Risk Assessment

Risk assessments are a vital aspect of a production piece as they form an integral part of a occupational health and safety management plan which allows me to ensure the following are not overlooked. 

• Create awareness of hazards and risks.
• Identify who may be at risk (employees, cleaners, visitors, contractors, the public, etc).
• Determine if existing control measures are adequate or if more should be done.
• Prevent injuries or illnesses when done at the design or planning stage.
• Prioritize hazards and control measures.

A risk assessment is completed through the completion of the following steps:

Step 1: Identify hazards, i.e. anything that may cause harm.

Employers have a duty to assess the health and safety risks faced by their workers. Your employer must systematically check for possible physical, mental, chemical and biological hazards.

This is one common classification of hazards:

  Physical: e.g. lifting, awkward postures, slips and trips, noise, dust, machinery, computer equipment, etc.

     

Mental: e.g. excess workload, long hours, working with high-need clients, bullying, etc. These are also called 'psychosocial' hazards, affecting mental health and occurring within working relationships.

Chemical: e.g. asbestos, cleaning fluids, aerosols, etc.

Biological: including tuberculosis, hepatitis and other infectious diseases faced by healthcare workers, home care staff and other healthcare professionals.

 Step 2: Decide who may be harmed, and how.

Identifying who is at risk starts with your organisation's own full- and part-time employees. Employers must also assess risks faced by agency and contract staff visitors, clients and other members of the public on their premises.

Employers must review work routines in all the different locations and situations where their staff are employed. For example:

  Home care supervisors must take due account of their client's personal safety in the home, and ensure safe working and lifting arrangements for their own home care staff.

In a supermarket, hazards are found in the repetitive tasks at the checkout, in lifting loads, and in slips and trips from spillages and obstacles in the shop and storerooms. Staff face the risk of violence from customers and intruders, especially in the evenings.

In call centres, workstation equipment (i.e. desk, screen, keyboard and chair) must be adjusted to suit each employee.

Employers have special duties towards the health and safety of young workers, disabled employees,nightworkers, shiftworkers, and pregnant or breastfeeding women.

https://worksmart.org.uk/health-advice/health-and-safety/hazards-and-risks/what-are-five-steps-risk-assessment

My Risk Assessment

1.    My video was predominantly filmed in woodland areas therefore the risk of “slips and trips” was considerably increased by the ground along with the bad weather. This could potentially harm my protagonists and ruin scheduled future shoots therefore to remove these issues I plan to prepare shooting areas by removing any tripping hazards such as fallen trees and rocks and ensuring the ground is moderately dry by selecting days which are predicted to have moderately dry weather. This will guarantee the locations are easily accessible and safe for the movement required for the specific scenes.

2.    The first segment of my video was filmed in a urban area, this therefore increased the risk of getting his by moving vehicles. This incident, if it occurred would substantially delay my schedule and I would have to redo the previous shots because a replacement protagonist would have to be used. To resolve this issue I had to close the road and ensure no vehicles came into the shooting area while we were shooting in dangerous areas.