Lessons from Hillsborough and Hope and Glory?

Question 1

What are the lessons that can be learnt from Hillsborough and Hope and Glory?

Answer 1

1) Planning in terms of risk management
2) The location
3) Leadership
4) Logistics
5) History

Question 2

What was the issue with Hope and Glorys planning?

Answer 2

At Hope and Glory, there was no emergency evacuation plan in place and the site wasn’t completed

Question 3

What is the definition of risk management?

Answer 3

Risk management is the process of anticipating, preventing or minimising potential, costs, losses or problems for the event organisations, partners and guests’ (Getz,2012).

Question 4

What was the issue with Hillsboroughs planning?

Answer 4

-minimal efforts made in terms of crowd control measures and communication with organisations outside the ground

Question 5

What did the failure to pre- plan mean in terms of communication?

Answer 5

There was minimal if any communication with organisations outside of the ground. For example, no transport operators or firefighters were communicated and the communication with the Ambulance service was poor, as highlighted by them not attending any debriefs prior to the game.

Question 6

What was the result of there being no pre-match communication with transport and firefighters?

Answer 6

This lack of communication with the transport operators resulted in rail and road routes transporting liverpool fans directly to the Leppings lane entrance, significantly contributing to the crush. The lack of communication with the firefighters meant there was no arrangement for them to be present and so by the time they were requested, it was too late for their equipment to be used and as there was no plan, the officers on the door didn’t know where they needed to be sent

Question 7

How can the lessons for the lack of pre planning be used in the future?

Answer 7

• use identification techniques such as such as GAP analysis to detect gaps in the plans for or the delivery of an event, contingency plans or test events to identify the potential risks put on both the attendees and employees.
• Berlonghi (1990) suggests questions to ask to spark the discovery process including, who is exposed to harm?, Who would suffer loss? and What are the consequences?

Question 8

What does pre planing do for an event achieve ?

Answer 8

In taking the time to identify risks through a risk management strategy the event is not only making the event a safer place as the chance of incidents is reduced, but also creating awareness among employees who can be trained/ know to look out for specific signs and lastly the event is saving financially by being proactive instead of reactive to potential risks.

Question 9

According to the purple guide, what should be done before a location for an event is confirmed?

Answer 9

‘The event organiser should ensure the event venue /site is designed so that it is safe for people working there and so that the audience can enjoy the entertainment safely’ (Hse, 2019)

Question 10

What did Taylors report discuss about the FA choice of location? and what about duckinfield?

Answer 10

• the FA did not consider whether it was suitable for a high risk match with an attendance of 54,000 requiring to be segregated, all of whom were, in effect, away supporters lacking week in week out knowledge of the ground.
• No special inspection was made (Taylor, 1989).
• the Police officer in charge (Mr Duckenfield) didn’t visit the stadium before approving the police plan (Walsh

Question 11

What were the consequences of the FAs decision to pick Hillsborough?

Answer 11

• it was found the turnstiles at the Leppings Lane entrance couldn’t cope with the 10,000 people needing to pass through, causing a severe bottleneck and crush outside the turnstile.
• This went against the green guide
• The exit gates onto the pitch at Hillsborough were also found to be too small in comparison to the green guides regulations

Question 12

What was wrong with the location of Hope and Glory?

Answer 12

• There was issues with the site being too compact. Even though the number of people who attended on day one was below the Licensed or ‘safe’ capacity of 12,500, the site clearly failed at well below the agreed maximum capacity.
• Had 12,500 attended the event, the results would have been significantly worse and the risk level unacceptable

Question 13

According to the purple guide, what are some steps that should be taken when choosing an events location?

Answer 13

• the event organiser should study any appropriate mapping available to them and seek advice and information from the landowner, local authority and/or venue management.
• They should also look at the ground conditions of the event, making sure it is accessible for those with disabilities, ensure the capacity is big enough and there are sufficient emergency exits

Question 14

What was wrong with the leadership at Hillsborough?

Answer 14

• The police chiefs had focused on controlling hooliganim and so other officers around the stadium were not alerted to watch for over crowding during their pre- march briefing and were even given an order that forbade officers to access to the pitch without consent of senior officers.
• Failure to communicate with other officers that he was allowing spectaros to enter through gate c, meaning the officers in this area were not prepared to manage the sudden flow of people.
• Superintendent didn’t observe the pitch before the match - failure to understand the site

Question 15

What was wrong with the leadership at Hope and Glory?

Answer 15

• Leadership roles were ill-defined as highlighted by the event manager taking on the role of safety manager last minute and then breaking down in a meeting, leaving the site and being uncontactable by both by radio and mobile phone.

Question 16

What was the impact of the poor leadership at Hope and glory?

Answer 16

The poor leadership has a negative impact on many aspects of the festival including staff member work habits. The lack of information from the leadership team meant that staff did not appear to have been properly briefed or prepared to deal with the issues that arose and as a result, many visitors felt the stewards at the gates were giving poor safety checks, something that made them feel uncomfortable due to the recent Ariana Grande attack.

Question 17

What lessons can be learned from the lack of leadership?

Answer 17

for future events is the importance of having effective, reliable leaders in place who are willing to put time into understanding the location of the event and debriefing staff so that everyone is aware of the events strategies and objectives.- smooth running of the event. The leaders could use Digmans 5 traits which includes:
Agreeableness – Cooperative, warm and trusting
Conscientiousness – Reliability, responsible, organised dependable and persistent
Emotional stability – Ability to withstand stress. Calm, self confident and secure
To ensure the are fulfilling there role successfully.
- be willing to learn new things and ensure staff are comfortable with the role given

Question 18

What was wrong with the on site logistics of Hope and Glory?

Answer 18

At Hope and Glory even when the event was opened there was no signage anywhere in the ground and within the TESS report it was indicated that members of the public were given incorrect wristbands allowing access to the full weekend, even though they only had day tickets. Others state that their tickets were not torn on entry and could be re‐used (Tess,2017)

Question 19

What was wrong with the on site logistics at Hillsborough?

Answer 19

complaints over labelling and ticket colours, as well the shoddy signposting that hadn’t been changed after the alterations to the stadium.
-On site communication at Hillsborough also caused issues as during a crucial moment prior to the disaster the police radios went down for around 3 minuets, stopping any critical decisions and conversations being made.

Question 20

How can the lessons on logistics be used in the future?

Answer 20

they highlight the importance of having a variety of communication strategies in place in case there is a system failure - runners, where someone is hired to physically communicate information between people, WIFI and Bluetooth which helps receive information quickly and efficiently and mobile phones (Bowdin,2012).

• Also highlight the importance of signage, in order to implement it efficiently a detailed plan may be implemented covering issues such as the placement, direction and type of signs needed (Bowdin, 2012).
• The event manager could also implement the use of blueprints which show service elements experienced by the customer, identifying points where there may be failures in the service provided such as lack of signage.

Question 21

What can be learnt from the ‘it had all happened before’ situation at Hillsborough?

Answer 21

The lesson that can be taken from this is the importance of learning for previous issues and therefore the importance of looking in the history of the event/similar events. This allows – constant changes and improvements to be made, having a flexible mindset which means there is less change for an issue occurring again.
– To do this a SWOT analysis could be conducted to identify the strengths,weakenesses, opportunites and threats of past or comparable events. (silvers,2014

Question 22

What is the definition of leadership?

Answer 22

‘The ability to inspire confidence and support among people who are needed to achieve organisational goals (Wagen and White,2015)