Reporting Incidents, Illness and Emergencies
It's important to have clear processes for reporting of incidents both locally and nationally in Scouts and, where appropriate, to other agencies.
The reporting and recording of incidents is an important tool in keeping everyone safe. Learning from incidents is a key way to inform our guidance and practice.
It's important to know what to do in an emergency and for all involved in an activity to be on the same page with what's going to happen.
Local records
For all incidents, including those that do not require reporting to UK headquarters, you will need to have an accident book in your meeting place. A record should be kept of all incidents that occur.
It's important to make local records of any incidents. This'll allow you to pass relevant information to parents and carers following an incident. The recording of incidents needs to be done in a sensitive way and meeting all data protection regulations.
Reporting further
You will need to submit a report to UK Headquarters if:
- Someone suffers a personal injury or illness and needs to seek medical help or advice. This may include a GP, hospital, clinic or dentist.
- Someone needs an emergency service such as an ambulance, mountain rescue or the police.
- There is damage to third party property.
As well as reporting incidents where injuries occur, it's also important to log and track incidents that could have resulted in significant injury or impact, or could have been much worse given a few minor changes to the situation. A near miss report allows the UK team to monitor these events.
- Name of the person, membership type, Group/Unit, District and County
- Date and time of incident
- Activity at the time
- Nature of the injury/illness and severity (were they kept in hospital overnight)
- Any external agencies involved (eg ambulance, GP, A&E)
- Details of what happened, including:
- any relevant background details
- what the injured person was doing when the incident happened
- what caused the injury/illness
- what happened next; first aid, hospital treatment and any outcomes of treatment
- Your details as reporter and how you can be contacted
Note: Please give as much information as you have available. It may take a day or so to gather the relevant information prior to making the report.
Please report an incident by completing the online incident reporting form, if you need assistance in doing this please contact us using the live chat function.
With each incident consideration should be made to the need to report the incident to any external agency, such as the Health & Safety Executive or the Charities Commission. Here are some example situations
- employees are directly employed and managed by the premises owner (for example a Scout Group who own their own hall and employ a cleaner or a campsite who employ freelance instructors during their busy season)
- contractors who are employed regularly by the premises owner (for example a Scout Campsite who employ a contractor to clean their buildings once a week or once a month)
- If your premises is also a place of work; with the above examples, any workplace incidents which occur on the property regardless of who is involved (it doesn't need to be involving the employee) which meet the reporting criteria will need to be RIDDOR reported.
Boating Incidents
For craft other than pleasure craft it is a legal requirement that you notify MAIB of any marine casualty or marine incident.
Note any notification made to MAIB does not remove any obligation to notify other organisations or the Scouts HQ.
Where a one off contractor is used for a specific piece of work they would be required to report any incidents to the HSE themselves, but the premises would not be considered to be a place of work.
What happens next
After submitting an Online Incident Report, you will hear from the Safety Team. They will ask you to complete the Further Information forms, not only for insurance purposes but as a historical record in case of future events, as well as for valuable insight into national trends.
It will often be ideal to undertake a Local Safety Learning Review. This will look at the how, when, who and final outcomes of the incident and record the learning conclusions and how they have been shared. For more complex incidents, you can use the Local Safety Learning Review template and guidance.
Use our tools and tips to aid your future safe planning.