Geocaching Risk Assessment Template

Typical hazards & measures

• Road crossings and traffic — Select safer crossings during route design, brief pupils to halt at kerbs and cross only on the leader’s command, position adults front and rear, avoid car-park cut-throughs, adapt pace to traffic flow, and reroute immediately if sightlines or density render a section unsafe.
• Unsafe or prohibited cache locations — Reject caches on bridges, culverts, confined spaces, highway furniture or rail property, report concerns to the platform where appropriate, and substitute a safe nearby alternative or a simulation that preserves the puzzle without the location hazard.
• Protected habitats and seasonal restrictions — Check designations and seasonal notices in planning, avoid ground-nesting bird areas and dune restorations, keep strictly to paths across heaths, relocate any cache that requires trampling, and brief pupils to leave gates, stiles and vegetation exactly as found.
• Weather and lightning — Check forecast and heat index at planning and again before departure, carry layers and waterproofs, shorten or reschedule under high winds, shelter for storms using a pre-briefed plan, and suspend activity at once if lightning is seen or thunder is heard nearby.
• Cache contents and contamination — Open containers only under adult oversight, avoid plunging hands into opaque boxes, tip items onto a clean surface for inspection, prohibit food, medicines, matches or sharps, and wash or sanitise hands after handling damp, mouldy or soil-contaminated contents.