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 an OHS risk register (XLSX) 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