Health and Safety

As an event organiser you are responsible for protecting the health and safety of everyone attending, whether they are members of the public, event participants, volunteers or part of the event team. You can protect health and safety by identifying and managing all hazards and risks.

Every event should have a Health and Safety Plan, a comprehensive document that includes:

• Who is the contact person for emergency services
• A list of the possible hazards of each activity and how you plan to reduce these risk
• Distribution of a full contacts list to all key personnel prior to the event
• Details of the systems you have in place to identify, eliminate and minimise hazards and risks in the area during your event
• Regular reviews of the control measures you have in place
• Inspection of the event site with relevant team members to ensure it is safe before the public arrives and during the event
• An accident register, which must be kept up to date at the event site
• An incident plan stating how you will deal with any incidents
• Plans for health and safety briefing for all participants (staff, performers etc) before the event
• An outline of how you will ensure that all staff and volunteers on site will have the knowledge, skills and resources to perform their role adequately
• An undertaking that all staff and volunteers that require supervision will be adequately supervised
• An evacuation plan

See Worksafe New Zealand for Information for event organisers