OHS Risk Planning and Management

Policy

This policy outlines the health, safety and wellbeing risk planning and management requirements for schools to ensure occupational health and safety (OHS) hazards and risks associated with school activities, including those on and off school grounds, are identified, assessed and managed.

Summary

• Reasonable steps must be taken to maintain a safe and healthy working environment where health, safety and wellbeing risks are identified and managed effectively.
• The principal or their delegate, in consultation with school staff who are or are likely to be affected, and health and safety representatives (HSR), where elected, must identify, assess, control, monitor and prioritise OHS risks using the template OHS risk register and OHS activities calendar (or equivalent template).
• The department has identified common hazards that must be included in the school’s OHS risk register, such as manual handling, work-related violence and students with challenging behaviours.
• School staff must take reasonable care for their own health and safety, and the health and safety of others who may be affected by their actions or omissions while at work. School staff must also co-operate with anything the principal or their delegate does in respect of any action undertaken to comply with OHS requirements.
• Local regional OHS support officers and the OHS Advisory Service can provide free advice and onsite or remote support on OHS risk management.
• The OHS Risk Planning and Management Procedure explains how to plan for, identify, assess, control and monitor OHS hazards and risks in the school.

Details

The OHS risk management process aims to ensure all schools are equipped to effectively plan for and manage health, safety and wellbeing hazards and risks in their environment, minimising the associated potential impact and injuries and keeping all staff safe and well at work.

Roles and responsibilities in managing health and safety risk

Under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (Vic) (OHS Act), managing health and safety risk is a shared responsibility.

Department roles and responsibilities

The department must maintain, so far as is reasonably practicable, a safe and healthy working environment where health, safety and wellbeing risks are identified and managed across all department workplaces. This includes central and regional office roles working collaboratively with schools to provide advice and access to supports to assist the principal or delegate in eliminating or mitigating risks.

Principal or delegate roles and responsibilities

The principal or their delegate must, in consultation with school staff who are or are likely to be affected, and HSRs, where elected, identify, assess, control, monitor and prioritise health, safety and wellbeing risks and hazards relevant to the school’s particular risk profile. The principal or their delegate must be aware and respond to new and existing hazards raised with them within a reasonable timeframe and communicate with the relevant staff members.

School staff roles and responsibilities

School staff, including contractors, volunteers and visitors, must take reasonable care for their own health, safety and wellbeing and of others who may be affected by their actions or omissions. School staff are responsible for reporting hazards and undertaking actions if appropriate to mitigate the risks.

Any school staff who identifies or observes a hazard in the workplace must notify the principal or their delegate using the most appropriate method based on current risk and report it in eduSafe Plus. Where there is unreasonable risk identified, cease the associated activity, and isolate the hazard (where possible and safe to do so).

School council roles and responsibilities

School councils must maintain, so far as is reasonably practicable, a safe and healthy working environment for school council employees where health, safety and wellbeing risks are identified and managed. School councils must otherwise ensure that any health, safety and wellbeing risks are managed when undertaking their powers and functions.

Key requirements to enable risk planning and management in schools

Schools must maintain a risk register (templates available from the Resources tab) that has been tailored to the individual school’s context. The OHS risk register must be fully reviewed and updated at least annually and as required, and must include:

• all health, safety and wellbeing hazards that are relevant to the school
• all department mandated risks, as identified in the department’s OHS risk register template
• control measures to eliminate or control risks, including measures that are currently being implemented and those that are planned.

Principals or their delegates must effectively plan for risk management activities, identify hazards, implement effective controls, and monitor and review hazards and controls, in consultation with school staff who are likely to be directly affected and HSRs, where elected. This includes:

• maintaining an OHS activities calendar (XLSX) or equivalent document which allocates and communicates OHS responsibilities and resources, ensuring it is fully reviewed and updated at least annually and as required
• identifying additional hazards and monitoring existing risk controls by completing quarterly workplace inspections, and reviewing near miss, hazard, and injury reports
• determining the level of risk by assessing the hazard following the process outlined in the assessing risks section of the procedure
• understanding and signing-off a sighted safe work method statements (SWMS) (DOCX) for high-risk construction activities as defined in the Contractor OHS Management Procedure
• maintaining records related to risk assessment and consultation
• ensuring that all staff have completed the mandatory eLearning module on LearnEd (Health, Safety and Wellbeing for Employees). This must be completed as part of the employee’s induction and refreshed every 2 years and as required.

