Why I deliver Risk Assessment Training

If you told me a year ago that I would be delivering risk assessment training I wouldn't have believed you.

Risk Assessments are essential but not necessarily the most exciting training to deliver. However, things have changed a lot in the past 12 months and now I’m committed to delivering this training to as many VCSE groups and organisations I can.

So what has changed?

Obviously COVID-19 has radically changed the world we live in. Now we clean our hands, wear masks to protect ourselves and others and keep 2 metres apart – although to quote one of my favourite comedians “keep 2 Alsatians apart”.  However my reason is much more personal - on the 28^th April 2020 my lovely Mother-in-Law died of COVID-19. 

We don’t know how she caught it, but within 6 weeks of falling ill, she died at Salford Royal Hospital at the age of 71. She didn’t have any underlying health conditions, she went to the gym regularly and she wasn’t overweight. She was one of the spriteliest people I knew who loved music and going to gigs.

The reason why I’m committed to this training is because I never want anyone to go through what we did last year.  The stress of waiting for phone calls from the hospital to see how she was, the devastation of her having to be admitted into ICU and being put on the ventilator twice. The most heart breaking part was saying good bye to her by iPad – no family should ever go through that.

So when I was asked to deliver this training I had no hesitation in saying yes.

Now we're being funded by Forever Manchester to deliver outreach, training and support to VCSEs in Salford to reopen safely when circumstances allow. We are currently running two training courses which are free and delivered on Zoom:

• Getting Ready to Reopen – this covers workplace and workforce risk assessments

• Individual Risk Assessment training – this covers risk assessments for staff and volunteers to return to work or activities

We deliver training every month and the latest training dates can be found here.

We also have Jenny and Jane who can support you with Risk Assessments and if you want them to get in touch with you to discuss your needs please contact Salford CVS on 0161 787 7795 or email office@salfordcvs.co.uk

Safety is paramount at this time and making sure your activity and building is COVID secure is essential, however, Salford CVS is here to help you every step of the way.