Hi All,
As mentioned in several meetings, we need risk assessments producing for the space. I thought i’d create this wiki page to better outline some musings.
All tools should be covered by a risk assessment before being used in the space. A tool may be assessed as being covered by an already completed assessment.
Risk assessments should all go through the same process:
1. A member drafts a risk assessment.
Anyone is welcome to begin a risk assessment, we already have a template ready and an assessment rubrik. Please do not edit these documents directly, download a copy. There are comments throughout the template to provide prompts. The drafter should note their name and date at the bottom of the document.
2. Reviewed by competent person
A competent person is someone with skill and experience using the tool in question. If we do not have this person in Hackspace, it is fine for them to be external. There can be as many reviewers as necessary, so long as the number of reviewers does not begin to impede the process itself.
From this review feedback may be given and the draft may be revised.
3. Approved by competent person
Once all revisions have been made and comments resolved the document is considered approved. The reviewers should all note their names at the bottom of the risk assessment and the month and year of the review.
4. Added to Health & Safety File
The completed risk assessment is added to the health and safety file by the Board/H&S team. This is a Google Drive Folder and will soon be a physical folder in the space.
A purchase proposal is created or the board are contacted for any bits of PPE or other kit that the RA identified as necessary.
Periodic Reviews
Hackspace changes fairly slowly, therefore specific periodic reviews of risk assessments, though ideal, is likely to become too much of a burden and forgotten about. Instead, for items requiring an induction the risk assessments should be reviewed when a new trainer is being trained. This will form part of the process of the new trainer being onboarded. When the new trainer has reviewed the document, they should update ‘reviewed by/date’ at the bottom of the page.
For the everyday member being inducted, they should be shown/shared a copy of the risk assessment, even if this is just at the end of the induction while they fill in their ‘I have learned’ tick sheet. They don’t need a printed copy to take home, using the Hackspace physical RA folder will suffice.
For tools not requiring inductions, these risk assessments should be reviewed by the proposer when making a new purchase proposal. Otherwise reviews should ideally happen around every 3 years, by the subgroups and/or the board.
Communicating to membership
If the periodic reviews show up new risks:
- Users of that tool can be emailed.
- A notice can be put on the tool itself.
- All users could be asked to be reinducted - this could be physical or virtual - e.g. video with quiz at end.
Making a post on telegram is not considered suitable to be the sole way to announce H&S changes.
Keeping track of RAs
Google drive does a pretty great job of keeping records of who updated what and when it was updated. This is probably therefore the easiest way to see what hasn’t been reviewed for a long time, as it requires no extra effort from us.
In the short term, we have a lot of new risk assessments that need writing. I have made a list below and made this post a wiki so tools can be added and removed as they are completed.
Risk Assessments To-Do List
Some tools may make sense to merge into existing risk assessments rather than start a brand new one, e.g. wood room pillar drill and metalwork pillar drill - the risks and controls are pretty similar.
To be started:
General Areas - covering general not-very-dangerous tools not covered elsewhere. These might all condense down into one bigger RA covering general Hackspace risks.
Woodroom
Metalroom
Electronics Area
Visual Arts
Tools
Air Compressor
Welders
Laser Cutter
Overlocker
Press brake
Resin 3D printer
Vacuum former
Vinyl Cutter
Spindle sander (belt sander already done if it can be combined)
Ready to be reviewed:
Ready to be reviewed Risk Assessments – Google Drive
Hazard prompt sheet:
Hazard Prompt Sheet for Risk Assessments - Google Docs
