Crowd and Event Safety

The Crowd and Event Safety Professional Working Group was established to look at the emergency preparedness and crowd safety issues surrounding all types of events and mass gatherings (stadia, public highways, private venues etc) in order to identify good practice and offer advice/guidance both to fellow members of the EPS and to other personnel involved in event planning.

In addition the group aims to become a sounding platform for organisations who are seeking a professional perspective on national issues.

All members of the group have experience of planning events and can provide information and guidance regarding particular areas of expertise or interest. The group works hard to reflect the crowd and event safety interests of the EPS on the national agenda and brings together crowd and event safety professionals to share good practice. The group is always looking to expand and bring new people on board, if you are interested in joining, please contact John Print [email protected]

Committee Contacts

Please contact EPS Head Office for information by calling 01347 821972 or email [email protected].

Vacant

Vice Chair Person

A group of Society members with experience and expertise in the various aspects of crowd safety who through the Chair, Crowd and Event Safety Group:

Maintain intelligence of forthcoming major events (e.g. Olympics 2012) in order to provide advice if required.
Raise awareness of the need for crowd safety management amongst the Society’s membership, the events industry, emergency services, and other relevant organisations.
Provide the Society Board and membership with a source of expertise on crowd safety issues.
Represent the Society on working groups led by other organisations, which have a crowd safety remit.
Promote the Society as a creditable organisation in terms of providing general advice on crowd safety matters.
Maintain a database of crowd safety incidents.

What is an Event?

The definition of an event is something that has taxed the Crowd Safety Group over the last couple of years as there is no laid down definition within any of the guidance.

Following long and complex discussion, during which many definitions were considered and discarded – including one by an event organiser who stated that ‘an event is something which causes intense pain and suffering to those who organise them and is enjoyed by thousands who haven’t got a bloody clue how hard they are to implement!’ – the group finally came to an agreement that an event can best be described as:

“a publicised indoor or outdoor planned presentation consisting of public displays, exhibitions or entertainment, sporting or celebratory activities etc, involving spectators being invited or intending to gather either on public open space, public highways or in enclosed stadia, in numbers anticipated to require special arrangements for that venue being made by the Event Organiser, in collaboration with partner agencies, in order to ensure the safe conduct of that event.”

Whilst somewhat long winded, it is probably the most accurate description of an event that we can come up with – or at least so far! If anyone can come up with anything better, please let us know!!

If you are interested in finding out more about the Crowd and Event Safety Group please contact Geoffrey Mackett, email [email protected]

Schedules of Meetings

The group has scheduled meetings 3 times a year at venues around the country.

Remember that if you fail submit an apology of absence for 3 meetings your details will be removed from the CES database.

Work Streams

The Crowd and Event Safety PWG are developing Work Streams to enable small groups of like minded people to focus on specific projects related to crowd and event safety.

Work Streams are designed to give project ownership to those involved and to encourage members to have a more active role within the Crowd and Event Safety PWG. Those involved with Work Steams will be expected to provide project updates at CES meetings and to debate future development to ensure the project remains within the focus of the group.

The current suggestions for Work Streams are: Crowd and Event Safety Database, Specialist Guides, Virtual Guide to Safety Guides, PPS25 (Flooding), CES Website, Membership.

Work Streams in Detail

Crowd and Event Safety Database – Lead Member: Zac Au. The project will research and populate a database with information on crowd and event safety issues and what lessons were learnt from incidents. The database will be available via the group web pages.
Specialised Guides – To ensure that the group comments on the creation of new, or the revision of existing guides.
Virtual Guide to Safety Guides – To gather information on safety guides, which will be listed on the web pages.
CES Website – Lead Member: Vacant. To ensure that the group web pages are up to date and provide EPS members with suitable information/resources relating to Crowd and Event Safety.
Membership – Lead Member: Geoffrey Mackett. To ensure that the profiles of group members of listed and used to advise on key issues as required. To ensure the membership of the group is dynamic and meets the needs to the EPS.

