How to Write a Risk Assessment for a Girlguiding Meeting
A step-by-step approach to risk assessing unit meetings, outdoor activities and trips, based on the HSE's five steps — for Rainbows, Brownies, Guides and Rangers leaders.
Every Girlguiding activity should be risk assessed, from a normal meeting in your usual hall to a day trip or a night away. A risk assessment isn't paperwork for its own sake: it's a record that you've thought about what could go wrong and what you're doing to prevent it.
The five steps
The Health and Safety Executive's widely used approach breaks risk assessment into five steps:
- 1
Identify the hazards.
Anything that could cause harm: the venue, equipment, the activity itself, weather, travel, food and allergies.
- 2
Decide who might be harmed and how.
Girls, leaders, helpers, parents and the public. Think about age, ability, medical needs and anyone who needs additional support.
- 3
Evaluate the risks and decide on precautions.
For each hazard, judge how likely and how serious harm would be, then record the controls that reduce it to an acceptable level.
- 4
Record your findings.
Write down hazards, controls and who is responsible for each. Share it with every adult helping on the day.
- 5
Review and update.
Look again when anything changes — a new venue, different weather, a girl with new medical needs — and after any incident or near miss.
What to include for a typical unit meeting
- Venue: fire exits, assembly point, first aid kit location, building access and who holds the keys
- Activity hazards: craft tools, cooking, active games, water or fire
- Medical and dietary needs, taken from girls' health and consent information
- Adult-to-girl ratios and who the responsible adult is for the session
- Arrival and collection arrangements
- Emergency contacts and how you will call for help
Activities that need extra care
Outdoor activities, cooking, fires, water, adventurous activities, trips and residentials all carry higher risk and often come with additional Girlguiding rules, permissions or qualifications. Check these early in your planning, not the week before.
Girlguiding publishes its own risk assessment guidance, templates, ratio requirements and rules for adventurous activities and residentials. These take priority over general advice, so always check the current versions before you plan.
Making it quicker without cutting corners
Most unit meetings share the same core hazards, so the fastest approach is to start from a template for the activity type and then edit it for this specific session. In UnitSolutions, the Risk Assessment Generator gives you activity presets, lets every leader sign digitally and exports a PDF you can share or print for the unit folder.
Common mistakes
- Copying last year's assessment without checking what has changed
- Listing hazards without a control for each one
- Not sharing the assessment with the adults actually running the session
- Forgetting to review it after an incident or near miss
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a risk assessment for every meeting?
Every activity should be risk assessed. Many units keep a core assessment for their regular venue and review it, adding activity-specific assessments when a session differs. Check Girlguiding's current guidance for what's required.
Who should see the risk assessment?
Every adult helping with the activity should read it before the session, and know where it is kept on the day.
What are the five steps of a risk assessment?
Identify the hazards; decide who might be harmed and how; evaluate the risks and decide on precautions; record your findings; review and update.