The department offers health, safety and wellbeing for school leaders training as part of the Victorian Academy of Teaching and Leadership’s offering of strategic management training. This full day training aims to build the understanding of the foundations necessary to effectively manage health, safety and wellbeing in schools, including the development and maintenance of the risk register. All school leaders are encouraged to attend this training.

The OHS Risk Planning and Management procedure (in the Procedure tab) contains detailed requirements that schools must follow when implementing this policy to manage these key requirements.

Department supports for schools

Central and regional offices provide a range of supports and services to assist principals and school staff to be safe and well. These include access to local regional OHS support officers and the OHS Advisory Service who can provide free advice and onsite or remote support in relation to health, safety and wellbeing risk management and complete specific risk assessments where required.

Using eduSafe Plus to report and manage hazards identified allows OHS support officers to provide assistance and advice. Guidance for reporting and managing hazards on eduSafe Plus is located in the How to report a workplace hazard guide (PDF) (staff login required) on the knowledge base in eduSafe Plus.

Definitions

Consultation
Consultation involves sharing information with school staff about health and safety matters that affect their work in a meaningful and transparent way. Consultation must occur either through HSRs as the employee representative, or, where HSRs have not been elected, with the affected employees directly. School staff must be given notice of the subject being consulted upon and a reasonable time to consider the information shared. School staff must be given a reasonable opportunity to express views about the matter and have those views considered. Feedback received is considered before a final decision is made.

Hazard
Anything with the potential to cause harm, injury, illness, or loss.

Risk
The likelihood of harm arising from exposure to any hazards and the consequence of that harm.

Risk assessment
The process undertaken to identify the hazards, risk controls, and level of risk associated with a task or activity.

Risk control
Implementing measures that eliminate, prevent, reduce, or mitigate the harm of potential exposure to a hazard.

Risk register
A register of all identified hazards, the level of risk they pose and controls that have been put in place to reduce the likelihood and consequence of incidents and/or injuries. It can also be used as an action plan for implementation of new controls with delegation of responsibilities and proposed implementation dates.

Related policies

• Chemical Management
• Occupational Health, Safety and Wellbeing Management in Schools
• OHS Consultation and Communication
• Plant and Equipment

Relevant legislation

• Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (Vic)
• Occupational Health and Safety Regulations 2017 (Vic)
• International Standard Risk Management Principles and Guidelines: ISO 31000:2018
• International Standard Occupational health and safety management systems: ISO 45001:2018

OHS Risk Planning and Management Procedure

This OHS Risk Planning and Management Procedure sets out the practical step-by-step instructions that must be followed to implement the OHS Risk Management policy. The procedure contains the following steps:

• Planning for effective OHS risk management
• Developing and maintaining an OHS risk register for health, safety and wellbeing risks
• Identifying hazards
• Assessing risks
• Controlling risks
• Reviewing and monitoring risks controls
• Record keeping.

Planning for effective OHS risk management

To effectively manage risk as part of an ongoing OHS management approach, principals or their delegates must undertake the actions outlined in this chapter.

Consultation

The principal or their delegate must consult with school staff who are or are likely to be affected, and health and safety representatives (HSR), where elected, by implementing the OHS Consultation and Communication policy and procedure to ensure effective consultation systems are in place, including regular communication forums.

Contractor and volunteer management

The principal or their delegate must implement the Contractor OHS Management policy and procedure for managing contractors, including sighting and signing-off safe work method statements (SWMS) (DOCX) for high-risk work if required. The principals or their delegate must follow the Volunteer OHS Management policy and procedure for managing volunteers, including sighting and signing-off of safe work procedures volunteers undertake.

Mandatory learning

The principal or their delegate must ensure that all staff have completed the mandatory eLearning module on LearnEd (Health, Safety and Wellbeing for Employees). This must be completed as part of the employee’s induction and refreshed every 2 years and as required.

Management and reporting of hazards and incidents

The principal or their delegate must manage health, safety and wellbeing hazards and incidents, including through eduSafe Plus reports, by implementing the Managing and Reporting School Incidents (Including Emergencies) policy.

