Caravan Industry Association of Australia – Risk Management Policy Template – Version RMPT02July 11, 2014

Risk Management

The Importance of a Broad View of Risk

In any business there is a wide range of risk which the successful business person has to manage. This is certainly true of caravan parks. Risks affecting caravan park owner’s livelihoods come from a range of diverse areas and increase as the range of facilities and services offered by parks increases.

They include but not limited to:

  1. Market risks from competitors. Think of competitors broadly, not just other parks, but any other areas that compete for customers and their business
  2. Financial risk such as rising interest rates, rising petrol prices, rising insurance premiums
  3. Natural disasters such as fires, floods, drought, either directly damaging assets, diverting resources, requiring higher insurance premiums, or undermining the attractiveness of the property
  4. Risk related to duty of care, obligations
  5. Management risks, such as appointment of unsatisfactory staff, contract management, not having processes in place to ensure legislation is complied with
  6. Guest’s behaviours whilst staying at the park. Are guests informed of the risks involved with not complying with rules and regulations you have set down for the benefit of all. Have you planned for this and how to deal with unruly or dangerous behaviour by guests or visitors to the park
  7. Compliance risks such as not holding appropriatelicenses, not following legislated procedures, or notensuring staff are trained in managing particularpotential risk situations.

You may need to do some preliminary research

Work Health and Safety Acts and Regulations

Safe Work Australia is a national policy setting body whose key role is to improve workplace health and safety, and workers’ compensation arrangements across Australia. This is their website link:

The following are links to the individual state Work Health and Safety acts and regulations.

  • QLD –
  • NSW –
  • VIC –
  • SA -
  • TAS –
  • WA –
  • ACT –
  • NT –

Your local council will provide you with the latest information about local laws for playgrounds, swimming pools, health, hygiene and food handling, as well as legislation you must meet regarding the local environment. In some states local councils manage emergency response so you might need to check these areas with the council.

Manufacturers of equipment, or the contractors you employ to maintain that equipment, are also good sources of information about safe handling, maintenance requirements etc. Ask them if there is written information you can put on file (remember, it may be a staff member who needs that information next!) Don’t forget staff might need training on this and you need to maintain the training record logbook.

Maintenance registers need to be updated and kept for up to 28years as injuries inflicted to a person who for instance may be a baby at the time of incident. This child once they have turned 18 years old has up to 10 years to make a claim for compensation for injuries sustained after an incident.

ST JOHN AMBULANCE and the RED CROSS can provide advice and booklets on first aid. There is no ruling about the type of first aid kit required for a caravan holiday park, but they need to be adequately stocked to cover the number of customers and employees in your park in the busy season. Their contents need to be regularly checked, so that disappearing stocks are replaced on a regular basis, and use-by dates can be monitored. Again, recording these checks in a diary or logbook will provide evidence of your conscientious approach to these matters.

Caravan Holiday Park owners/managers might consider a first aid course, or encouraging staff to do one. The benefits are that you learn how to respond in an emergency and you’re brought up to date on the latest first aid techniques, which you can then bring to your staff’s attention. Any meetings where first aid issues are discussed should also be entered in the log-book. Remember, log any incidents where an injury has occurred in your injuries log book.

Policy Documentation

To help you with the process of documenting a Risk Management policy, Caravan Industry Association of Australia has provided templates which can be adopted and/or amended to fit the circumstances of your park. The templates are a guide and are to help you should your park have no policy currently in place. As they are guides only, the contents must reflect the risk management needs of your business and the Work Health and Safety Act in your state.

