- Managing safety on the water
- A systematic approach
- Structure and Management
- Hazards and risks
- Controls and procedures
- Culture and promotion
- People accept the risks and choose to take part
- Assurance
A systematic approach
Attitudes and behaviours
Safety culture is critical to ensuring safe activity on the water
It is difficult and time consuming to get right, but you know it when you see it.
You will find many definitions out there, but safety culture is likely to include
- Communication about safety issues founded on mutual trust
- Shared perceptions about the importance of safety
- Confidence in the measures in place
- Attitudes and behaviours of everyone involved – procedures are followed, incidents highlighted, lessons learned
- Competencies of everyone involved - proven skills, ability and knowledge
Look for:
Commitment and visibility
The time, budget and people committed to managing safety on the water and the active involvement of those that lead the organisation and have lead responsibility for safety.
Communication and involvement
Safety on the water is part of everyday conversations – questions are asked and responded to; and anyone is able to raise concerns, they are actively listened to and taken seriously. Staff and volunteers on the water see safety as a joint exercise, and they are involved in managing risk, identifying issues and improving practice.

Questions to ask - Attitudes and behaviours
- Where is safety perceived to be in the organisation’s priorities?
- Do people know who is responsible for safety?
- How does everyone involved know this?
- Is safety on the water part of the day-to-day conversations?
- Are safety issues dealt with quickly?
- Do decisions and checks about safety rely on one person and their judgement or are they backed by good processes and others either checking what is being done or endorsing the framework for decisions?
- How are staff / volunteers involved in safety?
- Are unsafe acts challenged?
Functional concise documents
Every organisation is different and so has different requirements for documentation
It is easy to say documents should be functional, concise, and shared – but harder to achieve.
Keep in mind the objective
Is the document a policy, a statement of intent? Is it a procedure, a process to follow set out step by step? Is it a tool to be used to ensure the steps set out in the procedures can be followed or a form for example? is it something else?
Keep in mind the audience
What prior knowledge do they have? What jargon or language do they use? How much time do they have?
Be concise
Make it short and readable and don’t include too many steps. Seek input from experts and users of the documents.
Review regularly
Check whether what is documented can and is being implemented.
Share
Documents are there to be used, so people need to know where to find them.

Questions to ask - Documents
- Are the documents that form the safety management system collated in one place? Remember you can store all of your club documents in the Affiliation Portal.
- Do staff and volunteers know where to find the documents that make up the safety management system?
- What do staff and volunteers think of the documents – are they concise and useful? Accessible? Easy to use?
- Are documents regularly tested and reviewed?
- Can you trace they ways things are done day to day back to the documentation?
- Is there anything in the documentation that can’t implemented