Planning

The principal or their delegate must effectively plan OHS activities to ensure hazards and risks associated with school activities are identified, assessed, and managed. These activities include workplace safety inspections, engaging contractors, reviewing and updating safety plans and registers (such as the school’s emergency management plan and OHS risk register).

The department has developed an OHS activities calendar template (XLSX) that is flexible and can be tailored to suit different school environments. This calendar provides a starting list of OHS activities that may be applicable to schools, and items which must be carried out by all schools (see the calendar template for further information). A school may utilise a different template if it is consistent with and meets the requirements detailed below.

The principal or their delegate, in consultation with school staff, area/subject coordinators, elected HSRs and the health and safety committee (or equivalent), must:

• review and tailor the OHS activities calendar template based on their school profile (facilities, hazards etc), and allocate responsibilities, frequencies, timeframes and resources to each item
• ensure school staff are aware of the procedures for completing the activities they are assigned
• undertake a full review of the calendar at least annually to plan the activities
• consider and amend the calendar where required:
  • when new or additional activities or priorities are required by the department, the community or WorkSafe
  • when there are changes to staffing/resourcing levels
  • following a review of the OHS risk register (XLSX), where a high-risk hazard may require additional monitoring
  • when hazards, near misses and incidents are reported and an activity/task may need to be added or frequency changed
  • where the outcome of an incident investigation recommends additional monitoring to reduce the likelihood and/or severity of injury or illness.

The principal or their delegate is encouraged to review the calendar regularly (that is, monthly or termly) to monitor the activities, ensuring they are completed by the intended date and statuses are updated and recorded (for example, by including a staff initial and date on the printed calendar). Where activities are not completed by the intended date, the principal or their delegate should work with the allocated staff member to identify the reasons for the delay, determine an alternate date, and update the calendar accordingly.

The local regional OHS support officers and the OHS Advisory Service can provide support to schools to implement these actions. For schools that have transitioned to eduSafe Plus, you can maintain your OHS activities calendar on this digital platform – contact your regional OHS support officer.

Developing and maintaining an OHS risk register for health, safety and wellbeing risks

The principal or their delegate, in consultation with school staff who are or are likely to be affected and HSRs, where elected, must prepare and maintain an OHS risk register, listing identified health, safety and wellbeing hazards and the controls implemented, to eliminate or minimise the associated risks. To assist schools in this process, the department has developed a generic, pre-populated Microsoft Excel OHS risk register template (XLSX). The OHS risk register template has also been made available as a Google Sheets template*.

This template lists common hazards that are required to be included in the school’s OHS risk register.

The principal or their delegate, in consultation with school staff who are or are likely to be affected and HSRs, where elected, must tailor their OHS risk register by including school specific hazards and the mandated hazards. This can be done through the review of workplace inspections, health, safety and wellbeing hazard and incident data, specific task/activity risk assessments and other communication channels.

The principal or their delegate must review the school’s OHS risk register as required, and at least annually.

The local regional OHS support officers and the OHS Advisory Service can provide support to schools on this process. For schools that have transitioned to eduSafe Plus, you can maintain your OHS risk register on this digital platform – contact your regional OHS support officer.

The department offers health, safety and wellbeing for school leaders training as part of the Victorian Academy of Teaching and Leadership’s offering of strategic management training. This full day training aims to build the understanding of the foundations necessary to effectively manage health, safety and wellbeing in schools, including the development and maintenance of the risk register. All school leaders are encouraged to attend this training.

*Please note: If schools are using their own tenancies of Google Workspace for Education, they are encouraged to ensure they have undertaken a privacy impact assessment (PIA) – download a partially populated PIA (staff login required). Schools using the departmentally provided tenancy of Google do not need to do this. Always take care to ensure that school documents are locked down so that only relevant personnel can access them.

Identifying hazards

As part of maintaining a safe and healthy environment, schools are required to be aware and responsive to new and existing hazards. Creating a supportive safety culture, where safety is openly discussed regularly, assists with creating a safe environment where hazards are identified and responded to quickly and effectively.

