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If you’re responsible for organising your town’s summer fayre this year, you have a duty to make sure that everyone is safe and secure. Security measures should be a major focus of the event, and in this article, we set out some simple security procedures to help you run a safe summer fayre.
Carry out a full risk assessment
To meet the legal requirements of organising an event like a summer fayre, you need to first carry out a risk assessment and identify all the possible hazards plus anything else that could cause harm to anyone. You need to identify who might be harmed and how, check on the likelihood of a hazard happening and come up with a plan of the action.
Make a list
When you’ve listed the possible hazards of each fayre activity, you should also list the precautions to be taken, and request the fayre’s suppliers and attraction operators to provide their written assessments to include with your own.
Possible hazards
When listing possible hazards, you should consider the following:
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Volunteers, unsupervised children, older people and people with disabilities
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Crowd safety
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The excitement generated by the activities
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Number of people expected to attend
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Weather conditions
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Fire hazards
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Car control and parking issues
Organising committee
No matter how informal, an organising committee should be set up to oversee the event. They need to draw up the risk assessment and record all the duties of people involved with the event arrangements and monitoring.
Event Manager
One person should be in charge of the event, but it’s also advisable to appoint a Safety Officer who will be responsible for all safety matters (overall responsibility for the event remains with the organising committee). The Safety Officer could also be the Event Manager, and should have some experience or knowledge of safety matters appropriate for the event.
Others with responsibilities
All of those who have a specific responsibility should be named and their responsibilities clearly defined. This includes helpers or volunteers who are co-opted to assist. In addition, they should be properly instructed and know exactly what action to take in the event of an accident or other emergency.
Record keeping
All of those with responsibilities should be listed andminutes of all the organising committee meetings recorded.
The following people or organisations should be informed of the event:
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Police
The Police Station local to where the event is being held must be informed of the event, with details supplied in writing. This must include the venue layout, entrances and exits, and the numbers of people expected. The police may provide crowd control assistance, public order and local traffic management and parking assistance.
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Fire Services
The Event Manager should contact the Fire Safety Office local to the event. They will advise on fire safety matters and specify how the emergency services will be employed. Marshalling of spectators and traffic control may be handled by them in emergency situations. Access for emergency vehicles and on-site fire-fighting equipment and arrangements will have to be provided.
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Health Services
The British Red Cross, St John Ambulance or some other voluntary First Aid society should be contacted and first aid cover provided. This is not usually a free service so the organisers of the fayre will have to pay a fee. The Emergency Planning Officer of the specific Ambulance NHS Trust should be consulted at the initial planning stages for first aid cover and medical provisions at the event if there could be more than 5000 people attending. The ambulance service will set up a casualty assessment centre in the event of any major incidents and will also nominate the hospital to which any casualties may be transported.
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Local Authority
