Organising RNLI cold water dips

Delivering RNLI events to the required safety and compliance standards is vitally important, and we must therefore do everything we can to keep people at our events as safe as possible. As an organisation that advocates water safety, our fundraising activities must also demonstrate our own water safety guidance and good practice. As a reminder, a number of key tasks must be completed for cold water dips, each year – a range of guidance and support is available to assist RNLI event organisers in delivering them.

Organising a cold water dip

Speak to your community manager when first considering an RNLI fundraising event. A range of cold water dips guidance, templates and supporting materials are available for those planning an RNLI organised dip (also available via the Volunteer Zone, event planning resources page, accessible to all volunteers). Advice is also available from your community manager or specialist guidance from the events business partners.

Water-based events take time and require a good number of volunteers on the ground, so before deciding to plan a cold water event, please consider the available timeframe and people resource, or if another fundraising activity would work as well for your community. The event planning resources page has guides and resources for lots of other events that you can be inspired by.

Key tasks to complete

These key tasks must be completed when organising RNLI cold water dip events:

Notify your community manager: 

Before planning any fundraising event, always speak to your community manager. They will support you in preparing for the event and facilitate submitting your event documents for approval by the RNLI’s insurers. Also advise your associated designated event volunteer so they can add the event to the community fundraising events registration system.

Review or complete a risk assessment:

An event-specific risk assessment must be completed. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Health and Safety Authority (HSA) recommend that risk assessments are reviewed annually and must be updated each time the event takes place. The landowner, such as the local authority/council may also ask to see it. A template risk assessment is included in the resources, which provides a starting point to create an event-specific assessment; please ensure that only information relevant to the event is included in the risk assessment. Further guidance on how to complete a risk assessment is also available. 

Prepare an event safety plan: 

Event safety plans are a vital tool to help plan events and to ensure that everyone involved understands the steps being taken to keep people safe. Documenting detailed safety planning protects the event organiser and the RNLI by demonstrating the steps taken to protect people from reasonably foreseeable harm. A template event management plan and guidance on how to complete one are available for those starting brand new events. The guidance contains several prompts to help ensure you do not miss any important safety considerations. The local authority and/or landowner may ask for the event safety plan and associated risk assessment, and you may be required to attend a Safety Advisory Group (SAG) meeting by the local authority/council. See the quick guide to attending a SAG for more information.

Have appropriate safety cover in place: 

Safety cover on the water is a vital part of the event infrastructure. However, operational lifeboats and crew on duty cannot be used as safety cover for these events; if a lifeboat is tasked and responds during the event, this leaves the event without sufficient safety cover. If crew and/or lifeguards do provide safety cover for an event, they can only do so as an event volunteer and cannot use a declared asset. If you have any concerns over this, please speak with your area operations manager in the first instance.

Participant registration and monitoring process: 

All active and water-based events must be able to maintain a definitive list of participants. Event organisers must know exactly who is taking part and that they have returned safely from the water. Registration must also include participants signing the RNLI's terms and conditions, health declarations and privacy notice. It’s important to advise participants of the risks involved before the event, so advance registration also provides an opportunity to send safety information and any important instructions ahead of the event, as well as helping manage participant numbers. We strongly recommend using online registration if possible; more detailed information on the RNLI’s approved online platform and how to request a listing is available. If you also want to offer manual sign up on the day, please contact the events business partners for a template sign up form. Refer to the cold water dips guidance for further details on how to monitor participants on entry and exit of the dip.

Getting insurance approval: 

Approval must be sought from the RNLI’s insurers for all water-based events. This should be done via your community manager. The events business partners will first check the event paperwork before submitting to the RNLI’s insurance team. Event documents must be sent at least one month prior to the event; contact your community manager or the events business partners directly for further support and advice.

If you have any questions or concerns, please speak to your community manager in the first instance or alternatively contact the events business partners.