Introduction

The leisure industry, like other industries, relies on a range of efficient and effective working practices. This unit gives you the opportunity to investigate practices ranging from essential health and safety through to desirable quality systems which focus on customer satisfaction and
retention.

Whilst investigating key health and safety legislation you will see the importance they play in ensuring the safety of both staff and customers, as well as equipping you with the knowledge to implement basic safety controls and procedures.

You will get the opportunity to explore a range of quality awards available to the industry that will aid your understanding of the type of working practices that need to be implemented and maintained by organisations.
This, combined with the research you will undertake when l ooking at other leisure related systems (such as membership schemes) will give you an excellent understanding into the importance of effective working practices to all leisure organisations.

You will be required to complete simple financial exercises appropriate to the leisure industry.

2.1 Overview:

What you need to learn:

2.1 Safe working practices
The health and safety of the public and staff fundamental to any
organisation within the leisure industry. You need to be aware of the key
requirements of the relevant legislation that affects the industry including.

The legislation is:
• The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974
• The European Directives of 1992
• Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations 1994
• Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrence Regulations 1995
• Health and Safety (First Aid) Regulations 1981
• Fire Safety and Safety of Places of Sport Act 1987
• Food Safety Act 1990
• Children Act 1989
• Data Protection Act 1998
• Working Time Regulations 1998.

You need to be able to apply legislation to a range of situations within the industry, such as:
• implementing inspection programmes
• staff training and development
• safeguarding the security of property and information
• protecting staff and visitors fro violence and abuse
• dealing with specific customer and staff issues
• undertaking risk assessments; a risk assessment should include identification of hazard, who will be affected, severity of risk, likelihood of risk, risk rating and measures to minimise risk.

In looking at safe working practices you also need to investigate the role and powers of enforcement agencies in this area, including:
• The Health and Safety Commission
• The Health and Safety Executive
• local authority departments such as environmental health.

Topic 1: Laws Regulations and codes

Learning Outcomes
By the end of the topic you should have:

• An awareness of how the law applies to the leisure industry and common sources.
• An awareness of the benefits of having safe working and codes of practices.
• An appreciation of how regulations are enforced and by whom.
• Some familiarity with terminology.

Key Words:
Negligence, compensation, exploitation, statute law, common law, civil laws, criminal laws, stakeholders, green image, discrimination, human rights, prohibition.

Topic 2: Safe Working Practices

Learning Outcomes
By the end of the topic you should have an awareness of and the key intentions in:

• The Health and safety at Work Act (HASAWA), for leisure contexts
• The main European regulations in leisure contexts (the six pack)
• Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Act (COSHH)
• The Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences (RIDDOR)
• The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) - though knowledge of the DDA is not require in the assessment.

Key Words:
legislation, risk assessment

Topic 3: Legislation and Regulations for specific situations

Learning Outcomes
By the end of the topic you should have:

• An appreciation of legislation in specific leisure situations.
• An awareness of the key intentions of the Health & Safety (First Aid) Regulations, the Fire safety and Safety of Places of Sport Act and the Food Safety Act.
• An awareness of the key intentions of the Children Act, Data Protection Act and Working Time regulations.

Topic 4: Risk assessment and implementation

Learning Outcomes
By the end of the topic you should have:

• Greater familiarity with risk assessment terminology
• Understanding of the principles of risk assessment
• Some ability to apply risk assessment techniques

Key Words:
hazard, probabilty, severity