Risk Assessment Guidance

All student groups are required to submit risk assessments to Keele SU. Find out what they are, when you need one and how to do it here!

Clubs and societies are not independent, but legally part of Keele SU. This means that any laws that apply to us also apply to you, and we are ultimately responsible when club and society activity goes wrong, alongside the committee. To help mitigate this risk, we require risk assessments from all clubs and societies in order to allow student activities to happen. You know your student group best and are best placed to identify risks. This is not just for the health and safety of students, but also to protect Keele SU from liability – potentially costing us hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Groups will usually be asked to provide an updated risk assessment during 'reaffiliation', which is a bit like a census to check which of our groups are still active ahead of the new academic year. However, you also may need to complete risk assessments throughout the year, depending on the kind of activity your group undertakes. To help with this process, we have created a template which we think covers most of the risks that come with basic club and society activity (see below). From slips, trips and falls to fire safety and manual handling – we have covered the basics so that you don’t have to. However, we do ask that you carefully read through the parts that we have written and add to them if there’s anything uniquely applicable to your society that we have not yet covered.

On top of this, there is space at the bottom of the risk assessment for you to add risks specific to your society. This is something we can’t do for you as the needs and purpose of our societies are so diverse – you are the experts in this case! We expect all societies to make at least some additions to this template, but please don't delete any of the existing information. Some groups will need to spend more time on it than others due to the kind of activity they carry out. For example, (if we had one) we would expect Skydiving Society to have a much lengthier risk assessment than Squirrel Spotting Society!

If you are a club, you will need two risk assessments. The first should be made using this template, and will cover all your basic activity, including stalls, socials etc. Your training risk assessment will be sorted separately through the Athletic Union at the start of each year. Please contact the AU for further information on this at su.athleticunion@keele.ac.uk.

If you have any questions or concerns about completing your risk assessment, please email the team at su.activities@keele.ac.uk.

Risk Assessment Template

FAQs

How long does our risk assessment have to be?

A risk assessment can never be too long or too detailed. The more detail you go into, the more you are covered! The template we have provided is pretty long already, which just goes to show the level of detail that needs to be covered.

Which committee member is responsible for our risk assessment?

All of you. If you’re on a society committee, it is your joint responsibility to ensure your society is covered by a risk assessment. All committee members need to have read through the risk assessment and be familiar with the safety procedures that it covers. The President will need to sign the risk assessment every year to make it official.

Do we need to do anything once we’ve completed our risk assessment?

Yes! You need to follow the control measures stated in the risk assessment. The reason we do risk assessments is to make your activities safe and inclusive. The control measures are in place to avoid problems occurring. If you need any advice or support in how to implement the control measures at your meetings and events, reach out to the team.

Why is risk management important?

Most importantly, it keeps you and your members safe. It's also important that as a students' union we do everything we can to ensure our activities are as low risk as possible. It's also a really useful skill, and something that you can put on your CV as a responsibility you had when being on a committee. It shows attention to detail, planning, and event management.

What happens if we don’t complete our risk assessment?

Clubs and Societies need to complete an annual risk assessment. You're not officially a Keele SU Society or Club until we have yours. This means you won't be promoted on the SU website, have a stall at the welcome fairs, have access to your budgets and balances, or access to book a room.

For your ad hoc risk assessments, we have the ability to close down events that we don't deem safe. If we haven't got a risk assessment for your event then we don't know it's safe!