Risk assessments

As unit leader, you need to make sure risk assessments are carried out for all activities. Risk assessments are a key part of keeping everyone safe and can help you to feel confident about your planning.  Have a look at our pre-filled risk assessments on this webpage.  

Collaborative effort 

You don’t have to complete the risk assessment on your own. We’d recommend working on it together with your unit leadership team. Working together means that everyone can take responsibility, share ideas and act when it’s needed. You could also reach out to other units in your area who run the same activities and chat together about your thoughts on hazards and the things they have in place to make the risk smaller.  

Adventurous activities and 3rd party risk assessments

We expect all 3rd parties running activities to have completed their own risk assessments. You don’t need to review these risk assessments. Just ask them to share any essential safety guidelines and make sure that they can provide evidence of their own risk assessment.  

Unpredictable risks 

Some risks can’t be predicted or fully controlled. This isn’t something to worry about, but if anything unexpected does happen, you could use this to review and develop your next risk assessment.   

Accessibility of risk assessments 

You must always carry your risk assessment with you during guiding activities. You can have it printed on paper or saved digitally on a phone or tablet, so the whole team can refer to it as needed. You might also be asked by your local commissioner or a parent or carer to share it with them.  

Seeking help 

If you need help with completing your risk assessment, speak to your local commissioner who can help you with some practical support and direct you to our training opportunities, like the Risky Business webinar on our learning platform.   

Incident reporting 

If someone has an accident or incident at a Girlguiding activity or event, you’ll need to complete the notification form to report what happened.  Please see the What to do in an emergency page for extra guidance.   

Information to help you do this 

• Doing our best standards
• Health and safety for hired spaces  
• Food safety guidance 
• Safe online guiding  
• Find an activity  
• Being prepared (PDF)            
• Reasonable adjustments  
• Organising transport for events and activities 

You need to do a risk assessment for all guiding activities, including days out, residentials and unit meetings. To help with this process, we have created pre-filled risk assessments which cover the foreseeable risks that come from these activities. From slips, trips and falls to fire safety and manual handling to adventurous activities– we’ve covered them all.   

We recommend using our templates for your risk assessments. If you prefer Excel or another format, that’s fine, as long as it follows the same steps, headings, and prompts provided. Just make sure your team is comfortable with the chosen format for assessing the venues or activities. 

Pre-filled risk assessments and supporting documents 

Unit risk assessment toolkit

New unit venue risk assessment – You can use this to help you find a new venue or check if your current venue is safe. While it’s not compulsory, it’s recommended as a helpful tool to make sure you haven’t missed anything important. We’ve tried to cover all factors, but we know not all buildings are the same, and there may be different things you need to think about.

Download new unit venue risk assessment (PDF)

Download new unit venue risk assessment (Word)

Annual unit risk assessments - you must risk assess your venue and activities at least once a year. The pre-filled risk assessment will support you to risk assess your unit meeting place and any activities taking place during the unit meeting, including in outside areas.

They're pre-filled with all the foreseeable risks you need to be aware of, so that they're much easier to use and complete than the blank forms. But you don’t have to use them - you can still use the blank risk assessment forms if you’d prefer.  

The pre-filled risk assessment for unit meeting venues and activities only needs to be done once a year then reviewed termly.

Risk assessments are not done by one person. The unit leadership team should take an active role in the risk assessment process.

Download annual unit risk assessment (PDF)

Download annual unit risk assessment (Word)

Risk assessments for activities

These risk assessments can be used to assess a one-off activity or can be done once for activities that repeat throughout the year:

Activities at the normal meeting place – use this risk assessment for any activities at the normal meeting place, including adventurous activities, that aren’t covered in your pre-filled annual unit risk assessment.

Download risk assessment for activities at the normal meeting place (PDF, 978kB)

Download risk assessment for activities at the normal meeting place (Word, 375kB)

Activities away from the normal meeting place – Use this risk assessment for any activities, including adventurous activities, that take place outside your normal unit meeting place.

