The steps are:

1. Establishing a Context for Risk Management in Your Organisation
2. Communicating Risk Management to Your Organisation
3. Identifying Risks in Your Organisation
4. Analysing Risks in Your Organisation
5. Evaluating Risks in Your Organisation
6. Treating Risks in Your Organisation
7. Monitoring and Reviewing Risks in Your Organisation

Brainstorming!

Get everybody together in one room and have someone up the front with a pen and a whiteboard or sheets of butcher's paper. Their job is simply to write down any risks that anyone can think of, from slipping on the polished floorboards to being hit by a stray meteorite. Depending on the size of your organisation, you may want to break up into smaller groups to brainstorm ideas, then present them to the group - you may want to assign groups to different areas of potential risk. In any case, while a scattergun approach can be useful initially, it is worth breaking down the potential risks into sub-headings to make sure all areas are covered.

Remember that it is important to document all the potential risks that you identify, in each step of the risk management process. The statute of limitations in public liability cases in quite broad, especially regarding incidents involving children. If someone claimed they were injured at your clubrooms six years ago, would you have any way of knowing if they were right, or if you had done anything to address a potential hazard? Documenting everything is vital.

So, what are you looking for? A risk is anything that can cause harm, ranging from an overfilled urn to the smell of cake stall leftovers left in the cupboard for three months. The classic test for identifying risks is to imagine a child coming into your premises or joining a group activity - what would you warn them about or keep them away from?

Remember that these Help Sheets focus on threats to public safety, but your organisation should also keep in mind other areas of risk, such as financial risk. More information on these can be found at http://www.ourcommunity.com.au/insurance/insurance_main.jsp.
Some useful questions to ask when identifying risk include:

What can happen? When, where, why and how might this occur?
Who and what might be involved?
Who will be affected if this happens?

It is important to define risks in terms that are useful in figuring out how to treat that risk. A risk usually comprises three parts:

1. A source
2. Something at risk
3. An effect

Every organisation is going to come up with a long list of potential hazards. So where do you start? There are a number of ways of tackling the task of identifying all the risks in your organisation, but each involves breaking them down so you're not trying to tackle the whole problem at once. You might want to go through your premises room by room, or list your activities one by one, identifying areas of potential risk as you go.

For the fictional junior football team the Joeys, this might involve walking through the clubhouse and looking for anything that might cause a problem - take a close look at everything and imagine the worst-case scenario. Think "what if?" If children use the premises, look around from their eye-level - remember that hanging cords or cables can be an attraction to a child.

Supposing the Joeys choose to tackle the task of identifying risks by simply walking through the different rooms in their clubhouse, some of the questions for them to think about might be:

Changerooms

• Are benches or hooks at a safe height, securely attached to the wall and free of sharp edges?
• Are any medicines or potentially hazardous items kept in the rooms securely locked away?
• Are doors and windows fitted with locks to prevent break-ins?
• Are there measures in place to monitor who comes into the rooms on game days?

• Are showerheads in good condition and at a safe height?
• Is the hot-water system regularly serviced and well maintained?
• What is the floor like? Can it get wet and create the danger of slips or falls?

• Are there any electrical items that could create a fire hazard?
• Do you have cooking areas, hot food or boiling water that could cause burns?
• Is access to the kitchen or any particular items, such as an urn, restricted or supervised?
• Do you have food handling measures in place?

Going from room to room is one way of identifying risks, but it might not be suitable for every organisation. But it is definitely a good idea to try to break down hazards into particular topics. Yachting Victoria has produced a practical risk management guide that divides potential risks into four categories: environmental risks, personnel risks, on-water risks and pre and post-event activities.

Potential hazards identified in the guide include collision of boats, fire/explosions on rescue craft and seasickness - risks that would clearly not be relevant for most organisations. But the guide is a good example of how to categorise potential risks in a way that suits your organisation, and of the sort of list you might end up with if you start by identifying general hazards and then exploring other risks that apply to the work you do.

For more suggestions, see The Main Areas of Risk for Community Groups Help Sheet at http://www.ourcommunity.com.au/insurance/insurance_main.jsp.

It's your responsibility to make your organisation into a safe environment for anybody (staff, volunteers, members, players, supporters, clients, patients, contractors, visitors) who is likely to come into contact with it (and that doesn't just mean people have permission to enter). A key point is to make sure you inspect your facilities, equipment and premises regularly.

