SCOSS concerns in procurement and management
The Standing Committee on Structural Safety published a report recently concerning the safety of flown video screens. It may not immediately seem to be relevant to all but a small group of equipment manufacturers and rental companies. But under the surface, the report identified deficiencies in the procurement and management structure they found in concerts and events. And this has relevance to all events, not just ones where video screens are used.
They said: The reality appears to be that formal contracts between the promoter and contractor contain little in the way of requirements for information transfer, liaison, and inter-face responsibilities. The ‘client’ takes a back seat in this respect in the knowledge that others know what to do, i.e. in most cases ‘custom and practice’ produce the required result. There is a strong ‘show-biz’ tradition of achieving a result and meeting deadlines…
The law requires competent organisations to be utilised. The form of procurement illustrated places significant (legal) responsibility on the promoter in this respect and hence this organisation also needs to be competent and have access to competent advice. It is apparent that not all organisations meet this criteria, and selection of contractors is sometimes based on ‘lowest cost’ or ‘quickest response time’ alone.
What SCOSS has identified here is a common situation where promoters or organisers hire a group of contractors (eg stage, lights, sound, power) based on a variety of criteria including (and often limited to) lowest cost. The promoter then takes a back seat and leaves the contractors to communicate between each other any information that may be required to make decisions as to how to carry out the job safely.
What SCOSS also points out is that not only is this hardly best-practice, it doesn’t comply with legal requirement. The promoter or organiser has a legal obligation to hire competent contractors, and to provide them with information they need to carry out their duties. In order to do this the promoter themselves must be competent, and have access to competent advice.
According to the HSE any client who uses contractors has responsibilities that will involve:
Selecting someone suitable to do the job, assessing the risks, deciding what information, instruction and training is required, how cooperation and coordination between all parties is achieved, how the workforce is to be consulted and the level of management and supervision required.
As a promoter or organiser you are responsible if your contractors are found not to have carried out required risk assessments. You are responsible if you didn’t carry out sufficient checks into contractor competence. You are responsible if a contractor doesn’t receive necessary information about the site or the job. You are responsible if you don’t provide required supervision of your contractors on site.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s a festival, a corporate event or a private party. The same law applies. The organiser can’t sit back and let their suppliers liaise with each other and get on with the job. They need to drive the process of planning, informing, cooperating, coordinating and supervising. And the first step to achieving this is to hire a competent Production Management Company.
CA specialise in supporting event organisers and promoters in just this way. We can produce Event Management Plans, CAD Plans, Schedules, Health and Safety Paperwork. We can assist in the procurement process. We can gather relevant information from contractors. And we can make sure information, in the right form, is made available to each and every party. On site, we can supervise contractors to ensure plans and procedures are carried out as intended.
