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Health and safety considerations
The University has a legal duty to look after the health, safety and well-being of employees in all activities that are carried out as part of employee’s work, including Community Challenges. Although Community Challenges are carried out in partnership with an external organisation, the University has the primary responsibility for the health and safety of staff who take part.
As mentioned earlier, consideration should be given to the physical attributes of team members and any psychological factors that might impact on their ability to undertake a Community Challenge. Staff should not be put in a position where they are expected to perform beyond their capabilities and this should be taken into account when assessing the suitability of a Community Challenge.
Risk assessment considerations
The key to planning any activity is a sufficient risk assessment. It is important that the assessment is undertaken early on in the process to ensure all risks are minimised.
The team manager must have undertaken the on-line risk assessment training before carrying out the risk assessment. (Please note that this training is designed for carrying out duties in the workplace. However, the principles are readily transferable for a Community Challenge.)
A risk assessment form is available on the Community Challenge web pages. Assessment is made of the suitability of the Community Challenge and any health and safety issues that will need to be considered. It makes sense to involve and liaise with the partner organisation and the team at this stage. The partner organisation may carry out its own risk assessment on its own form. Organisations without such a process, may wish to use our risk assessment template. However, they cannot access our training.
It is the responsibility of the team manager to ensure that the whole team is briefed not only on the Challenge itself, but also on any health and safety issues in advance of the Challenge.
Any team member using their car to travel to the Challenge must check with their insurers that they have suitable cover to do so. If transport is being arranged as part of the Community Challenge, this may be booked through the University through the Transport Office. Please contact them for further details transportbookings@exeter.ac.uk.
