Risk Assessment
The University of Sheffield has a legal ‘Duty of Care’ to its staff & students. As such any activity that the University asks a staff and Student to take part in must be safe for them to do so and reasonable precautions taken to ensure staff / students and members of the public's safety.
How can we make sure our activities are safe?
When production projects are...
Varied; and in many case the specific topic and methods of a production are left for the staff/student to decide?
Creative; and may involved collaboration and external working.
Worked on independently without supervision.
A risk assessment is looking at the activity you are about to undertake and picking out the things about that activity which may cause an element of risk to either you, the people you are working with or members of the public.
These things could be the activity itself, the environment your in or item of equipment you are to use.
Risk Assessments Myths
They don't have to be long and complicated, just an evaluation of what you are doing.
They are not there to stop you from doing anything, just to allow you to do it safely.
They don't have to be completed for things that have little or no risk.
Risk Chart
A good way to measure risk is to take an activity and look at it in the following way:
What’s the worst thing that could happen?
How likely is it that this could happen?
Every activity you do, no matter how seemingly safe carries some degree of risk. This is particularly true of video production work as there is such a variety of activities connected with it. So it’s extremely important that you consider any risks that your production may be posing to the cast, crew and members of the public. The best way to consider these factors is to carry out a risk assessment prior to your production.
When conducting a risk assessment, identify each potential hazard (eg trip hazards from the tripod and cables, lifting heavy equipment, crowds) and the severity of each risk from that hazard (could someone be severely injured or killed? Or is the risk negligible?). If a risk is severe you must take steps to ensure that you reduce it until you are satisfied that you are working safely and with minimal risk to yourself or others.
This following grid gives you an idea of how you should approach and manage risk during your project. Should you feel your project is a high risk then you should contact a member of staff with your concerns. You could also complete the Risk Assessment Template to help you through your project and keeping yourself and others safe.