It’s good practice to let your commissioner know about any activities happening outside the normal meeting location.

Download risk assessment for activities away from the normal meeting place (PDF, 1,073kB) 

Download risk assessment for activities away from the normal meeting place (Word, 440kB)

Residentials and international trips

For exciting activities like residentials and international trips, complete a separate pre-filled risk assessment.

There may be hazards and risks that are uniquely applicable to your group. At the bottom of each pre-filled risk assessment, there is space to add any risks relevant to your group. We cannot do this for you, as the needs vary by group and activity. Please consider relevant risks for your group carefully.

Residentials – Use this risk assessment for any residential trip. It covers the trip itself and all activities planned during the trip, including adventurous activities. Read more about going on residentials.

Download risk assessment for residentials (PDF, 1,257kB)

Download risk assessment for residentials (Word, 480kB)

International trips – Use this risk assessment if you’re taking your girls abroad. It covers the travel, residential and all activities planned, including adventurous activities. Read more about taking girls abroad.

Download risk assessment for international trips (PDF, 1,144kB)

Download risk assessment for international trips (Word, 503kB)

Property risk assessments

Property – are you a property manager? Look at our health and safety guidance for property managers webpage. 

Upcoming pre-filled risk assessments

Risk assessments for large-scale events - keep an eye on your monthly ‘Essential updates for volunteers’ email for more information. Until then, use the blank risk assessment forms.

Supporting documents

Contingency plans – a contingency plan helps you stay ready for unexpected events. Situations such as volunteer illness or the return home if the child’s behaviour on the trip is a case for serious concern. Prior planning will make sure arrangements aren't completely undermined. This document is coming soon.

Pregnancy risk assessment - use this to make adjustments to include and protect pregnant members throughout their pregnancy and after they give birth. Check out our guidance on supporting pregnant members. 

Download pregnancy risk assessment (PDF)

Download pregnancy risk assessment (Word)

Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan (PEEP) – use this if someone needs assistance, for instance, a person with impaired mobility, to evacuate a building or reach a place safely in the event of an emergency.

The key question to ask is, ‘Can this person leave the building unaided in an emergency?’ It’s always better to ask instead of assuming. If the answer is no, they’ll need their own PEEP. Read our guidance on making adjustments for disabled members.

Download PEEP (PDF)

Download PEEP (Word)

If you think there's anything we've missed in our pre-filled risk assessments, just give us a heads up. We'll take a look during our next review.

Blank risk assessment template

While you have the option to use the blank risk assessment form linked below instead of the pre-filled forms, we highly recommend using the pre-filled forms. Regardless of your choice, completing a risk assessment is essential.

If you choose the blank template, you can use our pre-filled risk assessment templates as a reference point. Comparing them side by side will help ensure you’ve covered everything we consider important. If you find that we’ve missed anything in our templates, please let us know!

We also have a checklist to help you do this in the ‘How to do a risk assessment’ section.

For annual unit meetings: if you’re using the blank risk assessment, make sure that you include the building or area you use, such as a hall, and any outside space you use, like a car park. You must do this each term. And make sure you risk assess your venue once a year too. Here’s an example of what a blank risk assessment form might look like when it’s been filled in.

All the activities that you have planned for your unit meetings for a term can be included on one risk assessment. Doing a risk assessment is an ongoing process. Your risk assessment needs to reflect the current needs of your unit and the meeting space or event. You may need to come back and update it throughout the term as needs change.  

Download blank risk assessment for annual unit meetings (PDF)

Download blank risk assessment for annual unit meetings (Word)

Risk assessments help us identify how likely and serious the risks are when doing any activity. We can then weigh the risk against the potential benefits of the activity.  

Whether you’re using the blank or pre-filled risk assessment, you can fill it out on your device and print it out. Or if you prefer, you can print it and fill in by hand.  

Risk assessments must be recorded (physically or digitally) and must be accessible to the unit leadership team for reference upon request.  

1. Identify hazards

When carrying out an activity it’s important to understand what hazards could be present.

