might be required;
High – any activity that might result in this risk manifesting must be ceased until a detail risk assessment has been completed and actions implemented to mitigate or control the risk. Executive Committee members (and/or BSSC management) will be asked as a priority to assess whether, in their opinion, the actions are sufficient to manage the risk before the activity may be recommenced.

Summary Risk Assessments will be completed for each of:

Storage;
Rigging and de-rigging;
Club training sessions;
Pay-as-you-go training sessions;
Hosting competitions;
Conditioning;
Attendance at competitions;

Part 2 – Detail Level

For all ‘risks’ identified during a Summary Risk Assessment as having a risk rating of more than 6 a Detail Risk Assessment will be undertaken. The template document is in Microsoft Word format and has been modelled on the BG sample risk assessment document provided as part of the GymMark Resource Pack. It comprises the following sections:

Activity – the name of the high level activity where the hazard was identified under the Summary Risk Assessment above;
Risk No. – the risk sequence number for the hazard as identified on the Summary Risk Assessment;
Risk – the summary description of the risk as identified on the Summary Risk Assessment (e.g. “football intruding on the training area and either directly or indirectly causing injury”;
Assessed by – the name of the person undertaking the Detail Risk Assessment;
Location/source of risk – the precise location of the risk/hazard and/or the source of the hazard/risk (e.g. “footballs being kicked into the training area from the rest of the hall”);
Nature of risk – a more detailed description of the risk (e.g. “the ball may distract a performer whilst in the middle of a complex move or, worse, land on the trampoline and interfere with their landing”);
Severity of consequences if realised – a text explanation of the specific possible outcomes associated with the original Severity Rating (e.g. “the performer may lose orientation and land on their neck or head leading to a major injury or, worse, fatality”);
Likelihood of the risk being realised – a text explanation describing the rationale for the rating provided (e.g. “although balls do intrude frequently the probability of one actually coinciding with a performer being at risk is lower such that high potential incidents arise only ‘occasionally’”);
Current control of risk – a text explanation of actions and controls currently undertaken or in place to reduce the likelihood and or severity of any incident (e.g. “barriers are erected whenever football (or other similarly boisterous activities) and trampolining are scheduled to be alongside, this is effective in stopping balls being kicked under the dividing curtains. Curtains are also drawn between the areas with the curtain on the ‘football’ side of the barriers, this further controls intrusion. On occasion, however, the curtains are not closely drawn and since the curtains do not go to ceiling height, balls do still intrude either through gaps or over the top of the curtains”);
Any further action(s) required to control risk – a text description of actions that ought be undertaken to mitigate and/or fully eradicate/control the risk to a level that can be tolerated (e.g. “before training commences when football is also scheduled ensure BSSC staff have correctly secured the curtains. Ask BSSC centre management to issue formal written instruction to footballers (and in the case of sports parties the sports attendants running the party) that football ought be played in accordance with the rules of the sport which, in the case of indoor ‘5-a-side’ includes a constraint on the height at which a ball might be kicked – audit compliance with this request”);
Overall Rating – the risk or control rating assigned in the Summary Risk Assessment;
Assessment date – the date on which the assessment was made;
Action due by date – the date by which all actions are to have been completed and be able to be audited for compliance;
Action competed date – the date the action was actually completed and audited.

These reviews will be filed by the Head Coach in a folder readily available for viewing at all club sessions with a copy also held by the Club Secretary. BSSC management will also be provided with a copy of those requiring action by the BSSC and/or its staff. Copies will not be made available online for members to review through the club website since this is unnecessary detail – members will be advised that they might see copies in hard form if they wish.

Once all actions have been completed the Summary Risk Assessment should be updated and the Detail Risk Assessment filed in archive and also updated as appropriate.