Planning an Event - Develop

Within phase 2, you are required to develop key plans and supporting documentation that are up to current legislative and safety standards.

Events Safety Management Plan

Event planning involves the coordination of every detail of the event such as community gala, funfairs, art and music festival, trade show, street parade, street parties, sport days, on-roads sporting events etc.

The Events Safety Management Plan has been designed to support you during the planning phase of your event. It identifies key areas of action and consideration, and provides basic guidance on delivering a safe and successful event, whatever the scale. It's a key document that outlines all the elements of an event, including:

• contingency arrangements such as medical/first aid plan
• drug and alcohol policy
• missing persons policy
• security plans

Managing Risks and Risk assessments

As an organiser, you’re required by law to protect your audience, staff, volunteers and others, from harm.

Under the Management of Health and Safety Regulations 1999, the minimum you must do is:

• identify what could cause injury or illness in your event (hazards)
• decide how likely it is that someone could be harmed and how seriously (the risk)
• act to eliminate the hazard, or if this isn’t possible, put measures in place to control the risk

You can use the Event Risk Assessment Template, which has been designed to provide you with further guidance on how to complete a risk assessment and develop contingency plans for events.

It's the responsibility of the event organiser to ensure adequate risk assessments are in place. You should fully document your event’s risk assessments and any resultant measures you take to protect health and safety.

Traffic Management Plan

As part of developing your plans, you must consider the management of traffic. Organisers of large and major events may wish to hire a traffic management company. Fife Council’s roads officers work closely with the event organiser and contracted company to ensure the safety of event attendees, residents and other roads users. Where necessary, a site visit may take place to understand traffic requirements.

Crime Prevention and Security  

As part of safety process at events, organisers are required to contact their Local Community Police Officer for advice in relation to Crime Prevention. Further guidance on how to keep safe and be vigilant on suspicious behaviour can be obtained at Police Scotland.  

You may also wish to visit the NaCTSO (National Counter Terrorism and Security Office) website, which provides a range of guidance and training including:

• Crowded Places Guidance
• the Stay Safe film (Run, Hide, Tell) and;
• access to the Action Counters Terrorism (ACT) eLearning course. This explains how to spot the signs of suspicious behaviour and what to do to help yourself, others, and the emergency responders if an attack should take place.

Inspection Sheet

A walk-through safety inspection should be carried out immediately prior to the start of an event, during the event and at the start of each subsequent day of an event.

This list is not exhaustive and other event related activities may need to be added to this list. Further information can be found in our Environmental Health Information for Event Organisers document.

If the answer is ‘no’ to any of these questions, then immediate action must be taken to resolve the matter.