Charity fun day risk assessment: a practical guide

Charity fun days are usually run by people with a day job and a good cause, not an events background. That's fine — the paperwork is proportionate. But 'for charity' is not a legal category that reduces your duty of care, and your insurer will want to see the assessment.

Write it around your running order

Don't start from a generic hazard list. Start from the day: who arrives when, what gets built, when the public come in, what happens at peak, and how it all comes down. Hazards fall out of that sequence naturally, and the resulting document reads like your event — which is what a reviewer, a landowner or an insurer actually wants.

The underlying method is covered in our risk assessment guide; below is what's specific to fun days.

The hazards worth real attention

• Attractions you don't own. Inflatables, climbing walls, fairground rides, animal encounters. Every external operator should provide their own risk assessment, public liability insurance and — for inflatables and rides — current inspection certification (PIPA/ADIPS). Collect these before the day, not on it. See our inflatables guide.
• Vehicle and pedestrian separation. Set-up and pack-down are when people get hurt, because everyone is tired and vehicles are moving among crowds. Fix windows when the public aren't present and escort anything that must move.
• Volunteers who've never done this. A rota is not a briefing. Give people a role, tell them who to escalate to, and make sure at least a couple of named people know the whole plan.
• Cash. Fun days generate a lot of small cash. Count in pairs, move it in pairs, and never send one volunteer to a night safe alone. This is a safety issue as much as a financial one.
• Children's activities and lost children. A named reunification point, a procedure everyone knows, and supervision for anything organised.
• Food and drink. External caterers need registration, insurance and gas safety records. If you're serving alcohol you need a Temporary Event Notice — at least ten working days' notice to the council, covering up to 499 people at a time.
• Weather. Wind is the one that ruins fun days: gazebos, inflatables and any temporary structure need documented trigger speeds and someone empowered to make the call.

Insurance and permissions: settle these early

Three things stall charity fun days at the last minute. Public liability insurance — the charity may have cover, but check it extends to this event and these activities, and check the limit against what your landowner requires. Landowner permission — parks, recreation grounds and village greens all have owners with conditions, and council land means the council's events process. Licences — alcohol needs a TEN; regulated entertainment may need permission depending on scale, timing and venue.

If the event is on council land, expect to be asked for a short event management plan alongside the risk assessment.

Fundraising has its own rules

Worth knowing, because it sits outside the safety paperwork and catches people out. Public collections in a street or public place generally need a licence or permit from the council, and there are separate rules for collections on private land with the owner's permission. If you're running a raffle or lottery, the Gambling Commission's small-society lottery rules apply and small raffles drawn on the day at the event have their own specific exemption.

None of this is onerous, but all of it has lead times. Check with the council and the Gambling Commission's guidance while your plans are still flexible.

Common questions

Does 'for charity' change our legal duties?

No. Charitable purpose doesn't reduce your duty of care to the people at your event, and it doesn't exempt you from licensing, food safety or health and safety law. What does change is proportionality — a small community fun day is expected to have a small, sensible set of controls, not a stadium's worth of documentation.

Do volunteers need insurance or DBS checks?

Volunteers are generally covered by the organising body's public liability insurance — confirm that with your insurer rather than assuming it. Employers' liability cover can also be relevant for volunteers in some arrangements. DBS checks are needed for specific regulated activity with children or vulnerable adults, not for volunteering generally; if you're running supervised children's activities, take advice on which roles qualify.

What if the weather turns on the day?

Decide in advance who makes the call and on what trigger, and write it down. For wind, get a specific speed from each structure and inflatable supplier and use the lowest as your site trigger. For heat, plan shade and water. For rain, think about ground conditions and whether vehicles can still get off the field at the end. A cancellation decision made calmly at 9am is better than one made at 2pm under pressure.

Do we need a first aid provision?

Yes, proportionate to your crowd size, activities and how far you are from an ambulance. For a small local fun day that might be a trained first aider and a properly stocked kit; for a larger one with hundreds attending, consider a voluntary aid society such as St John Ambulance or British Red Cross. Make sure the first aid point is signed, and that someone knows the site's postcode and which gate an ambulance should use.