Hot days bring on safety thoughts
In life, we often only think to plan for those events that happen infrequently when they are upon us, you will have had a few thoughts about the very hot weather for instance.
It means the action we take is not as well thought through and that has a knock on effect for what we can provide quickly and sometimes safely. It can also have an effect on a registration application or inspection if you cannot see beyond the here and now.
Personal experience
Let me give you a little example of a trivial element in my life… this is a text I sent to my family about my daughter’s play at school yesterday.
“Dear XXX
I have absolutely no idea what has been sent out and what hasn’t…The play is at 7:00pm tonight…sorry! and I hope to goodness it is over by 9:00pm. Due to the way ticket allocation has happened we have absolutely no idea of where our seats are. We are not sitting together so your co-operation is greatly appreciated. If you haven’t made plans, do come to ours for 6.30pm for a cuppa and you are welcome back afterwards too.
Abi”
One thought leads to another…
Yes…to my shame, a number of other things had come up and I had booked seats a little later than I wanted to and and not communicated the plan. It nearly caused a problem with who could attend. Once I had had one thought, a number of others came pouring in…
- Who needed to know what?
- How long would it last?
- Would people need drinks? Food?
- Who could sit where?
- Would anyone be offended if they took the row behind?
These thoughts were all good ones, and if I had had them earlier I wouldn’t be in a flat spin now!
So how do we plan for the unexpected?
My top tips:
- Plan with others – Planning alone often leads to miss opportunities. Having someone else there often enables you to bounce ideas from one to the other
- Visualise it – Yep – try and act it out
- Learn from others who have been through it
- Read about it – The news will often highlight disasters and incidents like flooding, fire and heatwave which lead you to think clearly about a possible situation for your service
- Undertake a risk assessment which lead your thoughts through the things that may be a problem
- Check out QCS policies and procedures and plans – the key is to read them, know them and make them your own, they are no good sat on a shelf or in a file without reading.
It will be alright on the night?
Well the play went very well, but I was hot and sweaty…a cake baked last minute, anxious about seating, and a sprint home at half time to get a fan and food provisions for a fidgety son.
I’ll be sure to do a bit more planning next time…
