Club Health & Safety

CLUB HEALTH & SAFETY RESPONSIBILITIES

All clubs must comply with the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA) which means that your club has the duty of care to maintain a safe environment and implement sound health and safety practices for all staff/volunteers, members, participants, guests & bystanders. HSWA has a key focus on proactively identifying and managing risks to avoid harm from occurring.

Your club must have documented H&S Policies and Safety Management Systems/plans outlining how it will ensure the health and safety of anyone involved in its activities. These systems should include hazard/risk management, safety checklists, emergency procedures and accident reporting.

Failure to fulfil your duty of care that results in an incident that was reasonably forseeable or preventable could lead to prosecution by WorkSafe or Maritime NZ . Club officers could be found personally liable, so compliance is vital to ensure committee members are protected.

CRNZ recommends the minimum Club H&S documentation and policies required are:

Club Health and Safety Plan incl. RAMS, operating procedures and emergency/incident procedures.
Club Code of Conduct
Member protection/Child Protection Policy
Privacy Policy
Complaints Policy
Disciplinary Policy

CRNZ has developed templates to support clubs in ensuring they meet their H&S obligations, however we do recommend you seek legal advice to ensure the club is covered.

CLUB HEALTH & SAFETY OFFICER

The Committee should allocate a Health & Safety Officer to make sure the club understands and is meeting its health and safety responsibilities. Their role is to ensure the club’s health and safety policies are implemented, maintained/reviewed and followed.

Health & Safety Officer duties include:

Ensuring the club has the H&S plans, policies and procedures in place as required.
Conduct regular reviews on H&S plans, policies and procedures to ensure they are relevant and up to date.
Keep up to date on laws, maritime rules and local bylaws and ensure club/paddler compliance.
Act as first point of contact for H&S incidents, issues or non-compliance.
Report at committee meetings on H&S at the club (incidents, updates)
Alongside the commitee, develop and maintain a club culture where Health

CHILD SAFEGUARDING AND PROTECTION

Children and young people have a fundamental right to be safe, to be treated with respect and have positive play, recreational activity and sport experiences. Participation in paddling should support and promote the wellbeing of participants.

Under the Children’s Act 2014, we have a special duty to protect and care for children under the age of 18years.

EVENT SAFETY

Basic Event Safety Template

When running an event it is essential to put together an appropriate safety plan, whether it is a training session or a competitive event. The basic event safety template may be useful in putting this together. Setting up a standard template to suit your training environment is a good idea, as it only needs to be tweaked slightly for each use to suit the conditions and the numbers attending training.

LOCAL BYLAWS

The aim of local bylaws is to ensure the safety of waterway users and reduce the conflicts between different water-based activities (including lakes, rivers or harbours). Instant fines may be given for offences against a regional bylaw, and for more serious offences you may be prosecuted. Check with the area you are paddling in to determine the specific bylaws.