As VCSE groups and organisations plan to return to activities and open up community centres and buildings, it’s essential to review your risk assessments to ensure your activities and buildings are safe for staff, volunteers and the public.

There are three parts to risk assessments and this forms the basis of your Risk Assessment Framework:

1. Workplace Assessment
2. Workforce Assessment
3. Individual Assessment

Workplace and Workforce Assessments

For Workplace and Workforce Assessments we’ve produced a document called Returning to Work after Coronavirus (Covid 19).  This document provides guidance about what COVID-19 risks you to consider in your Workplace and Workforce Risk Assessments.  The guidance includes a step by step guide, check list and template.

Individual Assessment

What we have found through COVID-19 is that certain individuals are at higher risk of having complications if they catch the virus, so it is vital for VCSE groups and organisations to identify which staff or volunteers are at higher risk. 

We have developed a two part Individual Risk Assessment which identifies the level of risk for staff and volunteers (My COVID-19 Self-Assessment), and then enables the group or organisation to prioritise who needs to undertake a full Individual risk assessment:

Part One – My COVID-19 Self-Assessment

All staff and volunteers should be encouraged to complete the My COVID-19 Self-Assessment as that will provide an indication of what level of risk they have of complications if they contract COVID-19. Risks bands include Low, Moderate and Significant risk. This tool can help you to prioritise who should undergo a full Individual COVID-19 Risk Assessment.

Mini Health Checks are also available for Salford front line key workers and volunteers. The checks are carried out at Pendleton and Eccles Gateways with the support of the Health Improvement Service. Find out more.

Part Two - Individual Covid-19 Risk Assessment Toolkit for VCSE Organisations in Salford

We have produced a toolkit that will take you through how to complete an Individual COVID-19 Risk Assessment. Those staff or volunteers who have moderate or significant risk should be prioritised to have a risk assessment completed.

This toolkit provides the context of why certain people need to undergo an individual risk assessment, suggestions to mitigate risks, health and wellbeing signposting, where to get support and an Individual Risk Assessment template.

Often undertaking Individual Risk Assessments can involve personal issues and we recommend you use sensitive, supportive and positive language at all times with your staff and volunteers.

Support available

At Salford CVS we understand this is a lot of information to take in and you may need some further support, so we have developed a support package for VCSE groups and organisation.  This includes the following:

Risk Assessment workshops

Group online training sessions in completing Individual Risk Assessments (duration approximately 1.5 hours).  The session aims to give you the knowledge, skills and confidence to risk assess individuals. 

Training dates can be found here.

One to One support

We can support individual groups/organisation to complete Individual Risk Assessment (maximum of two risk assessments per group / organisation).

Review of completed Risk Assessment

Proofreading and providing brief feedback on the completed risk assessments and where necessary identify any areas for improvement.

Get in touch

If you need further support please contact Anne-Marie Marshall Annemarie.marshall@salfordcvs.co.uk

Download the resources

• Returning to Work after Coronavirus (Covid 19)
• My COVID-19 Self-Assessment
• Individual Covid-19 Risk Assessment Toolkit for VCSE Organisations in Salford

Please note we have adapted these resources from a document entitled “Commitment to BAME and those at higher risk of COVID-19” by Dr Muna Abdel Aziz, Director of Public Health for Salford.