Project Defibrillator - Beginnings

For any neighbourhood, eg parish council area, one might hope hope that local residents and businesses will develop together their scheme for public access defibrillators (PADs) as self-standing or as part of their neighbourhood plan for their village or town.

Each settlement will need to create a team of partners to take a proposal for their local PAD infrastructure.

Activities

The activites that the group might do include:

   1   assess the need for a PAD project in their locality;
   2   plan  the project in their neighbourhood (town or village);
   3   make contact with property owners willing to allow a PAD on the outside of their building;
    4  procure a defibrillator, box, and materials etc;
    5  arrange for the long term checking and care of the PAD and any associated materials;
    6  train several operators in concomitant first aid (for survival of vitims of cardiac arrest);
    7  raise funds for the scheme
    8  liaise with prospective partners in the scheme, eg parish or town councils, health and care providers, local charities, doctors, dentists, supermarkets, leisure centres and other high footfall        places.

ProgrammeAlthough individual pads might be in place with a quickly formed suppot team within say, 6 months it is likely that the standard of one PAD in each square mille will take a long time. A target date to wind up a programme of for 150 square miles might be the end of March 2022 - 10 years' time, ie one covering towns and villages ina a district which extends to that area. 

Thus, hopefully, all incidents of cardiac arrest will be coverable within 10 years!

Jaefoo-Blog Senior Action Forum: Senior Action Forum No 4 - Risk Assessment No 2 ...

Jaefoo-Blog Senior Action Forum: Senior Action Forum No 4 - Risk Assessment No 2 ...: A forum intending to hold an event might carryout a risk assessment when hiring a particular hall for the first time. The approach is to pla...

Senior Action Forum No 4 - Risk Assessment No 2 - Duty of Care and carrying out a Risk Assessment

A forum intending to hold an event might carryout a risk assessment when hiring a particular hall for the first time. The approach is to plan the following steps beforehand, namely:

• identify the hazards which might arise at the event;
• identify who could be harmed as a result of each hazard;
• identify the actions needed to prevent or mitigate injury or loss as a result of a hazard;
• establish who will carryout  such actions and when.

The procedures of actually doing a risk assessment might include:

1. review and relevant Forum documents on relevant matters, including: any insurance policy's terms and conditions (if the secretary's abstract of the policy is sufficiently detailed this should serve.);
2. the terms and conditions for the hiring of the hall (for example, the landlord may have supplied an evacuation plan and an abstract of the insurance policy for the hall);
3. a couple of weeks' before the event carryout an inspection of the hall - noting in a sytematic way, perhaps using a devised proforma - the hazards, possible harmees, actions etc (as  established above).
4. Note the two weeks will allow the landlord time to take any prerequisite action, eg a) checking out of date fire extinguishers, b) repairing broken tile (trip hazard), c) putting fire exit  signs in order etc, etc; 

Once the risk assessment is reviewed and the landlord's works done, the standard normal work plan for the forum's event (who does what) may need to be adjusted so that the roles and activities are tweaked to give effect to any concerns arising from the risk assessment, such as:

1. briefing the stewards of hazards and action which may be needed during the event;
2. setting up in accord with healthy and safe conditions - ensuring the well being of all;
3. event leaders announcements at the beginning of the meeting/event (briefing the audience;

Whilst each might be small, there may be many such requirements but the event team(s) usually cope with quirky items - most of it might be regarded as "commonsense".

Naturally, we all want to remain healthy, safe, and have a sense of well being whilst at a meeting.  This approach should result in such conditions - and will be seen to be done at the time. In the unfortunate circumstance of some kind of "official" investigation, say for insurance purposes following an accident, the records will be available, ie the likes of a) the risk assessment, b) correspondence with the landlord, c) the chairman's briefing notes to the stewards and the audience, etc. They go some way to show that the Forum took reasonable steps to avoid or mitigate hazards in exercising its duty of care.

Senior Action Forum No 3 - Insurances No 2 - Volunteer Drivers and Motor Insurance [Update 10 May 2012]

These posts are offered by a non-expert in the matters covered - they arise from experience or concern about matters arising from  participatinon in a forum or other voluntary organisations as a member. Comment and illustrations about managing a Forum would be welcome. If you have a concern about a matter, it would be imperative to discuss it with other members, and if necessary seek professional or at least informed advice.

I recently renewed my motor insurance policy so what follows in this post may be pertient to a Forum offering expenses for informal volunteer driver services concerning members, such as:

• taking fellow committee members to a meeting;
• driving a member to hospital following an accident at a meeting.

Of course, taking a fellow committee member to a meeting, etc  may be a personal matter  and the driving member should ensure that his or her motor insurance policy covers the "lift", perhaps under "social" driving.

