Liaising with others to ensure safe crowd management

Safety and crowd management at your event is not something that can be provided in isolation. And neither does hiring a security company ‘do it all’.

Working in collaboration and liaising with external bodies and organisations is key. In most cases, unless your event is very small, you will need to liaise with;

• the local authority
• the local ambulance trust
• and the police

These organisations will be keen to understand your health and safety assessment of the event, along with crowd control measures you will put into action.

Health & Safety Assessment

For large events such as festivals and similar events, representatives from the police, emergency services and the local authority will need to be involved at the planning stage, specifically the risk assessment of the event itself.

No two events are the same. Thus, as event organiser, you will need to create a health and safety assessment for;

• The whole event – an outline health and safety risk assessment will identify flash points are key areas that present hazards to guests, performers, staff and so on.

• Specific risk assessments – these focus on individual points or activities that may present different hazards and risks at different times. Some hazards and areas form sub-headings of your main health and safety risk assessment whereas as others will be considered high-risk areas such as car parks and entrance/exit point and will need a specific risk assessment completing.

The key word is ‘assessment’. In other words, there needs to be an objective measure how much of a risk a hazard presents to people, and whether this is more of an issue for some people or some situations than others.

Risk assessment and health and safety requirements are fluid. In other words, they can change minute by minute, day by day or when a situation changes, such as weather at an outdoor event. Risk assessing is the processes of understanding what could happen and what the response should be.

Risks and hazards are not set in stone, and neither should your response. Think of it not as a ‘tick box’ or paperwork exercise, but the cornerstone of a successful and smooth running event.

Planning Meetings

To work in collaboration, event organisers will hold planning meetings with representatives of the local authority, police and emergency services, along with other interested parties such as;

• The owner of the venue where the event is being held
• Representatives from local public transport companies
• People from other local venues, such as hotels, restaurants, or pubs, who may be impacted by the event too
• External contractors supplying services at the event, such as digital companies, event security staff and so on
• Local residents may also like to be involved