Jump to:
Steward role; Hiring event stewards
Health & Safety Role
Stewards need to be present at events and lectures in order to maintain the health and safety of students, staff and members of the public who are attending the event.
The responsibilities of a steward include:
- Preventing the overcrowding of the venue. Each venue has a limited capacity as stated in Teaching Rooms Information, or indicated by the normal number of seats in the venue. Overcrowding is not allowed as this increases the risk of major problems should an evacuation of the venue prove necessary. Stewards should not allow any more people to enter the venue once all seats have been filled. Extra seats must not be provided.
- Watching out for any other hazards that could cause harm to someone attending your event.
- Knowing the fire exits and escape routes and how to react in case of an emergency evacuation of the venue.
- Knowing First Aid arrangements.
-
The following plans are a guide to evacuating the main lecture theatres on campus in the event of an emergency. They also show the locations of fire extinguishers, break glass points and wheelchair seats.
Old Theatre - ground floor
Old Theatre - balcony
Sheikh Zayed Theatre
Alumni Theatre
Thai Theatre
Wolfson Theatre
Hong Kong Theatre
Other tasks/roles of a steward can include:
- Setting up the venue prior to the event and restoring it to normal after the event.
- Stewarding people into the venue and ensuring that at a busy event all seats are filled.
- Holding the roving microphones for Q & A sessions
The event organiser will need to brief stewards on their tasks/roles whilst working for their event. Please use the Steward Checklist for this purpose.
If Departments, Societies or other event organisers decide to organise their own stewards (i.e. staff or students from their department) they must ensure that these stewards are given essential information for stewards to read before working at the event.
The Events Office have approximately 60 students who regularly steward at LSE's public lectures. They are provided with training and have lots of experience working at school events. Stewards are also available for administrative work (e.g. stuffing envelopes) or to work in capacities other than stewarding at your event (e.g. registration, cloakroom, etc.), but please note they only receive training for event stewarding. If you are looking for staff to work for long periods of time it is best to hire your own hourly paid staff as we are unlikely to be able to fill such requests.
If you wish to book stewards for your event, please complete the Steward Request Form, giving as much notice as possible. Please note, we will not be able to process requests made at less than 2 weeks' notice.
We only provide steward hire services for activities taking place on campus. We do not hire stewards for events off-campus.
If for any reason we are unable to meet your stewarding requirements, we will let you know a week before your event so that you can make alternative arrangements. Any queries please email comms.events@lse.ac.uk.
It is not possible to hire stewards for events taking place off campus.
Please review the information below:
As of 1 August 2023 the hourly charge for stewards will be £17. This rate is inclusive of a booking fee.
The minimum charge when hiring stewards is 3 hours' work (i.e. £51). You will be charged for the full hire time booked for (excluding breaks, see below), so please ensure your start and finish times are accurate.
In the event of having to cancel a steward request which has been confirmed by the Events Office please give as much notice as possible. If you cancel stewards later than 10am the working day (Mon- Fri) prior to your booking, you will be charged the minimum charge for each steward booked (3 hours, £51).
If you reduce the hours of the shift later than 10am the working day (Mon - Fri) prior to the shift, you will be charged for the original hours you booked. If shift hours are reduced prior to this, you will be charged at the lower rate, however, you must copy us in on this email so we are aware of the change and can amend our records accordingly.
For public lectures stewards start work at least 1 hour prior to the start time of the event. This ensures that there is time to brief the stewards, set up the venue and seat the audience in time for the start of the event. We would suggest the same for departmental events.
For public lectures we have the following amount of stewards working in each venue and would suggest similar numbers for departmental events:
Old Theatre - 8
Sheikh Zayed Theatre - 8
Hong Kong Theatre - 4
Wolfson Theatre - 2
Auditorium - 4
The legal requirement is to have one steward per fire exit in the venue. Stewards can be departmental staff or hired stewards or a mix of the two.
Please get in touch with the Events Office if you need advice on steward numbers.
In order for your stewards to know what is expected of them during your event you will need to brief them via e-mail and also in person at the start of the event. For public lectures we use a checklist which sets out all the necessary information. We have created a Steward Checklist for departmental events and strongly advise you to fill it in and use it to ensure the smooth running of your event. A member of the department should always supervise the event.
If you have booked stewards in order to use the NAB cloakroom then you should brief them to collect the key from the LSE Events Office before their shift.
Unless otherwise specified the stewards will wear their red Event Steward polo shirts and otherwise be casually dressed. If there is a more formal dress code for your event please specify this when contacting the stewards.
Under the Working time regulations, workers aged 18 and over have the right to be provided with a minimum rest break of 20 minutes in the course of any working day that exceeds six hour. Therefore, should an hourly paid staff member be working 6 hours or more, they are entitled to a 20 minute break. However, the School provides permanent, full time staff with a longer period, normally an hour so it may be helpful to consider aligning hourly paid staff breaks with the norm across the school. These breaks are unpaid.
Stewards are required at public events to fulfil an essential health and safety role, including preventing the overcrowding of a venue. Overcrowding is against the law. You must consent to allow stewards working at your events to fulfil this role before we will process your request.
You must also confirm that a member of your department will provide a full briefing to your stewards in advance of the event and stay to supervise the event for the duration.