pedals2slowly wrote:Anyone else wondering if written risk assessments are fit for purpose?
Of course the major issue is where written assessments are not communicated to all the relevant people, which will include at least the trainees and any assistant trainers. For clarity, I'm not involved in cycle training, but certainly I've seen this elsewhere - the RA does the box-ticking and covering against later challenge, but doesn't actually reduce risk much because no-one (else) who matters knows about it!
Whereas a group of three or four leaders who had had a proper discussion of the risks in an activity could certainly testify, if needed, that this had taken place - and would be more likely to continue with a dynamic assessment during the activity itself.
If I were investigating an incident, and were presented with a written RA, I'd still want evidence from participants as to whether they'd seen the document, so a written one doesn't even create that much more certainty. This is not to say that a written one is not valuable for other reasons.