Physical education and sports activities risk assessments

All physical education and sports activities should be safe and enjoyable. However, to comply with legislation (Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999) you must regularly evaluate and control the potential risks associated with physical education and sports activities to prevent or reduce injuries.

To help you, the health and safety team have developed an example risk assessment (DOCX, 145.9 KB) which can be used and adapted. This assessment identifies the common hazards associated with physical education and sports activities.

As the risks or hazards may vary considerably for each physical education or sport activity, you will need to undertake individual risk assessments for specific sports e.g. football, gymnastics, rugby.

Control measures to reduce or eliminate the risk must be put in place before the activity commences. All risk assessments must be circulated to all staff involved in the activity and reviewed annually or earlier if there is an incident.

Further guidance on physical education activities is available on the Association for Physical Education (AfPE) website. AfPE’s purpose is to promote and maintain high standards and safe practice in all aspects and at all levels of physical education, school sport and physical activity influencing developments at national and local levels that will impact on physical health and emotional wellbeing.

Contact details

KCC Health and Safety Team
Email: healthandsafety@kent.gov.uk
Telephone: 03000 41 84 56