Hazards and associated risks can be introduced to a school environment in a variety of ways. This may include:

• any person conducting activities on school site, including school staff, contractors (as defined in the Contractor OHS Management procedure), volunteers (as defined in the Volunteer OHS Management policy) and visitors
• variation to the way work is carried out such as a change in process or procedure (for example, change of working/teaching location, or equipment is moved to a new area)
• purchasing new equipment/plant or chemicals (for example, a lawn mower or new playground equipment)
• where work is undertaken off site, such as on an excursion or camp
• the purchase, hire, lease or donation of goods with potential health, safety and wellbeing risks.

The following activities may assist in the hazard identification process:

• general workplace observations
• undertaking and reviewing results of quarterly workplace inspections (refer to the Workplace Safety Inspections policy and procedure)
• undertaking and reviewing risk assessments
• consultation with school staff and HSRs, where elected
• reviewing school staff survey results
• reviewing hazard reports from eduSafe Plus, and sharing relevant information with the HSR (refer to the OHS Consultation and Communication policy for information regarding the sharing of hazard information with HSRs)
• reviewing previous assurance program findings
• reviewing health monitoring reports such as audiometric testing
• reviewing incident investigations findings and recommendations
• completing and reviewing safe work procedures and safe work method statements
• completing the OHS purchasing checklist (DOCX) for new plant, equipment or substance.

School staff who identify a hazard in the workplace must notify the principal or their delegate using the most appropriate method based on the current risk and report it in eduSafe Plus.

The principal or their delegate must assess the risks once hazards have been identified, in consultation with school staff who are or are likely to be affected and HSRs, where elected.

Assessing risks

Once hazards are identified, the principal or their delegate must determine the ‘level of risk’ by assessing the hazards, in consultation with school staff who are or are likely to be affected and HSRs, where elected, particularly those with expertise or knowledge of the hazard.

The risk assessment process can support schools to understand the hazard and prioritise the implementation of actions to control the hazard and associated risks. Risks can be primarily assessed using the risk matrix, which school staff can use as a guide (see the section on 'risk matrix' below). Specific situations and hazardous tasks and activities may require the use of a documented risk assessment to determine all associated risks and controls (see the section on 'risk assessments' below).

Note: The mandated risks identified in the OHS risk register have already been assessed by the department, therefore a risk assessment is not required to be undertaken by principals, delegates or school staff. The responsibility of the school is to identify and implement appropriate controls to eliminate or reduce the risk rating (refer to controlling risks).

Risk matrix

All school staff can use the risk matrix as a guide for a quick assessment of a hazard prior to completing a task. See the ‘Risk matrix’ tab in the risk register templates (available from the Resources tab).

Using this risk matrix, follow the below steps:

• consider the consequence of a risk occurring, using the consequence definitions
• consider the likelihood of an incident occurring, using the likelihood definitions
• calculate the level of risk by finding the intersection between consequence and likelihood.

Based on the level of risk, the following actions must be considered by the principal or their delegate, in consultation with school staff who are or are likely to be affected, and HSRs, where elected:

• Extreme risk: Isolate the hazard (if safe to do so). A risk assessment may be completed to better understand the hazard and its associated risk. Controls must be implemented as soon as reasonably practicable.
• High risk: A risk assessment may be completed to better understand the hazard and its associated risk. Controls must be implemented within 48 hours of notification.
• Medium risk: Controls must be implemented within 7 days.
• Low risk: Controls must be planned to be undertaken within a reasonable timeframe.

Risk assessment

For risks that are complex or that are likely to be rated as high or extreme, schools are encouraged to document their assessment process using the risk assessment template (DOCX), before documenting the risk and control in their OHS risk register.

There are also common hazardous activities that involve greater risk and have their own specific risk assessment and management process, with guidance and templates provided by the department. These are:

• plant and equipment
• hazardous manual handling (for example, the removal of gym mats from storage, concert stage set up)
• chemical management (for example, the use of chemicals in science classes, storage of hazardous chemicals).

Where there is unreasonable risk identified using the risk matrix or risk assessment template, cease the associated activity and isolate the hazard (where possible and safe to do so).

The principal or their delegate must update the school’s OHS risk register to reflect the identified hazards and associated levels of risk in response to completing the risk assessment process.

Schools can contact their local regional OHS support officer or the OHS Advisory Service for support if needed.

