Contigency Planning
Last Updated: 01-Nov-2007 2:59 PM

Home > Publications > FLA Publications > Contingency Planning ...

Contingency Planning

The information contained in this publication is intended to provide useful guidance, but is not a definitive statement applicable in all circumstances. Independent professional advice should be obtained before taking any action or refraining from taking any action on the basis of this information.

Contents

Preface

1. Introduction

2. General principles

3. The planning process

4. Implementing the contingency plans

5. Hazards to assess

6. Post incident recovery

Appendix A Glossary of Terms

Preface

The Fourth (1997) Edition of the Guide to Safety at Sports Grounds (the "Green Guide") emphasises that the management of a sports ground is responsible for the safety of spectators at its premises. It explains that the ground management should make use of the technique of risk assessment when drawing up its contingency plans for dealing with any incident which might prejudice public safety or disrupt normal operations. Such incidents can arise at any sports ground irrespective of its size or type.

This document, which updates "Football Club Contingency Planning" published in 1994, provides additional practical guidance on how to draw up detailed contingency plans in the light of the 1997 edition of the Green Guide. It is simple to use and allows ground management to take full account of all relevant circumstances when drawing up its plans. It is the distillation of good practice, experience and knowledge gained over many years by the Football Licensing Authority and others concerned with safety at football grounds, both in Britain and overseas.

The need to draw up contingency plans is not unique to football. The advice in this guidance, which should be read alongside the companion document on exercise planning, may therefore also be of assistance to those responsible for spectator safety at other sports grounds.

1. Introduction

In exercising its responsibility for the safety of all spectators at any sports ground, the ground management needs to identify any potential hazards and to conduct risk assessments into the type of incidents that might prejudice public safety or disrupt normal operations. It should then prepare appropriate contingency plans for dealing safely with any such incidents.

The aim of this guidance document is to assist ground management to draw up such contingency plans. These should be compatible with the contingency plans that it is required to produce under health and safety at work legislation. Indeed the plans for the safety of spectators and of staff might sensibly be integrated.

The ground management’s plans should be distinguished from (but be compatible with) those produced by the emergency services for responding to an incident at the sports ground and by the local authority for dealing with major incidents.

Experience shows how emergencies can arise at sports grounds with little or no warning. Relatively minor difficulties can escalate into major incidents unless tackled in a controlled and systematic way. In most normal circumstances it will be for the ground safety personnel to respond in the first instance even if the emergency services subsequently take charge. The ground management therefore needs to plan a structured and graduated response.

Accordingly, the narrative section of this document contains general advice on the principles and process of contingency planning. To this is attached a series of charts which provide practical assistance to whoever is preparing the contingency plans. These identify particular factors to be considered when planning for the specific contingencies concerned. They should always be read with the general guidance in the Green Guide, which is not repeated here.

The types of incident described in this document are only examples. They should not be considered as a definitive list. Only by correctly identifying potential hazards and conducting its own risk assessments to remove the hazard or minimise the risk can the ground management be satisfied that its contingency plans have been formulated to meet the specific risks at the ground concerned.

This guidance document does not include a model contingency plan because such plans should reflect the particular circumstances of the ground concerned. Instead, it focuses on the planning process and on the factors that the ground management should consider when formulating its plans.

Where the sports ground has been designated under the Safety of Sports Grounds Act 1975 or has a regulated stand within the terms of the Fire Safety and Safety of Places of Sport Act 1987, it will be subject to a safety certificate issued by the relevant local authority. Should the ground management fail to produce adequate contingency plans, the local authority could (and indeed should) reasonably reduce the ground capacity.

As the Green Guide makes clear, contingency planning is but one element of the ground management’s overall responsibility for spectator safety. It should be approached in the context of the whole and integrated with elements such as the written spectator safety policy, the safety procedures, equipment and personnel, communications, training and exercise planning. This last topic is addressed in the FLA publication "Exercise Planning".

2. General principles

The ground management needs to plan in advance how it will respond to any incident likely to prejudice public safety or disrupt normal operations. Resolving such incidents may require specific action and/or the mobilisation of specialist resources.

