Risk assessments n stuff

Adult Staff
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So

I have never done a risk assessment since join in the cadets as a CFAV.

I think you read about them on some of the training (AC10?)… However without actually doing them in anger I am a little lost.

I believe the organisation is extremely risk adverse nowadays…

For example, I have heard rumours that people were uneasy that we were doing drill in the dark (on a secure bass with lighting!).

I would love to build towards doing a full field craft night exercise like I used to do back in the day. This would be offsite and in public Woods…

How would I go about developing such a risk assessment and can you also have generic risk assessments for something like STEM activities where you may do slightly different things on different nights (maybe you just write the risk assessment for the worst case scenario which would maybe when we use projectiles or something)

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I think this is two very distinct things. Creating RAs, and planning fieldcraft. The latter obviously contains the former.

For the RA side of things, there is a risk assessors course. Normally delivered on Teams now, so quite accessible. But to start getting some idea of what needs to be in an RA, start reading ones already in use! There are some generic RAs here, for example.

The STEM night example would probably be a situation where a generic RA doesn’t work. As you say, you’d be doing different things each night, so ideally should need it’s own RA. But you can have a generic template that covers all the basic stuff, and add in anything extra as needed.

Now, for the planning ad delivering a fieldcraft exercise, that’s a lot more involved, and requires being a qualified fieldcraft instructor. Information around this can be found in ACP 16, but might be easier to discuss this one with your wing fieldcraft officer.

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If you’ve never done risk assessments before then get on the RA course first to understand the process.

Then you need to know the activity you are writing the RA for so as you understand the risks.

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I disagree.

Not Risk Adverse. As an Activity Commander, I am Risk Conscious.

I still do full deployed fieldcraft activities, involving Blank and Pyro, but i weigh the risks and mitigate.

Example (if brief) How do i ensure cadets dont get cold on an exercise…

  1. Kit List,
  2. check kit
  3. Mandatory training… plus other mitigations.
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Why? Do you want to be the one in the dock if something went wrong :man_shrugging:t2:

RAs are not hard but the consequences can be deadly. If not followed, you will be held accountable, with not top cover from the chain of command.

We’ve been using for years and they should make the activity less risky through ever turn of the handle if people take onboard.

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I want to emphasise that I fully understand the importance of risk assessments and take my responsibilities to safeguard cadets very seriously—hence my questions on the subject.

That said, I’ve overheard conversations where individuals seem to be discouraged from organising even the simplest of activities. For example, avoiding the bleep test outdoors due to concerns about loose stones on the tarmac, cancelling night exercises because it’s dark and visibility is reduced, or refraining from certain sports like dodgeball.

Sports, in particular, can be a curious area when it comes to risk assessments. For instance, there was a time when under-16s were not allowed to use a gym and lift light weights under supervision due to fears of injury. Yet full-contact rugby, with all its inherent risks, was considered perfectly acceptable.

Of course, the examples I’ve mentioned highlight genuine risks—darkness during a night exercise, for instance, does present increased hazards. However, these risks should be carefully assessed, managed, and mitigated wherever possible. For example, ensuring night exercises don’t take place near a bottomless pit is an obvious but effective precaution.

Thank you for signposting the fieldcraft manual—I’ll start reviewing it straight away.

Is the online RA course an in-person or asynchronous course?

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I don’t think beep tests are allowed, even though it would be just about the most useful thing for those cadets who are thinking about joining up, to either put their minds at rest or highlight a need for more training.

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It should be ran by someone and you need to complete an RA at the end to send in as an ‘assessment’.

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Ma have been mistaken with the actual modality it might have been something else that required turning

I kind of agree with you about the bleep test being useful…

Although I have views on fitness tests that have been designed in the military… For example do you still have to do sit-ups for #reasons?

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The general cancellation culture that you mentioned usually (not always) is they would rather not do the RA so easier to cancel the activity than actually think outside the box. As a tip after you have done your RA course, its amazing how many “modern” (there are a few versions of the RA form) are on Sharepoint. You can download these and cherry pick the bits that are appropriate, add some additions and localise it for your activity. I got a great one regarding Poppy Selling inside a supermarket, by simply searching for Poppy Selling RA in Sharepoint. Think smarter than harder!

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Luckily we’ve been told in no uncertain terms that it would be AOC22 group!

I think the organisaton is hugely risk averse compared to ACF or SCC to its detriment and more could be done by those at the top to standardise so so many RA’s making the volunteers life easier!

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I dont disagree but i always think its worth keeping in mind ultimatley its the perm staffs head on the chopping block and if things go wrong potential careers ruined and in a worst case scenario jail time.

That being said, i do think somehow this all needs to be simplified and a unified approach/standards across all 3 organisations

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and so you would have thought with:

then a

RA should be readily available for the most common events.
these will only ever be at 95% completeness as there will always be local differences that cannot be “generic” but if we’re all working off the same ACPs/ACTOs, and expected to work with the same qualifications, why is there such a wild variation in RAs that are produced?

if the risk of a rock climbing at climbing wall centre exists, then you’d expect it to be 95% similar if that is being done in Kendal or Brighton.
yet we see two wildly different RAs from two Squadrons attending the same event because Wing won’t take ownership of the event and produce the RA for it!

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The Wing probably don’t have the time to provide a RA for every individual task however it is more than likely that your Wing SME’s or even other staff on Sqn/nearby Sqn’s probably have done one before, they will have generic bank of RA’s. Such as Wing Sports Officer will have a generic athletics or football one, First Aid will have one too. You have a few options, if you don’t ask the question you wont get. The other way is to search on Sharepoint, (not under the RA/H&S section) just generic search. The other way is to look at local events, for example you might be doing a 1st Aid course on Squadron however the Wing is running a different one, they might have already loaded their RA, so you can just nip in to their event, save the file and edit it for your location and purpose. We keep a localised bank of RA’s that we use year on year especially when its just a case of double checking everything is the same, changing the dates and review date and saving, makes things so quick.

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i am not asking for every task, i am asking for Wing to produce a RA for a wing run event, yet they have in the past expected Squadrons to create the SMS event for it…

this results in half a dozen Squadrons attending the same Wing led event with 6 different versions of a RA

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So why is this bank not sitting with HQAC and made available to all via sharepoint?!

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I think there certainly is an attitude of “over assessing” risks in an attempt to meet the perceived risk appetite of those above. We then add in extra controls etc above and beyond what’s really needed to reduce the risk to a reasonable level, because we get stuck in the mindset that those above us think “reasonable” is much lower than what we think it is.

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And then you ask staff at a large event if they’ve even seen the RAs, and often the answer is no.

‘We’ seem to be very good at being over the top with RA production, but actual implementation seems to get missed a lot.

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Yeah, personally I feel like an RA should be accompanied by a briefing sheet that condenses all the controls down into a single page of A4. If you want to understand why that control measure is present, read the RA, but otherwise just implement the controls.

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Anyone tried using AI to write any yet? We’ve played with it at work work. It can even do tables n stuff, but I think for RAFAC use it might be asking AI to think or hazards and mitigations and copy and pasting it over