Health & Safety Guide

Health and Safety Guide

The following information reflects our commitment to maintaining a safe operating environment and defines our responsibilities, as well as the responsibilities of clients participating in our tours, our Tour Guides, and our suppliers.  In order for our tours to operate safely and with minimal risk for everyone, we require that all parties adhere to their respective responsibilities as described below.

Who we are

• ‘We’ are Akeman Tours Ltd trading as Savouring Bath and we operate all tours advertised on the Savouring Bath website (savouringbath.com) by engaging third party suppliers (e.g., Tour Guides, and culinary businesses or ‘suppliers’) to provide their services.
• Mike James (Director) is responsible for:
  • reviewing and updating this document regularly (annually as a minimum requirement) and recording each review along with details of any changes.
  • risk assessments.
  • accident investigation and recording.
  • consulting Suppliers and any other staff or sub-contractors.
  • consulting and training Tour Guides.
  • maintaining health & safety records/inspections.
• We provide health & safety training to Tour Guides and contractors.
• We maintain valid Professional Indemnity, and Public Liability Insurance policies.
• We periodically monitor our Tour Guides and Suppliers to ensure they comply with our health & safety expectations as described below and maintain clear records of those checks.

Our Tour Guides

• work on a freelance basis and are contracted per tour/event.
• are trained directly by us to ensure they are aware of specific risks, and associated avoidance measures (see Risk Assessment below) relating to tours they are leading.
• must (prior to being offered any work with us):
  • provide evidence of their own, valid Public Liability Insurance policy.
  • demonstrate risk awareness and management, as well as crowd/group management skills.
• carry out pro-active risk assessments throughout all tours they lead.
• are monitored periodically to ensure compliance with all of the above.
• are provided with regular updates, so they are fully aware of changes as they occur.

Our Suppliers

• “Suppliers” are businesses visited during the course of our tours, where we interact with staff and owners, and sample their produce.
• When we consider working with a supplier for the purposes of our tours, we vet their service and premises to ensure compliance as follows:
  • All suppliers must comply with UK health & safety legislation at all times.
  • All suppliers must have a Food Standards Agency rating of 4+ (unless listed by the FSA as ‘exempt’).
  • Suppliers must have risk awareness measures in place on their premises, which may be a risk assessment available on request, or visual evidence of risk management protocols (e.g., appropriate signage).
• If a supplier is found to be in contravention of any of the above points:
  • We will work with them as appropriate to accomplish the necessary measures to comply.
  • If contravention is severe or presents a serious risk, we will avoid tour visits until appropriate measures are in place.
  • If contravention presents limited risk, we will ensure our guides are aware of the issue and how to manage it during our tours, prior to any visits; in these cases we will also work with the supplier to address the risk and find a solution.
  • If the supplier has not adapted after a reasonable amount of time (based on case-by-case considerations), we will cease visiting their premises during our tours until there is evidence of their compliance as appropriate.
• All suppliers are monitored regularly, and details of their compliance measures are recorded and updated.

What do we do to create a safe environment?

Booking Process:

• When you book a tour with us, we provide clear links to information regarding health & safety.
• We ask everyone books a tour to read this Health & Safety Guide and ask you to ensure that every participant for whom you are booking, understands everyone’s responsibilities in staying safe during our tours.
• We also ask you to provide Special Dietary information regarding all participants who are booking, specifying that this constitutes information regarding genuine allergies and ethical dietary restrictions.
• We provide a link to our Special Dietary Requirements policy during the booking process and ask you to confirm that you have read and understood this, before you complete payment for your booking.

During your tour:

• Our tour guides provide pro-active risk assessments during your tour and act responsibly to ensure their safety while also monitoring the safety of tour participants.
• While visiting the premises of any of our suppliers during your tour, supplier staff are responsible for monitoring safety of their premises and ensuring the safety of our tour participants (as their customers).

Tour Participant Responsibilities

We recognise that a safe environment for the operation on our tours, depends not only on what we do, and what information we or our staff and partners provide, but equally on the actions of clients participating in our tours.

• All clients must act safely and responsibly during our tours, at all times, being aware of your environment and any potential threats to your safety
• All clients must take ultimate responsibility for their special dietary requirements by requesting the information they need in order to ensure what they are going to consume is safe for them. Our tour guides do not make any of the products you will be offered and do not carry ingredient information and will only help you source information if you ask for it at every visit. While our tour guides will help connect you with staff at our suppliers, they will only supply ingredient information if asked – it is the clients responsibility to request this information and not the responsibility of our tour guides or staff to monitor or police what a client chooses to consume.

We welcome all feedback as this helps us adapt and improve. If you would like to provide feedback on this document or your experience with us, please get in touch with us.