Other ways to help complete a list of potential risks include:

• Incident review - have events occurred previously that are recorded or remembered, to help generate an image of the site or function you are examining.
• Interviews - talk to locals, council risk managers, other professionals, people who know the area or function, staff, emergency personnel.... Talk to people who run groups similar to yours to find out what risks they have encountered.
• Documentation - what maps, procedures, photographs, video, records, articles, signs, notes or reports are already in existence?
• Guidelines - eg. Sportsground line marking and boundary standards, electrical safety standards, signage guidance manuals?
• Site visits - physical findings. Use a checklist. What should you look for?
• Checklists - numerous applications. These are tools that can help you structure your findings in a logical and consistent manner.
• Experience - yours, others. Go back to incidents, interviews and brainstorming.
• Scenario analysis - set up a scenario or "what if "and see what may be lacking. This could even be a live run through to see how your organisation reacts, emergency exercises, dummy runs, etc (Make sure that processes are in place for these scenario's prior to trialing as we don't want any unforeseen circumstances and do provide a warning to your group in advance that one of these scenarios is planned.)

Checking any guidelines that may have already been produced that relate to your organisation and its activities. For example, lifesaving clubs would need to consider the Australian Beach Safety and Management Program and a parachuting group would have to comply with the Civil Aviation Safety Authority specifications relating to parachute operations.

Remember to keep your focus broad. In a 2001 court case in South Australia, a woman in her sixties was shopping in a supermarket when she slipped on a grape, or grapes, and fell to her knees, injuring her right knee permanently. The supermarket argued that it had in place a system of inspection and cleaning, and that mats were on the floor to prevent people slipping. But the court found in favour of the woman because the cleaning was found to be poorly supervised and was not carried out as it had been claimed, and awarded her damages of almost $30,000. Claims of well above this figure have been recorded. Although in this case the fall occurred at a supermarket, this type of event can and does happen at the premises of community groups. You might not have grapes on the floor, but the same scenario could be written with slippery tiles, a badly-placed doormat or equipment left lying around for people to trip over or an uneven pathway. This is also a lesson to carry out procedures you come up with for fixing hazards you identify!

Another, similar, case illustrates the need to keep in mind when identifying potential hazards that risks might vary at different times of the day or year - the footpath might not be slippery now, but what about on a wet winter night? In Canberra a woman aged in her 50s was awarded more than $86,000 after slipping outside the entrance to a supermarket (again, it could just as easily be your organisation's premises) and sustaining injuries that eventually required a hip replacement. The judge found non-slip mats were in place but were worn and no longer serving their purpose, and the situation was worsened by wet leaves and slippery cotton blown on the wind from a nearby cottonwood tree, a phenomenon well known in Canberra at that time of year. It is important to document all the risks that you identify, and a good way of doing this is on a risk register, an example of which is provided below. The aim of the register is to pro-actively, but without a major imposition on time and effort, begin to raise the profile of what risks exist within your group. Leave spaces blank and ask members, staff and volunteers to add items that they feel could be a problem (e.g. the fraying electrical cord to the jug or urn, the slippery tiles at the entrance, the jagged wire on the fence). This is the first step along a detailed process. The other columns on the risk register will allow you to document and monitor the process of analysing, evaluating and acting on these risks.

Circulate the risk register to staff, members and volunteers. In the case of central bodies, the register could be sent to your member clubs to help them work out their own list of risks.

The list of potential risks will be longer for some organisations than others. For instance, the risks associated with an outdoors or rock-climbing group (falls, unsafe equipment, under-qualified supervisors, etc) would outweigh those for a chess club (being hit in the eye with a bishop after a spiteful match, etc). Potential areas of risk might also include noise levels, regular or occasional maintenance work, harm from repetitive tasks or staring at computer screens, or use of playground equipment.

For feedback on this help sheet or for suggestions for future help sheets send an email to: service@ourcommunity.com.au.

This material has been prepared with the support of the Victorian Government through the Community Support Fund.

DISCLAIMER
While all care has been taken in the preparation of this material, no responsibility is accepted by the author(s) or the Municipal Association of Victoria ("the MAV"), its staff or volunteers, for any errors, omissions or inaccuracies. The material provided in this help sheet has been prepared to provide general information only. It is not intended to be relied upon or be a substitute for legal or other professional advice

No responsibility can be accepted by the author(s) or the MAV for any known or unknown consequences that may result from reliance on any information provided in this publication.