This will give you a clearer understanding of how you can help to keep yourself, volunteers and participants in Parkinson's UK activities safe. This is part of the Parkinson's UK volunteer induction: http://www.parkinsons.org.uk/volunteerinduction

2. Health and safety legislation
The purpose of health and safety legislation is to protect us and
minimise the risk of injury:
• we need to be able to go about our business safely
• we need a common sense approach to help protect
people and prevent harm
• you need to think and plan for what might go wrong
Every day we all assess risks
When driving, we check if it’s safe to overtake or pull out. If we
suspect something is hot, we check to see if it’s safe to touch.
It’s what we do to keep ourselves safe.

3. Who is responsible for health and safety?
All of us at Parkinson's UK have responsibility to ourselves
and those we come in to contact with.
Parkinson’s UK has a responsibility to promote safety and
provide training.
Employees and volunteers have a general responsibility to take
reasonable care and co-operate with their organisation.

4. Which groups are most vulnerable?
Our volunteers. Their huge range of activities could place them at
risk - their movements, environments and working practices are not
easy to monitor.
The young, elderly and infirm. Users of our services that we come
into contact with may need special attention.

5. What is a hazard and how do we deal with it?
A hazard is anything that has the potential to cause harm. Carrying
out a risk assessment helps us identify hazards.
We need to make ourselves familiar with how to carry out a risk
assessment.
We use risk assessments to identify hazards at meeting premises,
events, holidays, outings, collections or any other activities.
We record what we find and ask ourselves: Can the area or event
be made safe? Do we need to change our plans?
To make things safe we remove or cover the hazard, work around
the hazard or protect ourselves from it.

6. Five steps to a risk assessment
1. Identify the hazards.
2. Decide who might be harmed and how.
3. Evaluate risk and if existing precautions are adequate,
if not change or add to them.
4. Record your findings.
5. Review the assessment from time to time.

7. 1. Identifying hazards.
A hazard is anything that has the potential to cause harm:
• a hole in the ground, spilt liquid or loose paving can cause slips
trips and falls
• inadequate lighting can cause you to walk into or collide with
something
• poor hygiene can cause stomach upsets or worse
• inappropriate behaviour can cause injury
• lack of knowledge or understanding could cause harm to others

8. 2. Decide who might be harmed and how.
When holding a meeting or event, think about who is most at risk.
Examples include:
• the unaware who may walk into danger
• the infirm - is the area suitable, does it have level floors and is it
free of trip hazards?
• the elderly - are they suitably provided for?
• the young who may lack understanding

9. 3. Evaluate the risk and if existing
precautions are adequate.
If there are potential hazards:
• think about the number of people - more people equals more
risk
• can the hazards be removed?
• can the hazards be safely covered up?
• could you ask a person to stay in the area and direct people
safely?
• are volunteers aware of their role in the proceedings?
• do you need to talk to the owners of the premises
to make something safe?

10. 4. Record your findings.
Carry out a risk assessment using a risk assessment form.
Remember two or three pairs of eyes are better than one.
Make a note of any hazards that you find.
Make a note of the actions you’ve taken.
Remember you can only do your best. If you miss something it’s
not your fault if you did not put it there in the first place.

11. 5. Review from time to time.
If you attend the same place regularly, make regular checks
in case things change.
If you have reported a problem, has it been cleared up or
sorted out?

12. Parkinson’s UK health and safety
arrangements
We have sections on health and safety in both the Local Group
Directory and Parkinson’s UK volunteer manuals and guidelines.
We talk and listen to our staff and volunteers.
We’ve produced a range of easy to use risk assessment forms
and offer training and support.

13. Our duty
We have a moral duty to keep people safe.
We are legally obliged to keep people safe.
We do not want our operations affected due to injuries to
staff and volunteers.
We do not want our finances to suffer through fines and
increased insurance premiums.

14. Thank you
Parkinson’s UK believes that it is vitally important to help make
volunteers’ working environment as safe as practicable. We need
your help to keep people safe.
If you are responsible for arranging meetings, are considering
running an event, arranging a group holiday or outing or even
holding a collection make sure you carry out a risk assessment.
Thank you very much for taking the time to go though this unit.
A further training unit is available which deals specifically with risk
assessing events.