The ground management should be aware that, following any incident resulting in injury or loss of life, its safety management procedures will come under close public scrutiny. It is thus in it’s own interest, as well as that of spectators, that adequate contingency plans are in place. Senior managers of a sports ground (for example the Chairman and Directors of the club occupying that ground) who had failed to plan could find themselves vulnerable in the face of civil or criminal proceedings, especially if the hazard concerned could reasonably have been identified and, following a risk assessment, either removed or materially reduced.

Contingency plans should lay down a structured and graduated response, with clear guidelines on the measures to be adopted in particular circumstances. These should include the action to be taken by the ground personnel, in particular the ground safety officer and stewards. This is particularly necessary during the initial stages of an incident where, without properly defined and flexible contingency plans, considerable confusion may well prevail.

The success of any plan will depend on the ground management having a clear command and control structure. This will vary from ground to ground, according to its configuration and the available means of communication. This structure should be set out in a written spectator safety policy statement.

The production of a document assigning specific tasks to identified individuals is only one stage in contingency planning. All those who have to implement the plans must have a clear understanding of their allotted roles and must be capable of performing them. To achieve the necessary combination of knowledge and skills will require:

regular thorough training and assessment;
detailed briefing /debriefing of all safety personnel at each event (further detailed guidance is contained in the FLA publication "Briefing/Debriefing");
the production and issue of a safety handbook and, where appropriate, aide-memoire cards and/or action plans; and
the staging of exercises and the following up of the lessons learned.

In preparing its plans, the ground management should not assume that the police will always be present to provide an instant response. Even where the police are on the scene, they cannot automatically be expected to assume total control and make up for deficiencies in the ground management’s arrangements. The ground management should, therefore, liaise with the local authority, the police and the other emergency services in order to establish what support it might expect in particular circumstances. Specific attention should be paid to access routes to the ground for the emergency services.

In most cases the ground management’s contingency plans should identify how it will contain or resolve the particular incident using its own personnel and resources. In some circumstances, however, such as an explosion or a large number of spectators with injuries, the appropriate response will be the immediate activation of the emergency services' emergency plan. Thus, where appropriate, the ground contingency plans should complement and be cross referenced with this plan. Arrangements for handing over and taking back control if necessary should be agreed with the police and recorded (where possible in a formal statement of intent).

The ground management’s contingency plans should therefore be drafted and exercised in consultation with the emergency services to ensure that there is no confusion or conflict about their respective roles. For the same reason, the local authority, through its Safety Advisory Group and/or its Emergency Planning Department, should be encouraged to comment on the plans for any designated sports ground or one with a regulated stand before these are promulgated.

The ground management should regularly review the contingency plans so as to identify and take action on any lessons to be learned, particularly following any incident or near miss actually or potentially prejudicing the safety of spectators or disrupting normal operations.

3. The planning process

The first step, even before drawing up any contingency plans, should be for a competent person to conduct a safety audit and a risk assessment. This process should:

identify the hazards to which spectators and other persons present at the ground may be exposed;
determine the level of risk from these hazards; and
assess whether existing safety management procedures are adequate to eliminate the hazard or, where this is not possible, to reduce the risk to an acceptable level.

Having undertaken this stage of the risk assessment, the ground management should then plan the necessary preventative and/or protective measures. In doing so, it should identify and record:

the action to be taken;
who is responsible for ensuring that this action is taken;
who is responsible for reporting back to senior management that this action has been taken; and
who is responsible for any follow up action.

Under the Fire Precautions (Workplace) Regulations 1997, as amended by the Fire Precautions (Workplace) (Amendment) Regulations 1999, the ground management must arrange such contacts with the emergency services as are necessary to give effect to rescue work and fire fighting.

Although the contingency plans will vary from ground to ground, it is possible to identify certain elements which should be common to all. These include:

an effective chain of command and communications strategy, including an agreed means of alerting all ground personnel and the emergency services, whether or not they are already present, to an incident;
effective procedures for communicating with spectators, including those in areas not affected, so that they are aware of what is happening and what to do;
the clear identification of all areas of the ground so there is no confusion over the location of an incident;
unimpeded access for the emergency services;
the recruitment, training and briefing of safety personnel; and
the provision of clothing that clearly identifies safety personnel.

