About the Activity Standards

Each AAS contains an industry guideline considered by the sector to be a reasonable minimum set of procedures and expectations for that activity.

Each AAS has been developed in the following key areas:

Planning
Responsibility of the leaders
Equipment
Environment.

Planning

The planning section contains pre-activity considerations including (although confirmed by the working groups):

Developing an activity plan
Key considerations for planning an activity session and developing a plan for the activity
Risk Assessments and Emergency strategies
Expected and suggested documentation (acceptance of risk, health and emergency
contact forms, for example)

The planning section of the AAS will often state that the organisation or leader must ensure that an appropriate emergency strategy has been developed for the activity. The AAS will not normally be specific about the content of the emergency strategy other than stating a small number of elements to be included.

As with several other requirements of the AAS these should be developed specifically for the participants, conditions, environment, level of difficulty of the activity and the nature of the organisation conducting the activity.

Responsibility of the Leaders

Responsibility of the leaders section includes details (although confirmed by the working groups) such as:

The skills expected of leaders at various levels of difficulty/complexity
Responsibilities agreed to be reasonable for the leader
First aid
Appropriate briefings, group conduct.

The ‘Units of Competence’ listed in 2.1 of this section are intended as a benchmark of the skills a leader should have. The AAS do not expect all leaders of activities to have a qualification or to have developed their skills through any one learning pathway. The AAS do expect that leaders who conduct activities for less skilled (dependent) participants can demonstrate that they are competent should they be required to do so.

The remainder of the section provides an outline of what the leader should be doing as a minimum to ensure that participants are appropriately informed and looked after for the duration of the activity.

Once again, the AAS do not provide specifics relating to the delivery of information because leaders must undertake briefings and first aid responses etc according to the specific circumstances of the group on each specific activity session.

Equipment

The equipment section includes details (although confirmed by the working groups) including:

Recognised safety standards for equipment (e.g. “Standards Australia” for rock climbing ropes)
Suitable equipment for the leaders, the participants and any additional equipment
suggested as a minimum requirement for the group
Equipment storage, maintenance and replacement.

Each AAS has different amounts of detail for the equipment section as determined by those involved in the development process. If further details are required then leaders or organisations should contact the ORC or the organisation(s) at the end of the specific AAS document.

Environment

The environment component includes activity specific considerations (provided by the activity specific working parties and environmental agencies) such as:

A general code of conduct
Activity specific environmental considerations for minimal environmental impact.

These vary according to the availability of appropriate information and the potential environmental risk of the activity. It is clear that groups must pay attention to environmental awareness to ensure ongoing access to many activity areas.

Further Information

The further information section contains the contact details for organisations able to provide further information regarding the activity for which the AAS applies to.