Hazards are anything with the potential to cause harm (eg cars, trip hazards, exposed electrical wires, theft.).

It’s important to:

• Look – what hazards can you see? This will be the main way of identifying risks. Look at the venue you’re using and try to identify hazards as you walk around.
• Ask – have others used the space before? Is there an existing risk assessment for a space or activity that you could incorporate into your own risk assessment? (If you’re using a generic or pre-existing risk assessment make sure to double check that it’s recent and that you agree with the steps taken). Others may be able to identify risks that you haven’t noticed.
• Check – are there any manufacturer’s specifications (eg. electrical items, chemicals, such as cleaning products, and equipment) that might be potential hazards?
• Consult – understand risks associated with people, such as health conditions, individual requirements or additional needs. It’s important to identify these and support individuals, rather than creating barriers to activities.

2. Who might be harmed and how?

Once you’ve identified potential hazards associated with your activity or task, you need to work out who may be harmed as a result. This may change depending on the type of hazard.

Remember - people external to Girlguiding may be harmed by hazards or could themselves bring hazards and risks to your activity, for example they could be unfamiliar with the equipment or raise safeguarding concerns.

Consider the effect of hazards created by your activities on:

• Girlguiding volunteers and members.
• Parents and carers.
• Visitors external to Girlguiding.
• Members of the public and other users of a venue or space.

You need to consider what the harm could be – this could include broken limbs, burns, scalds, death, emotional impact etc.

It’s also important to consider any reputational risks that may arise as a result of incidents or activities. Make sure your actions don’t bring the reputation of Girlguiding into disrepute, in line with our code of conduct.

3. Evaluate the risks and control measures

After you’ve identified hazards, you need to evaluate the risk and explore ways of controlling this risk.

It’s your responsibility to make sure risks are appropriately managed and that we protect people from harm that may arise from our activities.

Best practice is to try to remove the risk or hazard completely. If this isn’t possible, the aim is to control the risk as much as possible, so harm becomes unlikely.

• Is there a different option available that has a lower risk or a way of removing it?
• Can you reduce exposure to the hazard, or can you issue Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to reduce any necessary exposure, for example wearing goggles?
• What provision can be made to address any harm. For example, first aid training or first aid equipment, plans to get help, fire extinguishers?
• Control measures should be as simple as possible so that they are able to be implemented effectively, safely and promptly.

4. Record and implement findings

Once you’ve identified hazards and risk management solutions, it’s important that you record these on your risk assessment.

Risk assessments should be accessible to anyone wishing to see them, those involved in risk management plans, or those that may be harmed as a result.

You need to make sure that they are written in simple language and shouldn't use abbreviations.

Make sure you record when actions are completed, if you need control measures in place before an event. You can make a list to make sure nothing gets missed.

You should talk to volunteers and young members about hazards and risks before carrying out an activity, including them in the solution and further minimising any risk.

5. Review your assessment regularly

Once a risk assessment has been carried out, it’s important to make sure it stays valid and applicable to an activity.

New hazards and changes to risks may occur, and risk management solutions may become ineffective over time. There may also be new ways of working that are now considered best practice, and it’s important to move towards adopting these in your approach.

Sometimes it can be good to ask someone else to review a risk assessment that you carry out regularly, to see if a fresh pair of eyes can spot anything new or that might have been missed before. They may also have some different ideas to manage the risk that you could share.

When reviewing risk assessments, it’s important to inform those involved or affected of any changes so that knowledge is kept up to date and in line with best practice.

Making a balanced decision

Once all the actions listed on a risk assessment are in place, we look for a way to eliminate or safely manage the risk of harm to ensure we can safely go ahead with an event or activity. 

This helps us make sure we're responsibly keeping everyone safe, but also that the activities remain challenging for young members.   

1. Involve the member or their parents or carers

It's vital to include the member, or their parent or carer and activity instructor if appropriate, in the risk assessment process. Your views of a person’s abilities, or what would be challenging to them in the activity, will be different to how they feel about their own abilities. They're the expert.

