Red Tape Risk Assessment?!

[Franklyn]

In my daytime job I work as a quality manager and in my spare time I enjoy a lot of diving. Going through the Branch Officer Handbook, I came across the following (section 4.3.2):
- A Risk Assessment should have been carried out, but for depths
greater than 30m this shall be a mandatory requirement

To date our club has done a mental risk assessment for all dives, however current thinking asks for things to be put down in writing. Just to acquaint myself with RA?s I therefore have prepared one for this weekends diving:

I used the RA resources from the BSAC pages and added items specific to the site and club. I used Excel to keep the size down and I now have a 14-page document!
To detail what event the RA covers, I included a full breakdown of the dive site, the route the boat will take to it, tidal information, 2 pages on the wreck to be visited and !!6 pages!! of risks assessed.

Can anyone in the audience suggest how to communicate at least some of the RA pages to the person who wishes to go diving? as there is little point in a RA without ensuring that all involved have the same understanding on the agreed procedures.

I would be grateful for any comments on how to turn the RA into a meaningful and FUN! exercise for all (I do not believe in simply asking all divers to blindly initial all pages and sign on the bottom of page 14).

Thanks,

Franklyn

[edward haynes]

Hi Franklyn

In my daytime job I work as a quality manager and in my spare time I enjoy a lot of diving. Going through the Branch Officer Handbook, I came across the following (section 4.3.2):
- A Risk Assessment should have been carried out, but for depths
greater than 30m this shall be a mandatory requirement

That part of the BOH is dealing with Building Depth Experience dives, not just any dive greater than 30m.

To date our club has done a mental risk assessment for all dives, however current thinking asks for things to be put down in writing. Just to acquaint myself with RA?s I therefore have prepared one for this weekends diving:

I used the RA resources from the BSAC pages and added items specific to the site and club. I used Excel to keep the size down and I now have a 14-page document!
To detail what event the RA covers, I included a full breakdown of the dive site, the route the boat will take to it, tidal information, 2 pages on the wreck to be visited and !!6 pages!! of risks assessed.

Can anyone in the audience suggest how to communicate at least some of the RA pages to the person who wishes to go diving? as there is little point in a RA without ensuring that all involved have the same understanding on the agreed procedures.

The point about RAs is for the person organising or overseeing diving activities (the Dive Marshal) to make a decision on whether it is safe to proceed. IMHO it is the Dive Marshal of the day who needs to understand what?s involved and brief all others accordingly. Your RA can be a guide to the brief they will give.

Just getting all members to ?sign-up? to the RA does not (IMHO) remove the responsibility from the Dive Marshal or Branch Diving Officer if a DM has not been appointed/approved.

And in anticipation to ?it?s a private dive?; the most experienced/qualified diver present should conduct the RA.

I would be grateful for any comments on how to turn the RA into a meaningful and FUN! exercise for all (I do not believe in simply asking all divers to blindly initial all pages and sign on the bottom of page 14).

I would be surprised if a number of your Risks can not be used all ?boat? dives; you have already started to produce ?generic? risks, which could be placed in the Dive Marshal?s folder for repeated use.

HTH

Edward

[Philip Smith]

- A Risk Assessment should have been carried out, but for depths
greater than 30m this shall be a mandatory requirement

May I ask on whose authority the word "mandatory" was used? It represents a shift away from BSAC's long-standing style of few "rules" (which might be hard to enforce) but many "recommendations" (breaching of which may jeopardise your insurance cover).

Philip Smith

[Edward Haynes]

Hi Philip

When the BOH was updated in 2003 (then our RA policy was developing) Part 4 "Management of Diving" was approved by the NDO, we spend a few hours going through each section.

That said, we do have a policy for RAs now and maybe this one should be considered again during the next BOH amendment cycle. An amendment to the BOH has been passed (last week) to the Webmaster for posting and an amendment update document should be issued with the next BSAC Talk.

Thanks

Edward

May I ask on whose authority the word "mandatory" was used? It represents a shift away from BSAC's long-standing style of few "rules" (which might be hard to enforce) but many "recommendations" (breaching of which may jeopardise your insurance cover).

Philip Smith

[Philip Smith]

When the BOH was updated in 2003 (then our RA policy was developing) Part 4 "Management of Diving" was approved by the NDO, we spend a few hours going through each section.

Thanks for the info, Edward.

Phil S.