1. Purple Guide

www.thepurpleguide.co.uk

This is a paid for service but it’s an incredible resource to help you plan your event. It was originally produced by the HSE but event professional all over the UK contribute to it to make it the most comprehensive guide for outdoor events. It gives you information on everything you need to know from safe wind speeds, to number of toilets needed for the size of your event. Everything in it is event specific and will tell you what is legally required and what is strongly recommended.

The guidance helps you plan a safe event with the right facilities for your attendees. The subscription is £25 +VAT per year and is updated regularly. A worthy expenditure if you are new to outdoor event planning.

2. HSE (Health & Safety Executive)

www.hse.gov.uk

The Health and Safety Executive is national regulator for workplace health and safety. This website is free and covers every aspect of health and safety in the workplace, not just events. It gives you the legal requirements for events and a lot of information on writing Risk Assessments.

There’s a lot of information on how to keep your workers and volunteers safe and things you need to put in place to ensure they feel safe during your event. It’s a great resource but can sometimes be overwhelming because of the amount of information available.

3. Local SAG group

Safety Advisory Groups are at Local Authority level, they are comprised of leaders in emergency services, such as police, fire, ambulance, but also licensing and environmental health. They are made up of a group of people who have a wealth of knowledge and experience in their designated field and are a great resource for helping you plan a safe event.

They are non-statutory bodies who do not have legal power or responsibility. They can’t approve or prohibit events taking place but they provide guidance on your safety plans and protocols. If you are organising a particularly large event, it’s important to notify them of your event so they can coordinate their resourcing for the event day but also, provide them with your Event Management Plan so they can review it and help improve it if they feel the need to do so.

5. Blog posts from reputable sources

The internet is rife with misinformation, so it’s important to make sure that what you are reading is from a reputable source, but there’s lots of great blog posts that can give you information, learn from other people’s mistakes and experiences. Eventbrite have a great blog which has all sorts of helpful information, including this article: A starting Guide to Health and Safety Management for Events.

Safety experts Rhino Safety have also written a post about the Importance of Health and Safety at events. As well as Ticketing software company Billeto (Health & Safety for Events: What you need to know).

Health and Safety is one of those things that goes largely unnoticed until something happens. Without a plan, you could be in a whole world of trouble as the event organiser is responsible for the event. Make sure you are covered and have a plan in place in case something does happen, just in case.