Using a person-centred approach means that the member is included in all decisions that are made. They'll be able to advise you about adjustments that have been made in the past. They may also highlight specific people for support.

2. All things in proportion

Adjustments that are made to an activity should be made in proportion to the risk. For example, if a floor is wet a suitable adjustment would be to mop the floor. It would not be proportional to the risk to rope off the wet area and prevent girls entering the room.

The same applies with inclusive forms of risk assessment. Removing a member from an event or activity will, very often, not be in proportion to the risk.

3. Consider the benefits to the member versus the potential risk

When risk assessing an activity for young members, consider the potential benefits of taking part in an activity. Controlled risks within adventurous activities, such as wearing a helmet and using a qualified instructor when climbing or abseiling, can increase the enjoyment.

Controlling the risks within an activity is a balance between happy and safe:

• With all perceived risks removed, the young member will be safe but will not necessarily enjoy themselves.
• Not managing any of the identified risks will mean that the young member is not safe, and will most likely not enjoy the activity.

When you've identified and managed risks the young member will be able to be independent and enjoy the activity in a controlled environment allowing them to develop and grow.

Sign off for unit meeting risk assessments

You don't need to get sign off from your commissioner for risk assessments for unit meetings, day trips, one-off events at external venues and for events at the normal meeting place outside of the normal meeting time. However, it's good practice to send a copy to your commissioner without asking for their sign off, so that they're informed.

Sign off for other activities

For residentials and international trips, your REN form along with its accompanying risk assessment will need to be approved by your commissioner. For residentials, see the going on residentials page. For international trips, see the guidance on taking girls abroad.

Check this chart for an overview of commissioners' responsibilities regarding the health, safety and welfare of volunteers.  

Manage risk, health and safety 

As commissioner, you'll oversee how leaders manage risk and health and safety, including the approval of Residential Event Notification (REN) forms.

Focus on fundamentals

We don't expect you to be risk assessment experts. Your primary focus is to make sure leaders have completed the fundamental aspects of risk assessments.  
 
For example, it would be an issue if a leader took our pre-filled risk assessment, signed it and sent it back without completing the blank boxes. Another example is if a leader is using the blank risk assessment and hasn’t addressed obvious risks, such as weather conditions.  
 
Ensuring these basic but critical safety measures aren't overlooked is essential. You can use the pre-filled risk assessment as a guide to help you do this. Have all the areas we've identified been considered?  

Adventurous activities and 3rd party risk assessments

If your leaders are using 3rd party providers, they should review the provider’s safety guidelines and ensure the provider has a risk assessment in place. Neither you, as commissioner, nor the leader are required to review the 3rd party risk assessment.

Striking a balance 

We want our activities to be safe, but it’s important that any safety measure is appropriate and strikes a balance between activities being fun and challenging. It isn't possible to completely prevent all risks - but anyone leading activities needs to eliminate or reduce them as far as we can.

Communication and support 

If you have any safety concerns about an activity listed in a risk assessment, discuss your concerns with the unit leader to find ways to make the activity safer so it can go ahead. This is part of the ongoing process of managing risk.  
 
Additionally, other commissioners and specialist advisers can be valuable sources of advice when a risk assessment needs revising. 

Supporting new volunteers

It's also important to support volunteers who are new to their role and the risk assessment process, taking part in a new activity or visiting a new venue. You can help by sharing good practice and directing them towards the pre-filled risk assessments and training opportunities like the Risky Business webinar on our learning platform.

Regular updates and meetings

You might want to include risk assessments as a regular part of your district or division meeting agenda and make sure that volunteers are up to date with our policies and procedures. The health, safety and welfare policy would be a good place to start.

Information to help

• Approving residential events.
• Managing risk in your county.
• Resources for commissioners.

If you need more support, email us on [email protected]. If you’d appreciate any of the  interactive infographics on this page being made available as a printable, bullet-point list, please let us know.