Discovery phase to begin for new Work Health and Safety Management System

Work continues on the Workers' Compensation Self Insurance project with further progression of a new safety management system.  Workshops and discussions have been held to gather feedback on proposed framework and governance solutions for the system. Once the proposal is finalised it will be submitted to the project steering committee for review.

Next step in the process is the discovery phase which involves the assessment of business unit needs.This discovery phase will commence in early July and continue over an eight week period. During this time, the external consultant will meet with WHS subject matter experts in all areas of the University.

Discovery

The purpose of discovery is for the identification of any safety-related activities that need to be considered and or incorporated within the Work Health Safety Management System (WHSMS).

Discovery includes the following:

• discussions on safety with WHS officers, subject matter experts, individuals with safety responsibility within a local area and nominated College/Divisions/Schools representatives
• identification of current safety-related documented processes
• identification of current informal safety-related processes, i.e. those not yet documented but are being undertaken
• identification of safety-related activities that are imposed on College/Divisions/Schools by external parties e.g. regulators.

Gaining of electronic copies of current College/Divisions/Schools safety-related documentation including:

• local policies (if any)
• procedures
• forms
• guidelines
• tools
• plans (e.g. WHS improvement plans)
• safety-related documentation (e.g. brochures, fact sheets, publications, SOPs, protocols, local induction material, training material, reports as outcomes of risk audits, investigation reports, any material presented to safety committees)
• identification of databases and or other software related to the storage or maintenance of safety-related documents or records.

The results of this activity will be used to determine the content of the WHSMS.