Occupational Health, Safety and Wellbeing Management in Schools

1. eduSafe Plus – report and manage incidents, hazards and near misses

The department is currently onboarding all schools, through a phased roll out, to the enhanced eduSafe Plus system. This upgrade includes OHS management and workers’ compensation management functionality. If you would like your school to be prioritised in the move to the enhanced system, contact edusafe.plus@education.vic.gov.au

For support with eduSafe Plus, contact your local regional OHS service officers or the OHS Advisory Service (contact details available on the Resources tab).

The role of eduSafe Plus

eduSafe Plus is the online portal for managing occupational health, safety and wellbeing. eduSafe Plus allows the management of all incidents, hazards and sick bay/first aid activity and assurance actions.

School staff have a responsibility to report injuries, incidents, near-misses or hazards on eduSafe Plus (staff login required).

Reporting hazards, incidents and near misses supports schools and the department to:

• effectively assess and control risks to prevent workplace injury
• ensure injury does not reoccur
• ensure support is provided to injured and recovering staff members.

Reporting is everyone’s responsibility.

Once a hazard, near miss or incident has been reported in eduSafe Plus, the Asset Information Management System (AIMS) can be used to create work orders to respond to any maintenance/facilities needs, including repairs and actions to reduce the likelihood of an incident occurring.

More information about the AIMS program and key contacts can be found on the AIMS Advice page and the AIMS Knowledge Centre (staff login required) which is a central repository of practical information to help schools use AIMS.

Promoting a culture of reporting

The department strives for a workplace culture where all staff are willing to report hazards, near misses and incidents honestly, openly and without fear.

Information from these reports supports the department and school leaders to better understand where things are going wrong and where changes are required in their workplace, all contributing to a continuous improvement culture. This information assists in planning and monitoring safety within the school. To promote the importance of reporting all hazards, incidents and near misses throughout all department workplaces, schools must display the eduSafe Plus poster (PDF) on OHS noticeboards throughout their workplace. All principals must encourage and support their staff to make eduSafe Plus reports.

Some people may also need further support when reporting. For further information on ongoing support and recovery in response to the reporting of an incident, refer to the Stage 3 – ongoing support and recovery chapter of the Managing and Reporting School Incidents (Including Emergencies) Policy.

What to report in eduSafe Plus

The following events must be reported on eduSafe Plus:

• workplace hazards
• employee incidents, including injuries and near misses
• student, security or infrastructure related incidents (excluding high and extreme severity incidents which are to be reported to the Incident Support and Operations Centre (ISOC))
• the issuing of a school community safety order.

The following events can be reported on eduSafe Plus:

• sick bay, first aid and any provision of care to students or staff (if not using eduSafe Plus, schools must continue to document care provided/sickbay attendance through CASES21, or third-party platforms linked to CASES21 in accordance with the relevant guidance – additional support is available via the Service Desk and the First Aid for Students and Staff Policy).

Workplace hazards and employee incidents, injuries and near misses

All staff are responsible for reporting workplace hazards, incidents, injuries and near misses as soon as possible through eduSafe Plus. Refer to Defined health and safety terms for a definition of ‘hazard’, ‘incident’, ‘injury’ and ‘near miss’.

eduSafe Plus allows all department staff to report incidents and hazards themselves, or on behalf of other employees, contractors, visitors and volunteers. When lodged, these reports go to the staff member’s line manager for appropriate action. Staff can also choose an alternative manager (for example, regional director) to be the incident review manager if they do not wish for the report to go directly to their line manager. An example of when this may need to happen is if the incident involves the direct line manager. Directions for this can be found on the eduSafe Plus reporting form.

School staff, visitors, volunteers and contractors who are unable to access eduSafe Plus should fill out the relevant forms below and provide to the principal, manager or business manager (who will then enter these in eduSafe Plus):

• eduSafe Plus incident notification template (DOCX)
• eduSafe Plus hazard notification template (DOCX)

It’s important that when made aware of a workplace hazard, incident, injury or near miss, workplace managers, principals and/or their delegates communicate with the affected staff. Communicating safety measures put in place to minimise further harm or injury is paramount. Staff need to feel supported, and open, transparent communication can help. Communication records must be stored on eduSafe Plus in the event record.

Student, security or infrastructure related incidents

Principals and their delegates must use eduSafe Plus to report student, security, and infrastructure related incidents, excluding high and extreme severity incidents. High and extreme severity incidents must be reported to ISOC for immediate advice and co-ordination of support. ISOC will then report the incident on eduSafe Plus on the school’s behalf. Schools no longer need to contact ISOC for low and medium severity incidents. Self-reporting on eduSafe Plus will send ISOC incident notification emails to appropriate area, regional and central contacts.

Schools must follow the department’s Managing and Reporting School Incidents (Including Emergencies) Policy when managing school incidents.

If you require advice or support reporting student, security or infrastructure related incidents, contact ISOC on 1800 126 126.

The Victorian School Building Authority (VSBA) Make-Safe Program assists schools that have sustained damage through an incident or event, where that damage presents an immediate health and safety concern for students, staff and/or the community. For more information, refer to the Make-Safe Guidelines.

Issuing a school community safety order

Only authorised persons can report when a school community safety order has been issued through eduSafe Plus. Refer to the School Community Safety Orders Policy and Procedure for a definition of authorised persons and further information on the reporting procedure.

Authorised persons who are unable to access eduSafe Plus to report an issued school community safety order should fill out the relevant forms below:

• eduSafe Plus school community safety order – immediate order template (DOCX)
• eduSafe Plus school community safety order – ongoing order template (DOCX)

Completed forms should be provided to the Legal Division by emailing legal.services@education.vic.gov.au

Sick bay, first aid and any provision of care to students and staff

Schools must follow the department’s First Aid for Students and Staff Policy when reporting the provision of care resulting from a student or staff incident, injury or illness, including the administration of first aid. Refer to Recording the provision of care resulting from a student or staff incident, injury or illness, including the administration of first aid for more information.

If not using eduSafe Plus, schools must continue to document care provided/sickbay attendance through CASES21 or third-party platforms linked to CASES21 in accordance with the relevant guidance.

Workers’ compensation and return to work

The Workers’ Compensation digital system within eduSafe Plus is going live in early 2023. This will enable schools to complete all related processes online saving time and paperwork.

Refer to Workers’ compensation and return to work for further information.

eduSafe Plus Knowledge Base

The eduSafe Plus Knowledge Base (staff login required) contains a range of useful reference guides, and answers to frequently asked questions about the system.

Reference guides walk you through all the key processes within eduSafe Plus, including how to write reports, critical incident categories through to how to add delegates in eduSafe Plus. The knowledge base has a keyword search function and is updated regularly with new content.

Principals, managers and staff should familiarise themselves with the resources available on the eduSafe Plus Knowledge Base.

eduSafe Plus training webinars are also available for all staff to book into via LearnED (staff login required).

This webinar runs through the eduSafe Plus platform for reporting incidents, hazards and sick bay. The first 30 minutes of the session is relevant for all staff. The remainder of the session is for principals and management delegates.