Activity Risk Assessments

Activity Risk Assessments

All information correct as of November 2025.

The 2024/25 District Safeguarding Audit results, that I asked churches and circuits to complete in the summer of 2025 highlighted an issue with completing Activity Risk Assessments.
To help groups move forward, I have created some resources that churches can use, under the heading Completing an Activity Risk Assessment.

Activity Risk Assessments should be in place for all activities and groups aimed at vulnerable groups i.e. children, young people or vulnerable adults.

There are 4 sections to the guidance document called ‘Completing an Activity Risk Assessment’.

Part A is general information
Part B is the Activity Risk Assessment template
Part C is the Emergency Planning Examples
and
Part D is the Activity Checklist for Established groups

The full book and the 4 individual documents are available below. All are in Word format so you can edit as needed.

Please note you do not have to use these templates. If you have a system that works for you then please carry on as normal. The templates are simply to help those who are struggling to know where to start or for those with no experience in risk assessments.

I delivered a presentation about Activity Risk Assessments in general before explaining the 4 templates which you can watch on this page.
The presentation is 30 minutes long, so to help you access the information you need quickly you can fast forward to the following main sections:
0:00 Basic Introduction including Government legislation and the 5 steps to completing an activity risk assessment.
08:00 Methodist Expectations about Activity Risk Assessments.
13:55 Completing an Activity Risk Assessment
14:50 Part A
15:40 Part B
26:14 Part C
27:50 Part D

Alison Hill
Regional officer for Safeguarding – aligned with the Sheffield District
6.11.2025