Contingency planning should be an integral part of the safety management of the sports ground. The contingency plans should take their place alongside and be cross referenced with such documents as:

he ground management’s policy statement(s) and risk assessments produced in accordance with the legislation on health and safety at work;
the ground management’s policy statement(s) on spectator safety;
the job descriptions of personnel with safety management responsibilities;
any statement of intent agreed between the management and the police;
any safety certificate issued by the local authority to a designated sports ground or one with a regulated stand; and
the emergency services’ emergency plans, the local authority major incident plan and any local authority plans in respect of any adjacent site covered by the Control of Major Accident Hazards (COMAH) Regulations.

Those responsible for responding to incidents may require immediate access to various documents, which should, therefore be included in, or attached to, the contingency plans. These are likely to include:

i. a plan of the ground which highlights the location of the key safety elements such as:

the ground control room and any back up facility;
access routes agreed with the emergency services;
ingress/egress points and circulation routes for spectators;
fire alarms and fire fighting equipment;
key telephone points;
control points including rendezvous points;
first aid points;
any casualty handling areas;
key safety management personnel;
lift motor rooms;
any electrical sub-station;
gas and water stop cocks;
storage areas covered by the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations; and
vehicle parking areas.

ii. a key telephone point index and/or sports ground telephone network directory, containing details of the following key personnel and locations:

event safety officer;
stadium manager or maintenance controller;
CCTV engineer;
turnstile entry system engineer;
duty electrician;
emergency numbers for all utilities;
local authority;
police service;
fire service;
ambulance service;
crowd doctor;
voluntary agencies;
local hospitals; and
local transport services.

iii. a list of any pre-identified emergency messages including any code words agreed with the emergency services to indicate an emergency.

iv. details of any action plans for use by a switchboard operator, public address announcer, steward controller or safety officer in response to specified incidents.

4. Implementing the contingency plans

Once ground management has prepared its contingency plans, they should be held at the key locations in the sports ground such as the control point and main ground reception. Copies should be provided immediately to those responsible for implementing them. While their titles may vary, these will include:

safety officer;
ground manager;
chief executive / secretary;
duty electrician;
duty engineer; and
crowd doctor.

Abbreviated versions of the plan should be included in any safety handbook or aide memoire cards issued to the ground safety personnel such as the stewards. It is also recommended that the event officials are briefed before it starts on specific arrangements which could apply to them in the event of postponement or abandonment.

Moreover, copies of the plans should be sent to the other agencies who need to be aware of them, in particular the local authority, police, fire and ambulance services and any voluntary agency providing first aiders at the ground.

Contingency planning should be seen as a dynamic process. The plans should be regarded as living documents that it is essential to keep constantly under review in the light of experience. Consequently the ground management should hold periodic exercises to test them. Such exercises should be planned in consultation with the relevant local authorities and emergency services. This process is illustrated in the diagram below.

5. Hazards to assess

As part of the risk assessment process described above, the ground management should identify the hazards and potential safety problems which could arise at its particular ground. Having identified the hazards and undertaken the appropriate risk assessments, the ground management should structure its contingency plans under the relevant heading and show the action to be taken.

The risk assessments should be regarded as one element (albeit a key element) of the contingency planning process. They are intended to guide the ground management’s thought processes by alerting it to the various considerations to which it should have regard. These may include hazards arising from the nature of the event itself or from the actions or behaviour of the participants or officials. Factors outside the ground, over which the ground management has no control, for example a fire or a release of toxic fumes in nearby premises, could also adversely affect spectator safety at the ground.

