Rank: Forum user 
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I was very interested to heart John Holden's short talk yesterday at IOSH Manchester in regard to the new Sports Grounds and Events Group- a worthy subject- however it is worth recording that the smaller clubs who have attendances of one mand and his dog upwards, (possibly below 1000) are the clubs that are financially challenged; less inclined to apply H&S law let alone have policies and procedures in place other than thoise required to gain Charter Standard for instance. I am Secretary at a Step 5 club and very conscious when visiting other clubs at the lack of fire controls, evacuation procedures, trained or informed competent persons, asbestos preescence unsurveyed etc etc...annual inspections from the FA fail to cover areas of huge risk, a cause for concern.
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Rank: Super forum user
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I attend Blue Square Premier matches ('Conference') occasionally. They certainly appear to have sufficient yellow-jacketed Stewards, and all of those I've observed have headset communications. Tamworth FC for example are well-staffed in Stewards.
This would suggest some formal training has taken place, at least for reporting/alerting to safety concerns or crowd/fans concerns.
And at the end of matches they (Tamworth) are always in attendance at the exits (the exit gates are open during matches and stewards stand guard there).
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Rank: Super forum user 
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Kevin
The problem is not unique to football clubs. Indeed, many sports organisations either are unaware of their legal obligations, indifferent to them, or believe they can justify their absence due to the costs involved. Sports clubs normally come under the LAs and EHOs, I wonder what they say to these people when they pay a site visit?
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Rank: Forum user
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Thanks for your comments- however I'm looking further 'down stream' than the quality of Conference grounds- ie Step 5 where the local side is representive of the town but slightly lower than the main team in the town. Lower crowds (Kings Lynn are in 'our' league and have a 500-850 regular attendance) whereas my club usually has around 50 spectators-it's interesting when they visit! We had a recent FA inspection as we are obliged to annually to retain our ground grading but no mention of risk assessments etc...hence my post and a view from a personal angle that the Sports Ground group may be pitching at a level and over-looking an area of concern.
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Rank: Super forum user
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Sports clubs should have the same h&s policies and documents as any other business, which includes WRAs, FRAs and so on. The lack of them is apparent, however it is more likely to come to the fore if there should be a serious incident...not a lot different to many SMEs in that respect.
Someone from the club should be the nominated person to deal with h&s issues, ideally a person with some knowledge of the issues - that is often the first hurdle. I suggest looking at what is provided for employees (including voluntary staff) and then expand to other issues such as crowd control, emergency evacuations and incident procedures.
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Rank: Forum user 
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KevinOBrien wrote:Thanks for your comments- however I'm looking further 'down stream' than the quality of Conference grounds- ie Step 5 where the local side is representive of the town but slightly lower than the main team in the town. Lower crowds (Kings Lynn are in 'our' league and have a 500-850 regular attendance) whereas my club usually has around 50 spectators-it's interesting when they visit! We had a recent FA inspection as we are obliged to annually to retain our ground grading but no mention of risk assessments etc...hence my post and a view from a personal angle that the Sports Ground group may be pitching at a level and over-looking an area of concern. At steps 5 & 6 all seems to run fairly smoothly right up until the point that a 'fallen giant' or other entity gets parachuted into your division. It's fairly easy, I'd suggest, and relatively risk-free to cope with crowds of <100 which is the norm in the lower reaches but if a King's Lynn or a Chester or an FC United of Manchester suddenly appear in your league then the game changes considerably. As a founder member of FC United I was saddened to see so many of our opponents, when we started out in the North-West Counties League, having to play 'home' matches against us on neutral grounds because they had no chance to deal with our number of supporters. In season 2005/6, our first in existance, we only played 3 matches on our opponents home ground. A great shame but completely understandable. As you'll already know very well Kevin it is tough enough for a small core of committee members/volunteers to put on a match even for the proverbial 'two men and a dog' never mind to accommodate up to 3,000 boisterous Mancs. However, despite the constraints that so many non-league clubs operate under I find it difficult to excuse any not having basic systems in place to effectively discharge the club's duty of care. A decent set of risk assessments and a disaster plan should not be beyond the wit of even the most miniscule minnows of the non-league pyramid.
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Rank: Super forum user 
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Never thought I'd see FC United appear in these forums. Bury FC will miss you when you go to your new ground.
I suspect that Bury FC safety arrangements were not initially up to the challenge of your crowds, despite being a League side for ever.
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