Debriefing Benefit Risk and the ISO. – What does it mean for Australia and New Zealand?

This free members seminar will help play and leisure professionals understand and use the new international standard on risk management in sports and recreational facilities, activities, and equipment, including children’s play, standard (ISO 4980:2023)

The standard represents a significant and important shift to a balanced and thoughtful approach to safety in play and leisure contexts.

A pre-requisite of attendance is that all participants will have watched a 1.5 hour session delivered by the UK Play Safety Forum, watch it here. After watching the UK Play Safety Forum , you are invited to submit questions for our panellists to info@playaustralia.org.au. The deadline for these questions is 29 July 2024.

Submitted questions will be answered at the seminar debrief by our experts Professor David Ball (UK), Andrew Reedy (WA) and Professor David Eager. If time permits we will also take questions online during the session.

Background

In March, Play Scotland hosted a webinar organised by the UK Play Safety Forum that drew on the expertise of leading UK and global play safety advocates and is consistent with the Health and Safety Executive position on children’s play, as set out in its 2012 high level statement.

The webinar bought together key UK experts to introduce the ISO and why it matters. It provide guidance to help put this new standard into practice, ensuring that the benefits of play and leisure activities (to participants and to society) are properly recognised, and that the risks are managed in a proportionate way.

Meet Our Panel

David Ball

Professor of Risk Management at Middlesex University since 1997 and Director of Centre for Decision Analysis and Risk Management (DARM). Read more about David

David Eager

David Eager is an Honorary Life Member of Play Australia. He is the Professor of Risk Management and Injury Prevention at UTS. He is an internationally recognised expert on the safety aspects of trampolines, high ropes and challenge course, playgrounds, impact attenuating surfacing, sports and recreation equipment, and amusement rides and devices. He is Fellow of Engineers Australia and a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He has a PhD in Engineering, 1st Class Honours Degree in Engineering and Graduate Certificate in Dispute Resolution. He has represented Engineers Australia for more than a 27 years on various Australian Standards committees and in 2020 was awarded the Standards Australia National Meritorious Contribution Award and in 2022 honoured as a Standards Australia Centenary Hero.

Andrew Reedy

Andrew Reedy is the Director of Play Check, providing safety and auditing advice to the playground industry. He has been involved in the industry since 1994. Prior to establishing Play Check in 2014, he was involved in the manufacture of playgrounds.

Since 2002 Andrew has been a member of the Standards Australia playground committee. In 2021, he was appointed chair of this committee. He has also represented Standards Australia on two ISO technical committees as an expert and has worked on the development of ISO documents, including competencies for inspectors of playgrounds and recreational equipment and the process of managing benefit-risk assessments.

Andrew has a realistic view of the need for a balance between risk and safety in the provision of play and the need to provide challenging opportunities that allow children to develop as they explore their play environments, and views playground safety through this lens.

Cost:
Free for Play Australia Members

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Thursday 1 August 2024

7:00pm-8:00pm CBR, BNE, HBA, MEL, SYD (AEST)

*Attendees from times zones other than AEST will need to join the session per their respective time zone as follows: 

6:30pm-7:30pm ADL, DRW (ACST)

5:00pm-6:00pm PER (AWST)  

Register now Debriefing Benefit Risk and the ISO.