Safety Moment
May be its time for an other Meeting Space Risk Assessment!
Winter season has arrived and maybe its time to review your current meeting space risk assessment.
Did anything change?
Do I have new youth and scouter who don’t know the place?
Does everybody know about procedures?
Is everybody involved in the risk assessment?
Changes of policies, insurance?
Traveling to meeting place
Cancelation procedure when ice rain or snow storm
Just a few to name………………………………
SWC - DCC Safety Report – 25. November 2017
Prepared by Hans Uhr, DCC Safety, SWC
“Scouts Canadaplaces great importance on creating a fun and safe environment for our members, especially children and youth. How do we create this environment? It’s a reflection of the culture of safety that extends throughout the organization.”
(5 Priorities)
Wearecommittedtosafe Scoutingforallmembers.Toachievethis,wewillensurethatallmajor safetyincidentsarereviewedrapidly,thatlearning’saresharedregularly,andthat100%ofvolunteer applicantshavemetallmembershiprequirements within90daysofapplyingformembership.Our focuswillremainonbeingprepared,engagingyouth,anddoingthingsthe“right”way.
How do we keep youth, volunteers and Scouts Canada safe?
Policies and Procedures
-Code Of Conduct
-Volunteer Screening Policy
-Child Abuse Prevention Policy
-Bulling / Harassment Policy
-Online Youth Safety Resources
A Culture of Safety
-Requirement to report incidents
-Requirement to report allegations of abuse
Safe Volunteers
-Application Forms
-Interviews
-Police Record Check
-References
-Training – Respect in Sport, Canadian Path, WB1, etc.
Safe Activities
-Risk and Hazard Reviews
-Approval for camps, outings, etc.
-Consent Form
-Scouter Ratio
-Youth involved in planning, risk assessments, reviews, etc.
Information and Safety Updates
-Safety tips form national
-Safety Reports
-Safety Moments
What’s the current status?
National:
-Webpage with safety tips, information for parents and safety resources
-Frequent send out of safety report and safety moments
-Dedicated Safe Scouting Team with direct e-mail and 24 hrs phone numbers
-Scout Safe App (currently not working)
-8 Councils have currently a safety person
-No networking between the council safety person
-Needs more feed back from scouters
-Needs incident reports to improve safety program
Council
-Council safety person since summer 2017
-Needs Safety Person for each area. Two areas covered YHW, SLS
-Send out of safety reports
-Working together with Learning & Development, Treasures, Administrator and other workshops.
-Needs safety person for each area. Two areas covered YHW, SLS
-Looking for ways and opportunities to support areas in regards to compliancy.
Areas
-Depending on the current scouter support team
Challenges
-C O M P L I A N C Y
-Code of Conduct
-Respect in Training
-Recruiting safety person
-Building Network
-Communication
-Increase continuous safety awareness
-Support to scouters
-Learning & Development
-Getting feed back, incident reporting, near miss, etc.
-Support, educate, train, instead policing
-Develop safety moments if not available from national
-Develop council specific safety moments and workshops.
Understanding the consequences of an unsafe culture
-Injuries, death
-Losing of property
-Financial
-Live changing
-Negative media
-Lawsuits
-Loosing trust
-Loosing members
-Closing sections, groups, etc.
Current projects / Ideas
-Recruiting safety team members
-Developing safety presentation
-Develop safety moments that can be used by areas.
-Develop small exercises that can be used at youth meetings
-Collect feedback from areas in regards to safety needs.
-Teamwork with Learning & Development.
Numbers and Statistics
Where are the numbers?
Numbers and charts will be a future part in any safety presentation. I decided not to include numbers into this report as we first have to fully understand the meaning of a safe culture and making safety a part of our daily life.
“ Safety is something that happens between your ears, not something you hold in your hands”