Create a safer, healthier and welcoming atmosphere!
Whether or not your Live & Local performance is at your own venue or you hire a hall, it is your event and you are responsible for the safety of the audience and any volunteers.
Try to imagine you are a member of the company or audience who has never visited your venue before. It is not necessary to do everything or have everything on the list below – it depends on your venue and the show – but it is a good idea to walk around your venue before you let people in and ask yourself a few questions. This is known as a 'Health and Safety Risk Assessment', a careful examination of what could cause harm to people, so that you can weigh up whether you have taken enough precautions or if there is more you should do to prevent harm.
It is good practice to go through the following five steps:
- Look for and identify any potential hazards;
- Decide who might be harmed and how;
- Evaluate the risks and decide whether the existing precautions are adequate or whether more should be done;
- Record your findings and implement them;
- Review your assessment before your next performance and update it if necessary.
More information on risk assessment can be found on the Health & Safety Executive’s website at www.hse.gov.uk.
It is also wise to check well in advance that you have appropriate insurance? This could be to cover the building, contents, personal belongings and public liability.
In the meantime, here are a few things to keep an eye out for:
Outside the venue... have we got:
- Adequate lighting and has it been switched on in time for the arriving audience;
- Clear signs telling people where to go when they arrive?
- Enough parking?
- Enough room for a fire engine or an ambulance to get to the building? (Just in case!)
Inside the venue…have we got:
- A hall which is a suitable temperature for both the audience and the performers to be comfortable during the show?
- Are both the hall and the dressing room at a suitable temperature for the performers prior to the show?
N.B. Musicians usually need both rooms to be the same temperature in order for their instruments to stay in tune.
- Somewhere for the box office / raffle / refreshments that doesn’t block exits?
- Enough seats for the audience including extra people who may turn up on the door?
- Inter-locking seating (if required by the local fire brigade)?
- Enough room for guide dogs or helper dogs?
- Aisles or gangways which are the width required by your local authority / fire officer?
- Enough room in the aisles for wheelchairs and pushchairs to get in and out?
- Someone available to help with wheelchairs and pushchairs if needed?
- Somewhere for wheelchairs and pushchairs which doesn’t block aisles or exits?
- Room near the front for people with hearing difficulties or visual impairments?
- All the fire exits unlocked and clearly marked?
- Clearly marked fire extinguishers?
- A clear, safe route from the fire exits to the car park or the front of the building?
- An escape route planned and someone to take charge in case of fire?
- A working telephone that can be used in the event of an emergency?
- Someone who knows how to turn the mains water, gas and electricity on and off (in case of a fire)?
- A first aid kit and a first-aider available for the show?
- Someone who will check at the end of the night for that all heaters and electrical appliances have been turned off?
And now for the technical stuff…have we got:
- Safe rubber-covered cabling securely taped down if it runs across any aisles?
- Sockets with circuit breakers?
- Heaters which are serviced regularly?
- Plastic socket protectors?
- Electrical appliances which are tested annually?
- A kitchen (if in use) which has been inspected by Environmental Health?