Risk Management Policy (Template)
(This template can be utilised and adapted to suit your business)
Risk Management Policy Statement – (Insert your park’s name here)
(This is a sample of a Risk Management Policy Statement which can be adopted
or amended using your own wording)
The owners/managers of this park are committed to implementing risk management procedures for the business to ensure a safe working environment for staff, a safe holidaying experience for customers, and security and safety for our residents. We encourage and train our staff in Workplace Health and Safety procedures to ensure they accept and adopt requirements as a matter of course in their day to day routine
Steps for conducting a Basic Risk Assessment
  1. Gather information about each hazard you identify
  2. Consider how many people are likely to be exposed to the each hazard.
  3. Assess the consequences for example, could people die, suffer from major injury with long term side effects, suffer minor injuries which will require days off work, suffer negligible injuries maybe needing first aid
  4. Rate the risk
  5. Put preventative action systems in place in accordance with the risk.
Think Work Safe
Under the Work Health and Safety Act both the company and its employees have a responsibility for ensuring that the workplace is a safe environment for everyone. All accidents and incidents are to be reported to the Owner/Manager or most senior person on-site and kept on file, with necessary action taken to ensure it does not occur in the future.
Employee Responsibilities
Employees must take reasonable care to protect the safety and health of themselves and others. They must cooperate with the employer to ensure the workplace is safe, and follow all instructions and training. Employees must wear any personal protective equipment that may be supplied by the company.
All staffs employed by this business have read and understand the policy procedures outlined in this document and have, if appropriate, been trained in the different policy procedures.
Identifying Hazards
To identify safety and health hazards, on a continuous basis Management and staff follow these guidelines:
  1. Workplace Inspection Check is conducted monthly using the Workplace Inspection Checklist and a Hazard Report form completed and submitted to management when a hazard has been identified
  2. Together management and staff are to look at ways in which different tasks/work activities may interact to cause a hazard.
  3. Fill in a basic risk assessment sheet per job.
  4. Management is to write down all the hazards that they and their staff have identified and record them on the Hazard and Risk Assessment form.
  5. All actions to remedy these potential hazards are recorded and photographed.
  6. Look at and record any information provided by manufacturers or suppliers to ensure equipment and materials will not harm employees or guests.
Hazard Control
Hazard control is the process of implementing measures to reduce the risk associated with a hazard. The control process follows the control hierarchy, in order, as prescribed in health and safety legislation.
The Hierarchy of Control is:
  1. ELIMINATION – Remove the hazard completely
  2. ISOLATION – Separate people from the hazard (guards, barriers, enclosures etc)
  3. ENGINEERING – Engineering controls (earth leakage device, mechanical lifters etc)
  4. ADMINISTRATION – Change of work practices (training, Safe Work Method Statements, procedures etc)
  5. PPE – Personal Protective Equipment (hearing protection, eye protection, gloves etc)

Reporting Injuries
Should an injury occur to an employee and that injury is a reportable injury under the relevant Work Safe Authority, owners/managers will complete an incident report and report it immediately.
Ensure that all incidents and injuries are recorded on an incident report form. At the time of a risk management assessment all completed incident report forms are to be collated to ensure all hazards have been identified and preventative actions have been put in place.
Medical Emergency
  1. Check for any threatening situation and control it if safe to do so
  2. Remain with casualty (unless there is no other option) and provide appropriate support
  3. Do not move casualties unless in a life threatening situation
  4. Notify the manager and the first aider
  5. Notify the ambulance if not already done and designate someone to meet them
  6. Provide support to first aider or ambulance if required

Risk Management Training Record
(This is a sample of a Risk Management Training Record which can be adopted
or amended using your own wording)
Risk element
(Use the elements below or add/amend what is pertinent to your business) / Policy/Procedure
(Policy procedure should reflect your business needs and align with your Risk Management Policy Statement. You may use the suggestions listed below or add/amend your own) / Staff initials
/ Date
Swimming Pool
Drowning
Slippery Surfaces
Skylarking / (Example of some typical policy/procedures for swimming pools. You may use the suggestions listed below, amend or add your own)
The owners/managers are committed to the safe and responsible use of the park’s swimming pool and surrounding area
  • The swimming pool area is fully fenced according to government regulations
  • All gates leading into the pool area are sanctioned child proof locks and self-closing
  • Signage demonstrating CPR (Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation) techniques and emergency phone numbers are prominently displayed according to government regulations
  • Slippery surface signage is prominently displayed at the entrance of the pool and within the pool area
  • Signage is prominently displayed relating to the rules of the pool, which are:
  • No glass bottles or glass receptacles in the pool area
  • No running, diving or dive bombing is permitted
  • Children must be supervised by an adult who can swim
  • Any behaviour by guests that the park owners/managers deem to be anti-social or disruptive (skylarking) will not be tolerated and offenders asked to leave the pool area

