The Independence of the Event Safety Advisor

Over the season, I have seen posts where an Event Service provider be that Security, Medical or logistics have also been acting as the Event’s Safety Advisor with one person holding dual roles, which has led me to question, do they sufficient separation to critically analyse what is occurring when they are also responsible for the immediate management of the incident?

Event Safety Advisors need to be able to stand-back and analyse what is occurring, what are the impacts of the incident that is occurring, what mitigation is needed, what advice do I need to provide to the Event Director on the next steps. This requires the advisor to not be hands on treating the patient, managing an aggressive individual or trying to manage the next delivery to the bars.

Reflecting on events that I have supported recently, I certainly attended many incidents and at times provided immediate support at incidents where needs must, however my primary objective of attending incidents is to capture what occurred on behalf of the Event Director, but also to scene manage and consider the wider impact of what has occurred and its location. This has included the need to move public away for their safety, stopping all vehicle movements through enforcing Road Closures, closing Trader access etc…, liaison with Emergency Services and assisting Medical teams move casualties to a safer location for treatment. But the ESA role also involves liaison with Enforcement Authorities providing information on Noise levels, Evacuation Plans and where they exercise their right of access escorting them onsite, if you have another critical role this engagement reduces critical medical or security cover and leaves the event exposed.

My conclusion is that Event Safety Advisors must be a dedicated role, and not combined into other critical functions to enable them to maintain the situational oversight and respond to other issues that are not related to their other role.