The following represent a small handful of use full material available to those concerned with the safety of crowds and events. Additional input to is required to increase its functionality so please contact the group to make your suggestions.

The Health and Safety Executive

The Event Safety Guide – This link takes you to the HSE Book Shop if you wish buy a hard copy of the book, also know as the Purple Guide. It provides guidance to Event Organisers to enable them to fulfil their requirements of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and comments on the appropriate level of communication required between Event Organiser and the Local Authority and Emergency Services.

British Standards

Guide to Industry Best Practice for Organising Outdoor Events – This link takes you to BSI On-line if you wish to buy a copy of the book. It provides guidance to those wishing to organise outdoor events and includes (but is not limited to) chapters on: Risk Management, Health and safety, Crowd management and Emergency planning.

The Home Office

Good Practice Safety Guide – This link will open a download for the guide. It contains guidance on: event planning, a suggested timeline for critical activites, the Health and Safety atWork Act 1974, and Police attendance at events.

International Guideance

Safe and Healthy Mass Gatherings – part of the Australian Emergency Manuals Series – This link will open a download for the guide. This is the Australian equivalent of the Event Safety Guide and provides an extensive source of information regarding most aspects of event planning.

Guide to Safety at Sports Grounds (Green Guide)

The Football Licensing Authority (now the Sports Grounds Safety Authority) was commissioned by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to produce the fifth edition of the Guide to Safety at Sports Grounds (“the Green Guide”).

The Guide provides detailed guidance to ground management, technical specialists such as architects and engineers and all relevant authorities to assist them assess how many spectators can be safely accommodated within a sports ground.

It also provides guidance on measures intended to improve safety at existing grounds, in terms of both their design and safety management. Although it is not a definitive design guide it does offer guidance good practice in the design and management of new grounds or newly constructed sections of grounds.

Safety Management

Safety management at sports grounds has steadily become more sophisticated and
more professional over the past twenty years. “Safety Management” the latest publication in the FLA’s (now Sports Grounds Safety Authority) series of Sports Grounds and Stadia Guides identifies and draws together good practice on safety personnel, safety management procedures, event management and preparing for incidents.

The guidance complements and expands on the advice on safety management in the Guide to Safety at Sports Grounds. It updates and brings together into a single publication previous guidance on spectator safety policies, contingency planning, exercise planning and briefing, as well as providing new detailed guidance to assist ground management in developing operation manuals, stewarding plans and medical plans.

This publication will provide an invaluable source of information to ground management, safety advisors and other interested agencies involved with the safety management of all stadia and sports grounds

While some of the advice contained in the guidance is specific to football, most of it applies to all stadia events as well as being relevant to all sports grounds including those, such as horseracing and golf, where spectators are more ambulatory.

Disclaimer

The below links are to external websites and the Emergency Planning Society accepts no responsibility for their content.

The Event Safety Guide
http://books.hse.gov.uk/hse/public/home.jsf

Guide to Industry Best Practice for Organising Outdoor Events
http://www.bsi-global.com/en/Shop/Publication-Detail/?pid=000000000030064986

Good Practice Safety Guide
http://police.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/operational-policing/event-safety-guide.pdf?view=Binary

Safe and Healthy Mass Gatherings
http://www.ema.gov.au/www/emaweb/rwpattach.nsf/VAP/(3273BD3F76A7A5DEDAE36942A54D7D90)~Manual12-SafeAndHealthyMassGatherings.pdf/$file/Manual12-SafeAndHealthyMassGatherings.pdf

Sports Grounds Safety Authority
http://www.safetyatsportsgrounds.org.uk

Guide to Safety at Sports Grounds (Green Guide)
http://www.safetyatsportsgrounds.org.uk/pubs/sgsa/greengde.php

Flooding Resilience Group Launch – EPS Members Invited

A BRAND new Professional Working Group focusing on Flood Resilience is to be launched later this month.

To access this post, you must purchase Retired, Student, Member or Associate.