Children’s play areas
Injuries sustained by falls/ equipment misuse or failure/ non-supervision of children / (Example of some typical policy/ procedures for children’s play areas. You may use the suggestions listed below, amend or add your own)
The owners/managers are committed to the safe and responsible use of the park’s children play area
  • All play area equipment complies to the standards relevant by state and local authorities
  • Loose fill or synthetic rubber is used in play areas to minimise the impact of falls and/or impact in landing areas (such as slides) or areas where a fall may occur
  • Supervision by an adult is required for any children using the areas
  • Signage is erected in a prominent area displaying the risks of improper use of the play area equipment
  • Misuse of equipment may result in people being removed from the play area, continuous disregard for the rules may result in eviction from the park with no refund

Walkways and Roads
Slip hazards/ potholes/ overhanging branches / (Example of some typical policy/ procedures for walkways and roads. You may use the suggestions listed below, amend or add your own)
  • The owners/managers will endeavour to identify risks relating to the park’s walkways and roads through regular inspections
  • Signage will be erected to risk areas prone to slippery surfaces that cannot be reasonably alleviated by park staff through normal maintenance and inspections
  • Overhanging branches from trees and shrubs will be pruned and maintained to alleviate the risk of injury
  • Road surfaces will be kept under repair ensuring potholes, loose gravel or other risks are minimised and signage displayed until the risk is repaired
  • Maintenance schedule is kept on any repairs or on-going maintenance needed

Use of chemicals and power tools
Spillage/ poisoning/ storage/ injury or property damage / (Example of some typical policy/ procedures for use of chemicals and power tools. You may use the suggestions listed below, amend or add your own)
Any chemical usage by staff or contractors of this business will be in accordance with the Workplace Health and Safety policy adopted by the business
  • Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) are kept on all chemicals and hazardous substances used in the park
  • Storage of chemicals is in accordance with the MSDS and Workplace Health and Safety policy of the park
  • Chemicals used in conjunction with cleaning and maintenance are used in compliance with the Maintenance Procedures manual
  • LPG bottles are safely stored and current regulatory standards are in place for both storage and decanting of the LPG
  • Should a chemical spill occur staff will ensure the clean-up complies with the MSDS and the organisations policy and procedure on chemical spills, including erecting of temporary signage to minimise risk of injury until clean-up can occur
  • Hazardous substances will be properly disposed of in accordance with Workplace Health and Safety policy and appropriate licensed services employed
  • This business is committed to ensuring no occurrence of poisoning will occur in this park. This will be achieved with proper storage of chemicals in a locked area. Should poisoning occur, staff who have first aid training will attend to the injured and contact the emergency department appropriate
  • The use of power tools owned or leased by the park will only be undertaken by fully trained staff or contractors of the business skilled in the proper use, care and storage of said tools. These tools will not be available for use under any circumstances by guests or residents of the park

Lighting
Security at night/ trip hazard / (Example of some typical policy/ procedures for guest information. You may use the suggestions listed below, amend or add your own)
  • Adequate lighting is provided to all areas of the park to ensure the safety and security of staff, guests and residents
  • Lights on walkways and around amenities are inspected regularly to ensure defective bulbs are replaced
  • Poorly lit areas of the park which may affect the safety or security of staff, guests and residents are identified and recorded in the maintenance plan for rectification work

Emergency and Evacuation
Fire/ Flood/ Storm / (Example of some typical policy/ procedures for emergency and evacuation. You may use the suggestions listed below, amend or add your own)
The owners/managers and staff are committed to the safety of all employees, guests and residents of the park.
With this in mind they have developed emergency contact and evacuation procedure plans which are prominently displayed at reception and throughout the park
  • In the case of a fire within the park, all staff are trained in the use of fire hoses and fire extinguishers
  • Emergency services are contacted and the evacuation plan is activated at the outset of a fire.
  • No staff member or customer is expected to put their safety at risk. If the fire is beyond the capabilities of staff to fight with fire hoses and/or extinguishers available, or they fear for their safety, they must adhere to the evacuation procedures in place.
  • In the event of flood owner/managers will be in contact with local emergency services as to when evacuation may be required and if so activate the Flood Evacuation Plan
  • If advance notice of a severe storm is forthcoming to owners/managers of the park all attempts to secure any items which may become projectiles in high wind will be made. Additionally, if sufficient notice of the storm is obtained, staff will attempt to inform all park guests and residents asking them to stay indoors until the storm passes and pass on any safety instructions from emergency services