Health and Safety Advisor at UK Athletics, Ash Charlwood, provides an update on the H&S area. 

The New Year has started with all things health and safety moving on.

Along with the normal slips, trips and falls that we’d expect to be reported via the insurance reporting portal, some useful new resources have been released.

England Athletics launched Club Hub, and with it there are some useful health and safety resources, including bitesize videos explain about reporting, policy and why H&S is important for clubs. This useful section can be found here and is available for everyone (no password needed).

Alongside this, England Athletics ran a large webinar on Section 7 of the ‘Clubmark – health and safety’. This gave more than 100 clubs the opportunity to think, ask questions and understand a bit more about the approach that clubs should take on H&S matters. The key focus points during the discussions were ratios, lone running, first aid and social runs. It was fabulous to get so many people understanding that H&S doesn’t have to be difficult, or something to avoid.

Also in the good news section, is Iford indoor jumping facility in the southeast. Whilst this converted grain silo wasn’t a purpose-built facility, the local coach, and club have worked hard to install a raised runway, and work within good practice standards to deliver a facility that is now available for training and L1 competition. Lots of thanks go to Rick Pilling, Ed Hunt, Scott Simpson and Phil Keeley for all the work to get this venue inspected and approved for use.

We continue to watch the development of the Protect Duty after the government issued its response to the consultation document earlier this month. Should anything change we’ll make sure an update is put to those who are affected by the duty.

There is still a good deal of working going on regarding UK Athletics occupational H&S – especially with the return to office working and the build up to a number of British Athletics events over the next six months.