Student Social Action Projects
The Department of Sociology (Faculty of Social Sciences) would like all students to maximise the uptake for the opportunity to take part in off-campus projects at least once during their period of study. These may or may not be credit-bearing. Each project may last from half a day to a week and may involve working in small or large groups. Field trips can range from low complexity/low risk activities such as office environments, to higher risk activities such as visiting prisons. It is therefore important that these activities are risk assessed.
Risk assessment
Before a project starts, the staff member responsible for arranging this off-site visit must complete a risk assessment. We have provided a risk assessment template for low-risk activities which covers topics including transport, manual handling, stress, weather and emergency situations. This template must be amended for the activity as well as any additional risks added if necessary.
If the activity undertaken could be considered high risk, we recommend using the provided risk assessment template and adding the additional hazards that could be considered high risk. Examples of high-risk activities include:
- visiting a prison
- visiting a hospital
- visiting a police station
The University provides further information regarding
Employer Health and Safety Checklist (High Risk Activities)
We also recommend completing the Employer H&S Checklist – Student Social Action Projects (.docx) for high-risk activities to ensure the organisation the students will be visiting has the appropriate safety arrangements in place. This checklist requires the lead staff member to request certain health and safety information from the host organisation such as their health and safety arrangements, if they have a risk assessment including its contents and their insurance information.
One part of the Employer H&S Checklist is reviewing the host organisation’s risk assessment. Due to not being involved with the host organisation, it can be difficult to review their risk assessment in detail. However there are certain areas WHSW can review to ensure as best as possible the safety of the students:
- there is an adequate description of what the risk assessment is for
- it is assessed by someone connected with the work
- as the students will be visiting the organisation, you would expect it to state how visitors will be managed, especially in an emergency
- the risks you would expect are listed and the higher risks are detailed
- it has been reviewed within the last year.
Lastly, it is important that if there is an emergency, students are aware of what to do. The staff member responsible for arranging this off-site visit must complete the Field Trip: Emergency Incident Procedures form. This details what the procedure is in case of an emergency the contact details for the students taking part and their emergency contacts. Whilst the students will be following the host organisation’s emergency arrangements, there should be an emergency contact at the University for the student to contact.
