A world gone mad

Newspapers will often resort to bewailing a world gone mad, backed up by urban myths of schools issuing safety glasses to conker players, the banning of Christmas decorations in public places and firemen's poles being axed – all in the name of health and safety. Sound familiar? The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is doing what it can to keep matters in perspective – it has done much in the last ten years to take complex and scattered legislation and create a coherent system to help people manage risk. Yet it is difficult, in the face of persistent scaremongering, to counter frivolous attempts to portray the HSE as a bogeyman. While fear and misunderstanding of health and safety may sell papers, it is harming a sector delicately balanced between the real and the fantastic. If arts and culture create magic from what we thought we knew, then they do so through an understanding of the true nature of risk and creativity. It’s about finding a place to stand between exhilaration and danger. Art is not, and should not be, dangerous, but neither should it be safe. An understanding of risk helps us to position ourselves as close to danger as we safely can. [[The persistent demonisation of health and safety by the popular press plays up to fears, and encourages people to see it as something to be ridiculed and avoided.]]

Stop the presses

Many people believe that health and safety is about wrapping people in cotton wool, fostering a nanny state, trying to eliminate all risk and closing events. If I asked why people think this, they might mumble something about conkers, about trapeze artists having to wear hard hats, about banning bonfires. If I asked for evidence they'd be unable to give it, because all these stories are untrue. A recent study shows that 75% of stories about health and safety in the press are not true. This inaccurate and negative image scares people, and stops them engaging constructively with the process. Health and safety is about managing risk. There are remarkably few hard and fast rules to follow. The HSE asks providers to manage risk – to undertake a risk assessment for activities – and trusts them to do this. It will not usually intervene unless there has been a very serious incident which has shown risk management to be inadequate. The persistent demonisation of health and safety by the popular press plays up to fears and encourages people to see it as something to be ridiculed and avoided. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, by promoting this stance, the Press is effectively promoting a culture in which reasonable precautions are not taken and public safety is not valued – although they are among the first to complain when things go wrong.

Shooting oneself in the foot

There is a fear that health and safety is a tool which will be used against the arts and community professionals. I have mentioned the myth that health and safety closes events. It is a terrible thing, but usually, in my experience, it is the organisers themselves who close events because they are afraid of and misunderstand health and safety regulations. Last month I nearly wept when I read of a long-standing flower show that was ”cancelled due to health and safety”. They had self-closed because they felt they could not afford the huge cost of professional stewards. A proper risk assessment would have shown that a low-risk flower show has no need for professional stewards, and that trained amateurs would have been sufficient. Another show closed because of the cost of hiring marquees. The organisers had their own but were not confident they would be safe. Had they read the support documents available they would have learned the simple steps necessary to use and erect marquees safely. The list goes on. As artists and project managers, we want to run events and produce art that is wonderful, but we also don't want to cause injury, pain or death to anyone; we do not want to look incompetent if the installation collapses; we do not want to lose money if people stay away because it is not public- or child-friendly; and we do not want negative publicity through a badly managed, inefficient and sloppy event.

Risk assessment can help us to manage these processes. It can allow us to do things we didn’t dream were possible. Want a fire eater to lead the carnival? Want to double the size of the installation? Want to do encaustic (hot wax) painting with children? Want to use real elephants for that pageant? Do a risk assessment to help you find out where the actual elements of risk are, and then look at the guidance to help you manage these. You will be amazed at what you can achieve. Far from being a straightjacket or an enemy at the gates, risk assessment can help you work out how to make your installation or event more exciting, dynamic and vibrant by giving you a whole new set of creative tools to carve out a niche for your vision in the real world