Controlling risks

Once hazards have been identified and the risks have been assessed, the principal or their delegate must work to eliminate or control the risks. If a risk cannot be eliminated, then the principal or their delegate must consider a mix of controls to achieve the best possible risk reduction. For guidance on identifying appropriate controls, see the ‘Controlling Risks’ tab in the risk register templates (available from the Resources tab).

Throughout the process of identifying risk controls to be implemented, the principal or their delegate must consult with school staff who are or are likely to be affected, the HSR, where elected, and health and safety committee (or equivalent) members.

When identifying and implementing appropriate controls, consider the following:

• provide information, instruction, training and/or supervision regarding the implementation of risk controls
• if possible, test the risk controls prior to implementation
• ensure the proposed risk controls do not create new hazards or increase the likelihood of other risks occurring (for example, the installation of barriers as a risk control for the use of woodwork machinery may restrict access to emergency exits in the case of an emergency)
• prioritise implementing controls for the more hazardous risks (that is, extreme and high-risk rating)
• budget constraints and available funding (see Buildings and Grounds Maintenance and Compliance policy and the School-funded Capital Projects policy for more information regarding repairs and building management) communicate the risk control strategies to all relevant school staff, contractors, volunteers and visitors attending school grounds, as per the OHS Consultation and Communication policy.

The local regional OHS support officers and the OHS Advisory Service can provide support to schools on this process.

Reviewing and monitoring risk controls

Monitoring the effectiveness of risk controls is best done through school staff and HSR consultation and feedback.

The principal or their delegate must ensure that risk controls are reviewed at regular intervals, at least annually, and scheduled in the school OHS activities calendar (XLSX). This ensures the monitoring and review of the effectiveness of these controls, and provides an opportunity for continuous improvement. Refer to Planning for effective OHS risk management for more information about using the OHS activities calendar.

The principal or their delegate must also review risk controls in the school OHS risk register when:

• new potential hazards or risks are identified (for example, through a report in eduSafe plus, workplace inspections, specific risk assessments)
• incidents, injuries or near misses occur
• new hazardous substances are introduced into the school (refer to the Chemical Management policy or Plant and Equipment Management policy)
• new information regarding a hazard is made available or communicated by the department or WorkSafe
• existing hazards and risks are no longer relevant (and as a result, archived).

If a risk control has not been implemented by the intended completion date, the principal or their delegate must identify the reasons for the delay and, in consultation with school staff who are or are likely to be affected, HSRs, where elected, and those tasked with implementing the risk control, determine an alternate date and update the OHS risk register.

Regular discussions regarding health, safety and wellbeing at meetings (for example, health and safety committees and staff meetings) is strongly encouraged, and a great way to embed a positive health, safety and wellbeing culture throughout the school. The principal or their delegate should keep people updated and regularly communicate outcomes regarding hazard identification, risk assessment and implemented controls to contribute to this safety culture. Refer to the OHS Consultation and Communication policy for further detail.

Record keeping

Schools must maintain the following records in relation to health, safety and wellbeing risk planning and management:

• current school OHS activities calendar, reflecting when OHS activities have been completed
• completed activity/task risk assessments
• current and archived versions of the school OHS risk register
• health and safety committee meeting minutes (if applicable)
• minutes of other meetings/communication where risk management has been discussed (for example, staff meetings, OHS working group meetings).

The department is transitioning schools to eduSafe Plus. If your school has transitioned to eduSafe Plus, you can maintain your OHS risk register and OHS activities calendar in this digital platform. Local regional OHS support officers or the OHS Advisory Service can support with your transition to using these documents online.

These documents must be retained in accordance with the Records Management policy.

Resources

Templates relevant to this policy and procedure

• OHS risk register (XLSX) – a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet pre-populated for schools to use
• Google Sheets version of OHS risk register template – To utilise this template ensure a copy has been saved to the school's local Google Drive, prior to editing. Note: If schools are using their own tenancies of Google Workspace for Education, they are encouraged to ensure they have undertaken a privacy impact assessment (PIA). A partially populated PIA can be downloaded from this link. Schools using the departmentally provided tenancy of Google do not need to do this. Always take care to ensure that school documents are locked down so that only relevant personnel can access them.
• Risk assessment template (DOCX)
• Plant and equipment risk assessment (DOCX)
• OHS activities calendar (XLSX)