The government has published a free guide to help small charities and voluntary groups create community events.
The “Can Do” guide to organising and running voluntary and community events, published last week, says it covers most “permissions and licences” needed to run an event.
It lists around 30 bodies who may need to grant a licence, who provide advice and guidance, or whose rules charities may need to comply with to ensure their event meets laws and regulations.
The guide also says that many issues around public events, such as health and safety, obtaining insurance and closing a road, are less problematic than often thought.
“Good planning is vital to a successful event,” the guidance says. “Whatever sort of event you want to hold, the planning will often follow the same general pattern. You need to be clear about what you want the event to be, what you want it to achieve, and its size and scale.”
It says that to run a well-designed event charities must “Plan and share out the work, find out what bookings, permissions, licences you may need, think about common sense safety and access issues and whether you will need insurance, decide on a realistic budget, and identify how best to publicise the event.”
