Reporting an emergency, accident or incident
What to do, who to contact and how to deal with queries in case of an emergency, accident or incident
In case of an emergency, call Girlguiding's 24-hour emergency line on 0207 592 1828.
What to do in case of an accident or incident at a Girlguiding property, trip or event.
This is part of our health, safety and welfare procedure.
If there's an emergency
- Act quickly and calmly to resolve the situation in whatever way is most urgently needed, such as by administering first aid.
- If needed, call the emergency services. Where there’s a fatality, the police will usually be responsible for informing parents, carer, or next of kin in person. Follow police guidance about communication and don’t share any information about a fatality with other parents or carers until the police have made official contact with the family.
- If you’re outside of the unit meeting place and time, contact the home contact and commissioner if needed. Otherwise, contact the parents and commissioner if needed. Whoever is contacting parents should always contact the family of the person affected first.
- Call Girlguiding’s 24-hour emergency line on 0207 592 1828. Please note: not all accidents or incidents that involve emergency services (such as minor breaks and sprains, or pre-existing medical conditions) require you to call the emergency line. See 'When to call the emergency line' below for more detail.
If a serious incident takes place at a Girlguiding property, event, activity or meeting, whether in the UK or abroad, it must be reported to Girlguiding HQ on 0207 592 1828 as soon as possible.
If the incident happens at a joint activity with another organisation, please follow this procedure. The other organisation will follow theirs.
When to call the emergency line
The emergency line is designed for serious accidents or incidents, such as:
- Serious accidents or injuries: anything that is life-threatening, life-altering, or that requires emergency medical help including rescue services.
- Serious incidents: such as fires that create risk to life, a missing person or death.
Everyday accidents (like minor burns, sprains and breaks) and pre-existing medical conditions should be managed through normal first aid and health services and reporting procedures below.
Accident: involves harm or injury to a person.
Incident: may not necessarily involve physical harm, but could include damage to a property, near miss, aggression or threat.
Near miss: a situation that could have resulted in an accident or incident.
What to do in an accident or incident that is not an emergency
It‘s the responsibility of the leader in charge to ensure the following actions are carried out. They must be part of any risk assessment and contingency plan.
1. Immediate response
- Take immediate steps to manage the incident, for example by giving first aid, or moving young members and volunteers to a safe location.
- Call emergency services for urgent assistance if needed.
2. Notify the right people
- If you have a home contact in place, contact them so they can contact parents or carers so children can be collected as needed or informed of changes in plans.
- If there is no home contact then the commissioner, unit leader or member of the unit team should contact parents, carers or next of kin directly. Whoever is contacting the parents should always contact those most directly impacted (such as the family of the person affected) first.
- Keep your local commissioner informed of what’s happening.
- After the accident or incident has passed, make sure you’ve reported it to HQ using our reporting procedure outlined below.
How Girlguiding HQ responds to incidents
The actions taken will depend on the severity of the incident. The HQ teams will, as needed:
- Stay in touch with volunteers on-site.
- Work with local leaders, commissioners, and country or region teams to provide support at a local level.
- Respond to any media enquiries relating to the incident.
- Set up a group of staff and senior volunteers to manage the case or crisis. This would include a country or region contact.
- Carry out an investigation and make recommendations for future actions.
- Engage legal support, if needed.
- Report to the Health and Safety Executive or local authority if needed.
If you are contacted by the press
Don't make comments straight away. Instead, take their name and contact details, ask for a deadline and tell them that someone will get back to them. You can then pass this on to Girlguiding's press office.
When to report an accident, incident or near miss
After an accident, incident or near miss has passed, you should report it to the HQ insurance team using the following reporting procedure. The following reporting procedure applies even if you’ve already received support from HQ via the emergency line, unless you’ve been told otherwise. It may also apply if an incident is not serious, if it could result in potential insurance claims.
You must report anything which results in:
- Significant injury, discomfort or illness following an accident or incident.
- Damage to property.
- Incidents that involve acts of aggression or violence towards a member of staff or volunteer, including verbal abuse. If you have a safeguarding concern, follow our safeguarding policy and procedure and report to the HQ safeguarding team.
- Any potential insurance claims.
- Any significant near misses.
If you’re not sure, see our reportable incidents flowchart (PDF, 63KB) to check whether an incident should be reported to Girlguiding HQ’s insurance team.
How to report an accident, incident or near miss
Use the notification of accident or incident form (Word, 235KB) to report an accident, incident or near miss to the HQ insurance team.
Use the witness statement form (Word, 229KB) to collect statements from anyone who witnessed an accident or incident involving Girlguiding members.
If more than 1 person was injured as a result of an accident or incident, please complete a separate injured person form (Word, 38KB) for each injured person.
The notification of accident or incident form and any other supporting documents or forms should be sent together to the insurance team by email [email protected] or posted to Girlguiding at 17-19 Buckingham Palace Road, London, SW1W 0PT.
You can also find the latest versions of these forms on our emergency file page.
What happens after reporting an accident, incident or near miss
You'll receive a notification from GO to confirm that the insurance team has received your notification of accident or incident form. They’ll advise you about the next steps to take, for example:
- Follow up with the injured person (or their next of kin) to check how they're doing and inform the insurance team of any updates on their condition.
- Review your risk assessment and update it if there are any changes you could make to prevent this incident from occurring again. It's important to always undertake a risk assessment before starting any guiding activities. Someone from HQ may be in contact to help with this process.
- Take any follow-up actions identified when reviewing your risk assessment. For example, repairing or replacing faulty equipment, or notifying the venue.
- Complete an incident review form (Word, 233 KB) to help understand what caused the incident, what lessons can be learned, and what actions can be taken to help avoid this in future. Someone from HQ might ask you to complete this form, but you might also choose to do it to help learn from the accident or incident.
The insurance team will also send an acknowledgment letter to the injured person (or their next of kin if they're under 18). If the injured person needed further medical treatment, they're entitled to apply to the members’ benefit scheme, a discretional fund members can claim against to recover some of the expenses they might have incurred relating to an accident or incident during guiding activities. The insurance team will send them details of how to apply to this scheme.
Following an incident, you must not admit liability at any time. Before taking any major remedial action following an incident, such as doing repair work to Girlguiding properties, we recommend you get agreement from Girlguiding’s insurance team.
You should send any correspondence you receive about an incident to [email protected] - especially legal letters. Girlguiding has insurance to cover you against claims for accidents but you need to share the legal letter with the insurance team within 24 hours so we can comply with the law. You don't need to reply to the correspondence yourself and no offer of money should be made at any time.
The insurance team will be in touch with you about what's happening once they've received and acknowledged it. Where relevant, the HQ teams will report to RIDDOR – Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations. RIDDOR may be in touch if they need further information.
We take safety very seriously and monitor all accidents and incidents recorded during guiding activities. This helps inform future training and support.
