Invitation to participate in UPLOADS National Trial

The UPLOADS project has developed software tools for collecting near miss, incident and participation data for organisations which facilitate supervised or ‘led’ outdoor activities. This includes a diverse range of organisations operating under the banners of outdoor education, school camps, adventure tourism, outdoor recreation and outdoor therapy.

There are two versions of the system:

• UPLOADS Software tool
• UPLOADS Lite

UPLOADS Software Tool

The UPLOADS Software Tool allows organisations to:

• Systematically track their incident and participation data;
• Analyse their own incident data using a systems framework;
• Generate automatic reports on the data they collect; and
• Contribute deidentified data to the industry database.

The software tool is installed on a computer within the organisation and the data is not directly accessible by the research team. The organisation will be asked to contribute deidenitified data to the project on a monthly basis. Organisations, participants and staff cannot be identified from the data sent to the research team for analysis.

UPLOADS Lite

UPLOADS Lite is designed for organisations who just want to contribute data to the industry database. UPLOADS Lite allows organisations to contribute completely anonymous incident reports and participation data using an online survey tool. Organisations are also able to save the data they enter for their own records.

Why use UPLOADS?

Gathering detailed information on incidents and identifying contributing factors is a valuable component of risk management in outdoor programmes. This information can be used to justify changes to policy, training, or program location or activity. If accessibly stored, incident reports can also help retain organisational knowledge despite staff turnover.

This industry database will allow the sector to better understand the real risks associated with different types of led outdoor activities. This information will assist professional associations and government agencies to make evidence based decisions about issues that affect those involved in the provision of led outdoor activities. Without empirical evidence, judgements about led outdoor activities will continue to be made on the basis of personal opinion. In addition, organisations will be able to request reports on specific data sets to assist them in formulating risk management strategies. For example, a report could be produced on all ‘high ropes’ near misses and incidents in the sector-wide database.

If you would like to participate in the National trial, or would like more information, please register your contact details below.

Alternatively, contact Dr Natassia Goode (Project Manager), Phone: +61 7 5456 5850, Email: ngoode@usc.edu.au