Evidencing the practice that keeps people safe: Phase 1 Report – testing the process of an incident-reporting system

This working group is based out of AAIAC and consists of Jo Barnett (IOL), Steve Woods (Vertex
Training), and Peter White (UHI NWH). Peter is the lead researcher for this report and is currently employed as a Lecturer and Instructor at the School of Adventure Studies in Fort William. He is involved in teaching Adventure Education and Adventure Tourism Management students, is a course provider for a range of British Canoeing courses, and has published work around professional identity and working in the outdoors.

This report is the conclusion of Phase 1 of the project ‘Collective Knowledge – Evidencing the
practice that keeps people safe’. The overall aim is to provide structure and opportunities for
mediating knowledge creation in activity safety within the UK outdoor adventurous activities sector. The focus of the project will be on collecting, curating and communicating the collective knowledge of individuals and organisations within the sector.

The overall project will consist of multiple phases. The intention is for these to progress in sequential order of the following;

Collection – there needs to be an awareness and understanding of what current trends and
themes are evident across the sector. Therefore, a sector-wide incident-reporting form will be
developed to allow the collection and analysis of this data.
Curation – the information and knowledge collected needs to be stored and displayed in a useful
and accessible way. Therefore, a website or webpage will be developed to become an appropriate
repository that can become a reference point for providers and individuals.
Communication – the collecting and curating of safety and risk management data will have less impact if it is not shared widely and effectively. Therefore, we will look at new ways of consistently communicating common themes and trends across the sector (eg. publicity, e-bulletins etc.).