VALID Tree Risk Assessment

Management of Tree Safety with the VALID System

Trees are an essential part of the natural environment, absorbing carbon dioxide, emitting oxygen, providing habitats for wildlife, and making areas more enjoyable to live and work. That said, trees can also sometimes create potential safety concerns.

From falling branches as a result of age to entire trees collapsing due to severe weather, it is important to consider the risk to people and property. Whether you’re a business, government agency, local authority or private landowner, all tree owners share a legal duty to keep trees under their care in a safe condition.

A VALID tree risk assessment helps with meeting the legal responsibility and uses science ahead of subjective judgement to provide clear and defensible risk management, balancing safety with the many benefits of tree management.

Overview of the Risk Trees Pose

There are many different reasons for trees to end up becoming a hazard, including falling trees after a storm or hidden decay that reduces the structural integrity until the point of tree failure.

The outcome depends on where the tree stands, as a single tree in open farmland could be a minor threat, whereas multiple trees plotted along busy roads, near buildings or within school grounds are a far more major threat, and falling branches in such areas could create serious public safety issues.

Duty of care for tree inspections needs to be proportionate, especially as the dangers caused by trees can vary so much. The aim of a VALID tree risk assessment isn’t necessarily to eliminate all risk, but to manage risk until it’s either extremely low or at least at an acceptable level.

What is VALID Tree Risk Management and Assessment?

The VALID system is a common sense approach to tree management that – unlike traditional methods – doesn’t rely on difficult maths equations or a subjective assessment. Instead, VALID applies to the Tolerability of Risk Framework from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), as well as the ISO 31000 risk management standards.

Through a combination of risk assessment with tree benefit, VALID sees tree surveyors assess trees while also working on calculating the economic, environmental and social value of retaining trees. The VALID tree risk app is central to the process, standardising data entry, calculating potentially unacceptable risk consistently, and producing clear results without relying on unreliable parameters.

Although the VALID app itself is freely available, only trained professionals are qualified to use it for a quantified tree risk assessment and are capable of coming away with sufficient results. Arboricultural consultants who are competent in carrying out VALID risk management are known as ‘Validators‘, and only they are able to lead the process.

Who Benefits from Support with VALID Tree Risk?

Anyone and anywhere responsible for trees will benefit from VALID, such as:

Tree Risk Benefit Management Strategy

For a VALID tree risk benefit approach to be effective, it needs to cover specific principles, undergo universal evaluation methods, and follow a certain structure.

In the section below, we explain more about the steps taken to ensure that tree risk is addressed and determined accordingly.

Key Risk Management Principles

Three important questions are at the core of any VALID survey:

• What is the likelihood of tree failure?
• What is the likelihood of people or property being in the impact area?
• What would the consequences be if failure occurred?

The answer to the three questions avoids overreaction and works towards all decisions being made based on a proportionate approach.

Wherever any risks are found, each of them will be reduced to a tolerable level, instead of being far beyond what is reasonably practicable and actionable.

Traffic Light System

As a way of simplifying the results, VALID uses a colour-coded traffic light system:

• Red: Not Acceptable – All risks need to be reduced to an acceptable level.
• Amber: Not Tolerable – All risks need to be reduced to an acceptable level, but with a lower priority than a Red rating.
• Amber: Tolerable – All risks do not need to be reduced, but could need more frequent inspections.
• Green: Acceptable – All risks do not need to be reduced.

Under the system above, duty holders can get a sense of clarity from the results that are simple to understand and easy to act on.

Process for Creating a Tree Risk Management Strategy

A universal four-stage process is followed for conducting VALID assessments:

1. Passive Assessment

A visual ground-level check highlights trees that could need a closer and more detailed inspection

2. Detailed Assessment

The three key questions and traffic light system mentioned earlier decide on a list of flagged trees

3. Advanced Checks

Specialist tools gather additional data if more information about the tree’s integrity is needed

4. Reporting and Recommendations

A summary for every tree is created, including risk rating, reinspection year and general management advice

Ask Our Team for Help with Tree Risk

Tree risk management is an important part of responsible land ownership, and it guarantees the safety of both people and property within the area.

Using a VALID assessment, professionals can create a clear picture of tree condition across a site, helping to comply with the duty of care and ensure that any possible risks are kept at an acceptable level.

Arboricultural Consultants Experienced in Tree Risk

In addition to arboricultural consultants who can undertake BS5837 tree surveys and other assessments involving trees, we have a team of trained Validators for carrying out VALID tree risk assessments.

Each Validator is skilled in the use of the VALID app and other relevant inspection tools. As with all surveys, it is also crucial that they regularly refresh their knowledge to stay aligned with the latest industry best practice guidelines.

After years of experience working with tree owners and managers all over the country, our service has become helpful to a wide range of different clients, both on big and small sites and with any number of trees present.

Cost to Manage Tree Risk

The cost of a tree risk survey mainly depends on the number of trees and the complexity of the site being evaluated.

Our costs are always transparent, but as you can imagine, it is easy to assume that smaller sites aren’t usually charged as much as larger ones, just as sites with fewer trees are likely to be cheaper than sites with more trees.

Whatever the circumstances of your trees and site, you’ll only ever pay for the work you need.

We will work with you to agree on a suitable date for a Validator to attend your site and create a clear report that is fit-for-purpose and tailored to your requirements.

Ensure Tree Safety on Your Site

It could be that you’re concerned about potential safety issues, you want to manage risk responsibly, or you simply need a defensible risk management strategy in place. Regardless of why you need our help with tree risk, or if we’ve worked with you before or you’re a new account, get in touch and allow us to support you with an assessment and report.

Speak to our team about booking your VALID assessment today. Our proportionate approach will help you, even if you are a landowner, local council, estate manager or someone else who manages, owns and accounts for trees. With our help, you can get confidence that risks are being managed to an acceptable level.