For Incident Co-ordinators: Understanding the Initial Assessment process in riskNET

Understanding the Initial Assessment

The Initial Assessment is the first step following the reporting of an incident. The purpose is to gather essential information to understand the scope, severity, and potential impact of the event. This involves an analysis of:

• The nature of the incident: What exactly happened?
• Affected systems, equipment, or facilities: Which specific areas or assets were involved?
• Potential risks and consequences: What are the immediate and potential future implications of this incident?

Your role in the incident management process

As an Incident Co-ordinator, you must effectively and promptly allocate incidents to initiate the Initial Assessment process. You are responsible for ensuring the incident is directed to the appropriate individual who will then undertake the Initial Assessment. You are not responsible for conducting the Initial Assessment itself.

When an incident is reported within your department, as the designated departmental Incident Co-ordinator you will automatically receive a system-generated email notification from riskNET. As the Incident Co-ordinator, you are responsible for allocating the incident for the Initial Assessment. This allocation is based on the following criteria:

• Injury/illness involved: If the incident caused or could have caused injury or ill-health, the manager of the injured person (IP) must participate in the Initial Assessment.
• No injury/illness: For incidents without injury or specific individuals involved, the manager responsible for ensuring safe activity (e.g. PI, lab/studio manager) should carry out the Initial Assessment.

What happens after you allocate the incident

After you allocate the incident, the individual you allocate the incident to (e.g. the manager of the injured person or person responsible for the workspace or the work activities e.g. PI) will receive an email notification from riskNET indicating that they have been allocated an incident and must complete an Initial Assessment. The email notification will contain a link to a “How-To video” on how to complete the Initial Assessment. The individual will need to follow the instructions in the video to complete the required fields in riskNET. This typically occurs if a member of their staff has been involved in an incident or if they are directly responsible for the area where the incident took place.

Timeline for completing the Initial Assessment

The Initial Assessment is a time-sensitive task. It must be completed within five working days of the incident report, so you need to ensure that the allocated individual is aware of this deadline and follow up as necessary. When a local or full investigation is to be conducted, the initial assessment must still be signed off first within this deadline.

Where can I get further information

• Report an accident or incident
• Investigate an accident or incident
• How to complete an Initial Assessment 
• Incident investigation - learning lessons
• Incident investigation training
• Completing an Initial Assessment versus closing an incident in riskNET
• riskNET Support Hub

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