Health and Safety includes having a management of risks to prevent people from being harmed or becoming ill by taking the right precautions. I would describe health and safety as maintaining health by being safe, which involves following laws and legislations for e.g. making risk assessments of areas and activity’s. There are a lot of different health and safety legislation’s in the outdoor industry. One of the most important factors of any health and safety legislation is to establish a degree of ‘duty of care’, within health and safety a definition of ‘duty of care’ suggests that employees and employers have a responsibility to take all reasonable measures to ensure people will be safe. A lack of care could be regarded in law as negligence – “Careless conduct that causes injury or death to another”.
Reference www.hse.gov.uk Good coaching using correct methods involves the correct teaching of different skills and techniques e.g. a technique being taught could be a t-draw paddling stroke and methods of teaching it could be to demonstrate it, talk someone through it or perhaps move their paddle into place to show them. After teaching the technique it is important to make sure the learner understands how and when to use it in a situation so the stroke becomes a skill. Staff may also need specific training to be able to deal with people with certain needs for example disabled people. It is also important that staff have training in the correct use of specific apparatus/equipment so they know how and when to use it.
Caring and appropriate leadership involves having a duty of care of others and remaining in loco-parentis for participants under the age of 18. Duty of care’ is a legal relationship that exists between all of us as to the consequences of our actions on others. “Loco-parentis” is when a person or organisation (e.g. an instructor or a centre) becomes responsible for a minor this being someone under 18 and they take the place of the parent. An example of when someone is in ‘loco-parentis’ is a teacher taking a group of students away from the school for perhaps a trip would remain in ‘loco-parentis’ throughout the trip. It also involves instructors creating fun, planned sessions that are enjoyable for the participants. It is essential for instructors to have hard skills such as qualifications but they should also have soft skills otherwise known as people skills that involves being able to work with others and communicate, having a good personality etc.
Equality is about fairness and creating a society where everyone has the same opportunities in all parts of society. In an outdoor centre they should be able to show that they don’t discriminate anyone in any of the actions they carry out as an organisation for example in how they provide their services, they should have activities where everyone can participate. Equal opportunities means removing forms of unfair discrimination in the areas of sex, marital status, disability, race, nationality, ethnic origin, religion etc. It also involves breaking down barriers that may exist because of cultural influences or perhaps a disability etc. Therefore people should have equal opportunities and not be excluded from the activities of society, such as education, employment etc. The aim of equal opportunities is to eliminate discrimination, reduce inequality and protect human rights.
Reference www.direct.gov.uk