Someone in your project or organisation should be responsible for and trained in health and safety. That way everyone delivering activities has access to someone who can carry out a risk assessment and advise how to deal with any health and safety issues.
As well as health and safety, training courses in risk assessment and first aid are worth doing.
Where to go for training
- Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland (REHIS):
- St John Ambulance runs first aid courses.
- Trellis: runs a therapeutic gardening training programme in Edinburgh and Glasgow, including Health & Safety in the garden
- What’s Cooking in Scotland? Part One - has a very useful section on health and safety and food hygiene in delivering community cooking sessions (p27-37)
- Health and safety for community growing projects - Social Farms & Gardens
- Gardening Health and Safety - Trellis
- Health and Safety Executive (HSE): government agency responsible for health and safety regulation at work; offers guidance
- Healthy Working Lives: NHS Health Scotland's advice service on workplace health, safety and wellbeing for employers