Risk Assessments
General Risk Assessment
For events that are covered in your general risk assessment, please submit your group's own general risk assessment that you created during ratification, as this will encompass all of your group's activity and be the most specific to you!
The above template is a student group general risk assessment, designed for any student group. However, please be aware that for specific risk assessments, you should use your group's general risk assessment as a starting point!
All groups are required to hold an up-to-date ‘General’ Risk Assessment covering their day-to-day activities, reviewed and submitted annually during re-ratification. It enables us to cover you under our insurance.
Think of it as a checklist of the possible dangers posed by your activities and the things you'll do to ensure they are as safe as possible. All student group risk assessments must at minimum cover the following risks:
Lack of York SU Awareness
Slips, Trips, Falls
Physical Exercise
First Aid
Fire
Manual Handling
Equipment
Electricity
Food
Music / Loud Noise
Movies
Overcrowding
Video Games
Board Games
Published Content (Print / Online)
External Speakers
Travel (Domestic)
And any other risks associated with your general activity!
The purpose of this risk assessment is to cover all of your general, recurring activity, so that you don’t have to complete a specific risk assessment for each individual meeting, event or social event your group holds! You will be provided a template during re-ratification (check your group's pages on this site!) as a starting point –you should not delete any risks from the template, but should add any additional risks associated with your activity.
Don’t just check this during re-ratification– if your activities change or expand, update your risk assessment to reflect this and let your link staff know!
The general risk assessment should be extremely comprehensive in covering every aspect of your regular activity. The most important thing about risk assessments is that they are followed. You need to know what it says and ensure the mitigations listed are followed!
Specific Risk Assessment
The specific risk assessment is for special events that are outside of your general risk assessment. This means that the event itself needs a special risk assessment in order to go ahead. You will need to submit this within your events application, which can then be approved by the Students' Union. Your specific risk assessment should be your group's general risk assessment, with added risk factors on top.
You will need a specific risk assessment if your event:
Involves an external (non-York SU or UoY) speaker or party.
Involves an external organisation or supplier (must have their own PLI of at least £5 million).
Takes place in a third-party venue (e.g. Clubs, Hotels, Bars, Restaurants).
Involves food or drink.
Involves over 100 people.
Involves children or members of the public.
Involves travel outside of York, including abroad.
Constitutes a performance, competition, show or film screening.
Questions?
Contact your link staff member or Geoff Ward (g.ward@yorksu.org)