Health and safety is important to all clubs and organisations. Clubs have a legal obligation towards the health and safety of volunteers - a duty of care is a general legal duty on all individuals, sports clubs and NGBs to avoid carelessly causing injury to people. As a start, the club needs to show that it is committed to protecting its members and volunteers against the risk of harm or injury by producing a simple Health and Safety Policy.

Each club’s policy will differ depending on the sport/activity, the type of club premises, if the club owns or hires its facilities, if it has paid employees, junior members or participants with special needs etc.

It is important to write the policy after discussing it with the club committee and club members so that as many people as possible understand the policy, and then they will be more likely to put it into practice and follow the regulations.

To protect the club, and to make sure that you monitor and learn from accidents and injuries, you should keep an Incident/Accident report to record any accidents, injuries and incidents that have affected club members/visitors, whether on or off the premises. There is also a quick list of guidelines for dealing with an incident/accident to refer to on the right.

It is good practice for at least 1 qualified first aider to be available at all club training sessions and events.  Clubs should encourage members, coaches and/or volunteers to attend a first aid training course so that they can respond to basic first aid situations with confidence. 

There are a number of training courses available (cost of approximately £30) – it is worth talking to your National Governing Body in the first instance, or other training providers including British Red Cross and St John Ambulance.

You should make sure that you have at least one first aid kit at every training session and event.  There is no  minimum stock for a first aid kit, but for more information, click here for a basic suggestion from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).