Health & Safety
Health and Safety
- Every activity has a risk assessment associated with it. These risk assessments are reviewed on a regular basis, at least once a year.
- Every instructor and supporter over the age of 18yrs needs to hold a valid DBS check. This should be renewed at least every 5 years. We will accept other organisation’s certificates
- All instructors under the age of 18yrs must be supported on the water by a supporter or instructor over 18yrs of age and must never be left unsupervised.
- Instructors under the age of 16yrs may only be Course Assistants and are in addition to other instructors and should never be left unspervised.
- For the 2025 season every instructor and supporter over 18yrs should have completed safeguarding training. We will accept other organisation’s certificates.
- All instructors must hold, at a minimum, a Paddlesports Instructor level 1 qualification.
- Every instructor will be observed by our Paddlesports Assessor to ensure they are competent in leading and supporting our activities.
- Supporters are either under 18yr old instructors or paddlesports enthusiasts who do not hold the PSI qualification or above.
- All instructors, Supporters and Base Supervisors should hold a valid Outdoor First Aid certificate of at least 8 hours duration.
- All staff are asked to declare any medical conditions that may affect their ability to run paddlesports activities.
- For all Managed activities a Base Supervisor is present to help support. Base supervisors do not have to hold a paddlesport qualification as they are shore based.
- For self-managed activities a CST keyholder will open and close the facilities ensuring that all equipment is safely stored and secured.
- All incidents whether accident, illness or near miss must be recorded on the Incident form stored with the First Aid kit and sent to admin@canoesportstrust.org.uk We are planning a Jotform to replace the paper form for this season.
Documents and Manuals
The Directors are committed to the health and safety of all persons who are involved in the delivery of activities and those participating in our activities.
Overall responsibility for health and safety lies with the directors with day to day responsibility for ensuring this policy is put into practice residing with the Managing Director. To ensure health
Paddlesport activities have variable risk of falling into the water, which is why wetsuits are mandatory October to March, outside of these months, we consider the water temperature and activity planned and if deemed a bit on the cold side can provide wetsuits. You are of course welcome to bring your own wetsuit, or one can be provided.
Normal recommended attire is a sports top like a football shirt and nylon or polyester shorts, cotton trackies and hooded tops are inappropriate and become very heavy when wet impeding your ability to swim. Water shoes are a site requirement and if you don’t have these, old trainers suffice. Full joining instructions can be downloaded from the Useful Info area.
If you are attending for more than one activity (4 hour or an all day visit) you should consider multiple changes of clothing which will ensure you have something dry to change in to, should the need arise.
CST is an AALA approved Paddlesport provider, this means our processes and methods of delivery have been assessed by the Health and Safety executive to provide you an assurance that we know what we are doing. All activity is delegated by L3 Coaches to L1 qualified Paddlesport Instructors who have been assessed to lead and supervise paddlesport activities on inland waters such as lakes and canals.
All instructors have safety and rescue training, maintain their first aid qualifications and have undergone safeguarding training.
The Adventure Activities Licensing Authority (AALA) came into existence in April 1996. The Health and Safety Executive is currently designated as the AALA.
Adventure activities licensing ensures that activity providers follow good safety management practices.
These should allow young people to experience exciting and stimulating activities outdoors without being exposed to avoidable risks of death or disabling injury.
There are four broad groups of activities that are covered by licensing that include Caving, Climbing, Trekking and Watersports, watercraft specifically deployed by the Canoe Sports Trust include:
- Canoes, kayaks and stand up paddle boards propelled by paddles.
- Rafts which are improvised from various materials.
The most familiar watersports activities include canoeing, kayaking, dragon boating, wave skiing, white-water rafting, improvised rafting, sailing, sailboarding and windsurfing. For any of these activities to be licensable, they need to be done on ‘specified water’ – this is the sea, tidal waters (eg estuaries), inland waters more than 50 metres from the nearest land excluding any island or on turbulent inland waters.
You can be assured that any organisation in possession of an AALA licence certificate has been checked to ensure their equipment, processes and allocation of instructors to different activities adhere to government recommended guidelines.
Canoe Sports Trust acknowledges that the activities offered contain a degree of inherent risk and whilst the processes within this document endeavour to ensure that all reasonable and practicable steps are taken to ensure all significant and likely risks are managed / reduced effectively it is impossible to eliminate risk entirely.
We are Insured with Activities Industry Mutual who provide cover tailored specifically for the needs of adventure activity and outdoor education providers including those offering a range of activities including water sports.
