Psychological Health and Safety for School Staff

3. Identifying psychosocial hazards

Psychosocial hazards in schools include, but are not limited to:

• workplace bullying
• exposure to traumatic event/s or content
• gendered violence
• high job demands
• low job control
• low job demands
• low recognition and reward
• low role clarity
• poor environmental conditions
• poor organisational justice
• poor organisational change management
• poor supervisor or co-worker support
• racism or other discrimination
• remote or isolated work
• sexual harassment
• team conflict or poor workplace relationships
• work-related violence or aggression.

These hazards can occur alone or in combination and may accumulate and interact to increase the risk of harm.

The department’s pre-populated OHS risk register includes a list of hazards and controls for all of the above psychosocial hazards. Schools must review their OHS risk register at least annually, and consider any common psychosocial hazards that need to be managed in their school context. Refer to 6. Monitoring and reviewing controls further in this procedure.

The department has identified 5common and high-impact psychosocial hazards that every school must include in their OHS risk register. These are:

• work-related violence or aggression
• workplace bullying
• sexual harassment
• exposure to traumatic events
• high job demands (including workload).

When identifying psychosocial hazards, it is recommended that schools consider that:

• some hazards may be present all the time, others only occasionally
• some hazards can cause injury with a single exposure event, particularly where there is threat to life or physical safety
• other hazards can increase in impact over time, where apparently ‘minor’ incidents occur on a prolonged, regular or repeated basis and the effect accumulates over time (such as witnessing, hearing about or experiencing negative behaviour on a regular basis)
• the impact of events can be delayed, sometimes by weeks, months, or even years
• staff will react differently, and the absence of a reaction cannot be assumed as the absence of a hazard.

Principals are required to manage the conduct of employees, contractors and volunteers in accordance with the Managing Conduct and Unsatisfactory Performance in the Teaching Service policy, especially where the conduct is creating a psychosocial hazard for other employees. The Conduct and Integrity Division provides support to principals in managing conduct concerns. Under Part 1 of that policy, certain conduct must be reported to the Conduct and Integrity Division, including sexual harassment.

To identify further hazards in the workplace, the principal or their delegates can consider the following methods.

a. Observing staff behaviour

These include:

• increasing, excessive and/or unusual patterns of sick leave
• high staff turnover and/or burnout
• staff withdrawal or avoidance of certain situations
• change in behaviour or appearance (for example, deteriorating physical appearance)
• behaviours that are inconsistent with a person’s usual characteristics.

b. Reviewing hazard and incident notifications and data

A range of data points can indicate the presence of psychosocial hazards, including:

• eduSafe Plus injury, incident and near-miss reports of all severity (from low to extreme), for example, an unusual increase in personal physical injuries such as musculoskeletal disorders, or a high number of student safety incidents
• workers’ compensation claims
• staff complaints or investigations
• records of hours worked (that is, patterns of extra hours indicating high work demands)
• absenteeism and worker turnover data, including exit interviews
• health and safety committee meeting records, or, where a specific committee isn’t established, records from staff meetings where health and safety is discussed
• school staff survey data (particularly indicators around school culture, work environment and staff health, safety and wellbeing).

Principals must encourage their staff to report all workplace psychosocial hazards and incidents in eduSafe Plus (staff login required). Training is available: Search ‘eduSafe’ in LearnEd (eduPay) to find relevant courses.

Alerts from eduSafe Plus will notify the principal or the delegate of incidents or near-misses involving staff, unless the staff member specifically allocates it to a different manager. Some of these incidents may be related directly to a psychosocial hazard (for example, challenging student behaviour), but it is still important to consider the psychological impact of other hazards and incidents.

It is also important to consider the cumulative effects of exposure to what might initially be identified as a minor incident. If minor incidents are occurring often, this can lead to psychological injury. Common examples include challenging behaviour from students that may not seem significant when considered in isolation but can have a significant impact when they occur on a regular basis.

For more information on how to examine workplace data, see Workplace Health and Safety Queensland mentally healthy workplaces How to examine and interrogate workplace data guide (PDF).

c. Staff feedback

Identification of hazards can be significantly strengthened when combined with good communication and consultation. Given the sensitive nature of psychosocial hazards, it is recommended that employees have an opportunity to provide anonymous feedback where possible.

When collating or collecting data relating to psychological health and safety, it is crucial that the privacy of personal, sensitive, or health information is maintained. Refer to the Privacy and Information Sharing policy for more information.

Refer to the Effective consultation and communication for psychological safety section for further information on seeking staff feedback.