A Management Committee's interest arise when the expenses policy allows the volunteer driving scheme's members to claim expenses: then it may need to develop a management policy on motor  insurance.

Two particular insurance concerns about a driver's insurance may arise, namely:

1. it is compulsory for the driver to hold a valid motor insurance policy in place before a motor vehicle can be used on the highway; and,
2. the driver's insurance cover does not have any of the terms and conditions which preclude the type of service offered.

The wording of a driver's policy may include a reference to driving for "social" purposes. One pointer to consider is whether the definition includes "volunteer" driving and if so whether there is a caveat of any kind. For example, the payment of any driving expenses allowance may be mentioned as needing to be reasonable, eg perhpas reflecting the cost of fuel and other relevant consumables used. I guess any payment in the form of "remuneration" may invalidate the insurance policy. If in doubt in might be worth enquiring of the insurer or a broker etc. At least one volunteer dring scheme as an "insurance form" which the driver is advised to complete and send to his or her insurer

Finally, if the Forum develops a formal programme to help members of the public get to hospital, it is likely that such arrangements are beyond "social" and the Forum might need to arrange insurance for the perils likely to be faced by:

•  their employee drivers, if any;
• volunteer drivers;
• others, say "desk" workers on the scheme; and,
• the Forum itself including the Management Committee.

If the drivers are to be employed the Forum is obliged to have the statutory employers' compulsory insurance as well as motor insurance - I must admit that these are beyond my experience so a bit more digging is needed!

Senior Action Forum No 2 - Risk Assessment No 1 - Types of Risk

Hiring a village hall involves risks. A forum might usefully undertake a risk assessment for a venue - although in many instances the 'landlord' will have been required to do so and will often provide guidance on relevant matters.

However, this post views the bigger picture and attempts the identification of nine risk groups a management committee might face. Later in this series on risk ideas about policies to address each risk group are discussed.

The eight groups are:

1. Compliance risks;
2. Leadership risks;
3. Corporate status risks;
4. Health and Safety Risks;
5. Fire Safety risks;
6. catering Risks;
7. External events risks;
8. Communications risks: and'
9. Insurance lack risks. 

Generally, provided management's policies are appropriate and robustly adopted, the risks the forum faces will be avoided or at least mitigated. Even so the consequences of a risk event occurring can sometimes be transferred to an insurer. [The last pointer is illustrated briefly in the first post's example on communications management and insurance.]

Senior Action Forum No1 - Insurances No 1 - Management of Communications

I guess every Forum has an insurance management policy which ranges from "self-insurance" to a panoply of insurance covers; the latter's sense of "full armour" may well be difficult to achieve but a review of existing insurances and associated management policies and operations is suggested. As a novice I cannot advise so these notes are pointers for fellow non-experts of insurance - for instance, a total lack of insurance might well frighten me away from volunteering or taking office!  

An approach to a Forum's management of insurances might be link  it to an "organisational risk assessment".  Here the procedure might be as follows:

1. identify a potential problem before it arises;
2. adopt management operational policies to avoid or mitigate the problem;
3. consider the need to seek insurance for any residual risk;
4. take insurance cover if it is needed and available.

At the recent Age UK South East Conference entitled "Speaking Up For our Age" a Forum representative mentioned that his Forum was setting up a website and there was concern about libel etc. He asked about insurance.

Until hiring a hall for a recent meeting the issue of insurances had not arisen in the recent past. Under the terms and conditions for the hire of the hall there was a chance of liability for loss or damage, etc. Also, was interested that the hall's owner had an insurance policy which included cover for slander and libel. So I had thought about it!

In respect of a forum's communications, problems concerning slander, libel and intellectual property rights, etc, might extend to any forum does not have management policies, operations and say, insurance cover when publishing newsletters and using social media and other means of communications. Having a website, a Facebook wall, a Twitter account and the like means that a forum will need manage them appropriately - concern might be more immediate where the forum's website has a blogging facility.

Being a novice in such matters means searching, reading and digesting so as to formulate a forum's management perspectives on a mix of issues, including:

1. who is "gatekeeping" the various media used by your forum - one person as the "lead" may be desirable;
2. the need for statement that contributions must observe the law and official regulatory requirements, eg concerning adverting;
3. what management operational safeguards need to be in place, including  a) Forum's exclusion policies, eg good taste, b) checks and moderation of contributions,  c) "Notes for Contributors - Bloggers, Writers, Authors, and Others",  d) "Views expressed do not represent the views of the XYZ Forum"
4. finally, where insurance is available and obtained, careful reading of the policy's terms and conditions - with operational observance of the insurer's requirements into the last three items.