The following list is therefore offered for illustrative purposes but does not purport to be exhaustive or prescriptive:

fire;
bomb threat / suspect package;
buildings and services:
adverse weather conditions;
damage to structures;

- power cut or failure;

- gas leak or chemical incident;

safety equipment failure:

- turnstile counting mechanism;

- closed circuit television ("CCTV");

- public address system ("PA");

- electronic information boards;

- stewards' radio system;

- internal telephone systems;

crowd control:

- surging or crushing;

- pitch incursion;

- late arrivals or delayed start;

- lock-outs;

- disorder inside the ground;

- large-scale ticket forgery;

emergency evacuation; and
abandoned fixture.

The charts highlighted below set out the main points to be considered when drawing up contingency plans for the various types of hazards shown. The charts are not action plans to be considered in the sequence shown. Whilst the individual points may well be linked, each covers a separate issue or group of issues to be assessed.

The diagrams are intended as an aid to assist ground management in identifying the points to be addressed in their contingency plans. As well as setting out the actions to be taken, it is vital that ground management gives careful consideration to who is responsible for taking them and the order in which they are to be taken. It is likely that some actions may need to be taken simultaneously.

Furthermore, while each chart is self-contained and relates to one type of incident, they should all be considered as part of a whole. One incident could escalate into another or two or more could occur simultaneously. Contingency plans will therefore need to be structured accordingly. It is only by identifying the risks and planning accordingly that the ground management will be able to respond immediately an incident occurs.

Most sports grounds now host a variety of activities. For the sake of space and simplicity, the word "match" is used throughout to describe the game, fixture, tournament, meeting or event. Similarly the area where the activity takes place is described by the generic term "pitch". No significance should be attached to the particular term employed.

Hazard Charts (click on title to view)

6. Post incident recovery

The ground management's contingency planning should cover the actions to be taken after any incident to ensure that normal operations can be resumed at the ground with the minimum of disruption and delay. The following is not a definitive list but it highlights some of the points that may have to be considered as part of the post incident planning process:

contacting the insurance company;
contacting the loss adjuster;
operation of the salvage team;
availability of plans/design drawings;
role of surveyors and engineers;
temporary security of the site;
how the business will operate whilst any repairs are effected;
whether the ground will be capable of limited use;
if the ground cannot be used, whether there is an alternative venue; and
keeping customers informed of progress.

Appendix A

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

Competent person Contingency plan	A person shall be regarded as competent where he or she has sufficient training and experience to take responsibility for an identified task. A competent person will have an awareness of the limitations of his or her own experience and knowledge. A plan prepared by the ground management setting out the action to be taken in response to incidents occurring at the ground which might prejudice public safety or disrupt normal operations.
Emergency plan	An plan prepared and owned by the emergency services for dealing with a major incident occurring at the sports ground or in the vicinity.
Major incident plan	A plan prepared and owned by the emergency services and local authority for dealing with a major incident within their area, requiring the implementation of special arrangements by one or more of the emergency services, the NHS or the local authority
Statement of intent	A written agreement between the ground management and the police setting out the division of responsibilities and functions at the sports ground if and when the police are present at the match.

Note: The definitions in this appendixare used throughout this document.However, ground management should be aware that terminology, in particular the definitions of particular types of plan, may vary from agency to agency and from area to area.

Other FLA Publications

The publications listed below are available for downloading from the FLA web site www.flaweb-dev.org.uk . Alternatively copies may be purchased from the FLA.

Safety certification ……………………………….………...Priced £5 including p&p.

Guidance notes for drawing up a safety

policy for spectators ……………………………………….Priced £5 including p&p.

Briefing and debriefing …………………….……………..Priced £5 including p&p.

Exercise Planning…... ……………………..……………....Priced £5 including p&p.

The above guidance documents contain the distillation of good practice, experience and knowledge gained over many years by the Football Licensing Authority. Although primarily aimed at football the advice complements that contained in the Guide to Safety at Sports Grounds and is therefore equally relevant to any other sports grounds to which the Safety at Sports Grounds Act 1975 and the Fire Safety and Safety of Places of Sport Act 1987 apply.

If you wish to purchase any of the above publications please write, enclosing a cheque made payable to the Football Licensing Authority, to :-

Football Licensing Authority

27 Harcourt House

19 Cavendish Square

London

W1G 0PL

Top