Simply Circus14 Pierrepont Rd (617) 527-0667

Newton, MA 02462 Info@SimplyCircus.com

www.SimplyCircus.com

Administrative workshop #11

Risk and Liability:Using Risk Assessments

An introduction and primer to the

Basic Risk Assessment Chart Tool

Presentation by Steven Santos

Key points for this presentation• What is a Risk Assessment?• Who uses Risk Assessments and why?• Forms of the Risk Assessment• Developing a Risk Assessment

– Planning your Risk Assessment– Key Terms– The 0 – 5 scales– What do you include, what don’t you include– ‘The Math’– Assigning colors: green, blue, yellow, orange and red– Converting to Policy Format

• Risk Assessment Exercises

What is a Risk Assessment?A Risk Assessment is an objective and realistic look at the liability risks associated with what you do. 

In other words, exactly what from your class or performance could realistically cause an injury to someone, or cause damage to property? 

The risk assessment defines the known risks for each activity and then assigns a numerical likelihood and severity to each risk. Some forms also define what can be done to mitigate those risks.  

Who uses Risk Assessments?“Suits” including those in risk management and insurance companies use RA’s to help define the risk, and assess coverage options.

Admin folks, including managers, directors, club boards and others use RA’s to help ensure their program is safe, especially when adding new skills

Teachers use RA’s to help make sure they are using the safest approaches to teaching a skill.

Who uses Risk Assessments (2)

Students should use the Risk Assessment to help themselves figure out what to watch for before trying a new and potentially dangerous skill

Performers should use the Risk Assessment to (1) help themselves figure out what to watch for before trying a new and potentially dangerous skill, (2) figure out if a hard or difficult skill is worth performing and (3) help communicate the actual risks of the show to others

Forms of the Risk AssessmentColumn Format, also known as Chart Format refers to a method of writing RA’s where you have columns for what you are looking at, and then rows for each risk. There are literally hundreds of different variants on the chart form, but all RA’s start in chart form.Policy Format is when you take your chart form, and convert each row into a specific policy statement for your organization. Policy format is often harder to change than chart form, but is often required by various “suits”

Developing a Risk Assessment

– Planning your Risk Assessment

– Key Terms

– The 0 – 5 scales– What do you include, what don’t you include: Filling in

your initial chart– A look at calculating the overall risk factors (the math)– Assigning colors: green, blue, yellow, orange and red– Converting to Policy Format

Planning your Risk Assessment

When planning your Risk Assessment, you want to start by separating out your various risks into logical categories. This is most commonly done along skill lines, such as juggling, stiltwalking, etc.

For each category of risk, we will then have topics for Environment, Activity, Equipment, Classroom / Stage, and Other.

Sample Stiltwalking RA

Key Terms:Hazard: A source of potential harm or a situation with a potential to cause loss. Who: Defines who the hazard is expected to effect.Likelihood: A measurement of how often and probable an event might occur. Used as a qualitative description of probability or frequency. Severity: If an adverse event does take place, how severe are the expected consequences? Safeguard: The steps we take to minimize or remove the hazardRisk Factor: The product of the severity X the likelihood of a given risk.

The 0 – 5 ScalesLikelihood

 0 Extremely Unlikely

1 Unlikely

2 Possible

3 Likely

4 Very Likely

Severity

0 Extremely Insignificant

1 Insignificant

2 Minor

3 Moderate

4 Major

What to include, and what not to include in your Risk Assessment

• DO include anything that has been a problem in the past.

• DO include anything that you expect to be a problem.

• DO include any specific hazards others have raised.

• DO NOT include anything with a score of 0

Sample Stiltwalking RA

Calculating the overall risk factors

When calculating out the risk factor for a given activity, first we average the likelihoods and severities and then we multiply the resulting averages to give us our risk factor.

Initial Risk Factor4/34/34/32/32/33/3

Average:

3.17 / 3

Total Risk Factor

9.5

Resulting Risk Factor2/23/11/31/11/11/2

Average:

1.5 / 1.67

Total Risk Factor

2.5

Sample Stiltwalking RA

Standard Color Codes

• Green 01 - 03 – Extremely Insignificant risk

• Blue 03 - 04 – Insignificant risk

• Yellow 04 - 06 – Minor risk

• Orange 06 – 08 – Miner-Moderate risk

• Red 08 – 10 – Moderate risk

• Black 10 - 16 – High Risk

It’s Your Turn!

First Assignment

Each small groups has been given a Risk Assessment form for a different circus art.

With your group you are to come up with as many non-zero hazards and initial risk scores as you can in the next 10 minutes.

GO!

Second Assignment

Pass your paper to the next group

For each risk the other group identified, suggest a safeguard to lower the potential risk.

Assign a resulting risk factor after your safeguard has been applied.

Class Discussion

Pass your risk assessments back to the original groups they came from.

Take 5 minutes to discuss the safeguards that were suggested as a group and pick one or more for class discussion (e.g. big group).

Policy Form

To prevent students from falling down during the initial stages of learning to stiltwalk, trained instructors will physically ‘spot’ students until the students are ready to room walk Independently

Questions?Comments?Thoughts?