Posted By Joe Ridley Hi there, I am hoping some colleagues who cover leisure as their safety role can help out here. I am currently involved in assiting centre managers in writing their operating procedures for the leisure centres under their control. What I ahve encontered is that they have saunas in some of the centres that are not supervised by staff being present all the time. In some of these cases staff are required to check these areas every 20 - 30 minutes. I would like opinions on this.Do you think this is reasonable or should there be a staff presence? Financially the company will not support a member of staff in this area. I have visited all sites and asked how would someone summon help if required, in response there has been "I don't know, it's never happened". I have advised that the managers seriously consider how they would address this. They mat install panic buttons or CCTV, maybe a phone, use signs directing people how to summon help etc. No one has carried out a risk assessment for the area, this is currently being done, and I have said they need to consider the users, the physical environment, the temperatures of the saunas, slip, trips etc. From this control measures will be put in place. Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated. Thanks Joe

Posted By Merv Newman I'm with N. "Panic" buttons. CCTV in a sauna could be quite embarassing. Or profitable. Merv