The creation of a live event involves a vast array of contractors, subcontractors and self-employed individuals carrying out different tasks at the same time, in the same place and usually within a very tight timeframe. Contractors on site at any one time may include stage construction, rigging, lighting, sound, video and security. In such an environment it is essential to have at least a basic awareness of the hazards that employees, sub-contractors and others can create or encounter.
Safety passports have been around for a long time in many industries. The safety passport concept is simple: To provide a nationally recognised standard of health and safety training and assessment, which is cost-effective, easily accessible, tests knowledge and caters for specific industry sectors.
The need for a single, standard level of safety awareness that can be easily verified is especially useful in an industry that deals with a vast array of contractors and subcontractors on a site at any given time. The aim of ensuring that everyone on a site has at least the same, basic knowledge of site safety can be achieved by the adoption of a ‘Safety Passport’ scheme.
Industry trade body, the Production Services Association (PSA), embarked on a search for an industry standard safety induction for our industry; a course that would increase awareness of how safety is managed on site as well as common hazards and how to avoid them. They partnered with the Safety Pass Alliance (SPA) to develop a one day course suitable for the live event production sector.
The course is designed to give a feeling for the principals behind safe working as well as awareness of common hazards, with plenty of sector-specific examples and references included. The SPA Safety Passport scheme fitted the bill perfectly. This industry-led, nationally recognised scheme reflects Health and Safety Executive (HSE) syllabus guidance.
The course content was developed in consultation with entertainment industry safety specialists and employers to create a real industry standard; consolidating existing courses and initiatives and thus increasing demand. Unlike most safety passport courses, both core and sector qualifications can be achieved in one day as the core content covers the vast majority of what is needed in our sector.
The Safety Passport costs money but, an industry-standard safety qualification has benefits that outweigh the cost. From a wider perspective, the benefit to the whole industry is a greater emphasis on self-regulation; a far better alternative to the imposition of standards such as those imposed on the event security and crowd management industries.
The Health and Safety Executive are looking to reduce the incidence of accidents in our sector, an industry that introduces its own scheme that raises awareness of and deals with the main causes of injuries can only be seen in a positive light. Trade bodies ensure that the relevant authorities are aware of the scheme – this can only be done with an industry standard rather than a mixed bag of independent courses.
There are organisations that are good at managing safety and organisations that are not. There are individuals that say they are competent but their delivery proves otherwise. In terms of safety training, the Safety Passport is a way to prove that you have a standard level of safety awareness training.
The claim that organisations are not bothered about the safety policies of suppliers is a false one. The PSA has spoken with venues, event managers and licensing authorities. Many are supportive of the scheme with many helping with the development our sector specific content. The demand is on the increase from companies that adopt the scheme or something similar, the opportunities for companies that don’t manage their safety competently is decreasing.
An organisation whose workforce is well versed in safe working practices as part of a wider, better safety management policy presents a lower risk. Lower risk can mean lower insurance premiums. Trade organisations are communicating the benefits of the passport scheme to industry insurers.
The one, single and most important benefit is that greater awareness means less chance of the workforce being injured or even killed. Accidents do happen but they happen less when everyone is aware of the hazards. For that reason alone, the Safety Passport for Live Events should be embraced by our industry.