Every event with young people should have a risk assessment, and inspectors or trustees may ask to see it. Scoutworks gives you three ways to record one against an event so the document is always there when you need it.
Where to find this
Open any event from Events in the sidebar. Scroll to the Risk Assessment section on the event page. If nothing has been recorded yet, you'll see three options.
Choosing how to record evidence
| Option | When to use it |
|---|---|
| Build it in Scoutworks | You want a structured, step-by-step assessment with hazards, controls, and a tidy printed PDF. Best for camps and trips that need a thorough write-up. |
| Upload a document | You already have a risk assessment from another tool, your district, or a venue. Drop in the PDF or Word file. |
| Confirm done elsewhere | The risk assessment exists but lives somewhere else — a shared drive, a paper folder, your district's system. Record who confirmed it and where it's kept. |
You can mix and match. If you build a structured one and also upload a venue's risk assessment, both are kept on the event.
Building one in Scoutworks
Click Build it in Scoutworks to open the structured risk-assessment wizard. The wizard walks you through hazards, control measures, and likelihood and severity scoring before and after controls. You can pull pre-written hazards in from the Risk Library so you're not starting from a blank page.
A few things worth knowing about this path:
- AI suggestions, grounded in POR. Scoutworks proposes hazards and control measures for the activity you're assessing. The suggestions are kept up to date with the current Policy, Organisation and Rules (POR) so they reflect what The Scouts actually expect — not a generic safety checklist.
- You're still the safety person. Every suggestion is yours to accept, edit, or ignore. Nothing saves until you say so. AI gives you a starting point — it doesn't replace your judgement on the ground or sign off the assessment for you.
- Event details pre-filled. Building a risk assessment from an event copies across the dates, location, sections, and number of attendees, so you're not retyping things Scoutworks already knows.
- Personal information stays put. No member names, parent details, or medical information are ever sent to the AI. Only the activity context — what you're doing, where, with which sections — is used to generate suggestions.
For the full wizard walkthrough, see Risk Assessment Library.
Uploading a document
Click Upload a document. The dialog has two tabs:
| Tab | What it does |
|---|---|
| Upload new | Drag and drop a file, or click to choose one. PDF, DOC, or DOCX up to 25 MB. |
| Pick from existing | Reuse a document you've already uploaded against another event. Useful for weekly swimming or any activity that runs on a standing risk assessment. |
Once uploaded, the file appears as a chip on the event with the filename and size. From the menu on the chip you can:
- Download — open the original file.
- Replace — swap in a new version. The previous file is removed but kept for audit purposes.
- Remove — take the document off this event.
By default, co-leaders working in the same sections as the event can see the document. The visibility is set when you upload and stays the same after that.
Confirming it's held elsewhere
Click Confirm done elsewhere if the risk assessment is real but lives outside Scoutworks — a OneDrive folder, a paper file in the cupboard, your district's safety system. The dialog records:
- Confirmed by — your name, filled in for you.
- Date — today's date, filled in for you.
- Where is the document kept? — a folder name, a description, or a link.
The event then shows a card reading "Marked as completed externally on {date} by {name} — kept at: {location}". If you typed a web link, it becomes clickable on the card.
A confirmation stays active for 12 months. After that, the card shows an expired warning and you'll need to re-confirm or upload a document to refresh it. From the card menu you can choose Update attestation at any point to change who confirmed it or where it's kept, or Replace with upload if you'd rather attach the actual document.
Other evidence on this event
If the event has more than one piece of risk-assessment evidence — say, a structured assessment plus a venue's PDF — the primary one shows at the top of the section and the rest appear under Other evidence on this event. Nothing gets hidden, so anyone reviewing the event sees the full picture.
What trustees see
The trustee insights dashboard flags any events with expired risk-assessment attestations — confirmations that have aged past 12 months and haven't been refreshed. Structured assessments and confirmations both track expiry; uploaded documents do not, so a trustee dashboard won't chase you for those.
What's next
- Creating Events — set up the events you'll attach risk assessments to.
- Risk Assessment Library — build a reusable library of hazards and control measures for the structured wizard.
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