How Safety Plans Work
In this article
Introduction
Safety Plans are simply the plans to keep people safe when they’re at work, doing work, or planning for work.
A Safety Plan in PeopleSafe is an online form where you can record how you’re managing the risks your people work with; the safety gear you use, the emergency procedures in place, what training workers should have and anything else to do with the risks your Safety Plan covers.
The aim of Safety Plans in PeopleSafe is to have one place every user can go to learn and educate themselves about the work they do and the risks involved. Users should be able to quickly identify what safety gear they need, what training they require, how to minimise the risk/s (if applicable), and what to do in an emergency should the risk/s escalate beyond control.
Safety Plans in PeopleSafe also mean you're able to prove that you've thought about the risks and have plans in place to manage them.
The Safety Plan should be easy to read and easy to understand no matter the person. The Safety Plan should include images and attachments relevant to the risk/s it covers if applicable to the management of the risks.
Every PeopleSafe user in your organisation has access to view any Safety Plan in your site.
Safety Plan Fields Explained
| Name the Safety Plan | Compulsory field. This must be a unique name. |
| Risks this plan makes safe | Drop down box with a list of all your risks. |
| Why can't we get rid of the risks altogether?(Eliminate) | Think about: whether eliminating the risk will create other hazards, the cost of elimination, will people be affected by the elimination of the risk, will this risk happen in the future under different circumstances, do we need external expert advice? |
| What are we doing to keep the risks away from people? (Isolate) | How are we making the risk hard to get to or how are we keeping the risk away from people? E.g. guarding, fencing, physical location, locking dangerous goods away, temporarily or permanently restricting access. |
| How do we minimise the risk of people getting hurt by the risks? | How are we reducing the chance of someone getting hurt? E.g. using PPE or clothing, regular maintenance, putting up warning signs, developing safe work practices, providing training about safe ways to handle/work with the risk. |
| Is health monitoring needed? | A YES/NO click box. |
| What areas of staff health will we monitor? | Box to type in what is being monitored, who monitors it, and when it's being monitored. |
| What emergency plans are in place if things go wrong? | Type in the emergency plans you have in place here. You do not need to have the full list here if your emergency plans are extensive. We recommend putting the main points here and the full plan in your PeopleSafe document library under H&S Records. |
| Next review date | Drop down date selector |
| Who reviews this safety plan |
List of all the jobs in you organisation. When a safety plan is due for review the task will be sent to all users with the corresponding Job listed in their personal profile. |
| How often do we review this safety plan | Drop down Year/Month/Day selector to set review frequency. |
| Expert advice from |
This drop down list will display your list of External Organisations you work with |
| Effect of the safety plan | This drop down list will let you select the intended effect of the Safety Plan. The options are Isolate, Minimise or Isolate and Minimise. |
How Safety Plans Help
The law says everyone must know how to minimise the risks and what to do if something goes wrong - a Safety Plan is the answer. When you create Safety Plans in PeopleSafe you are creating the proof that you’re doing everything ‘Reasonably Practicable’ to work safe.
Keeping your Safety Plans in PeopleSafe means the data is secure, users have access 24/7 and there becomes one place to update Safety Plan details should they change.
How Safety Plans Work
- Safety Plans are stored in the Safety Plan Tab and can be accessed by clicking on the Safety Plan Box.
- Safety Plans are visible to all users at an organisation using PeopleSafe.
- Users with Coordinator Security Clearance create Safety Plans.
- Safety Plans should include any training, certifications, or licenses required to safely manage the risks.
- Safety Plans should include any safety gear or PPE workers are required to use or wear to be safe.
- Safety Plans should include what to do in an emergency situation.
- Safety Plans should be written in plain English using short, simple sentences that workers will understand.
- Safety Plans should include photos and extra information added as attachments.
Getting Started
The aim with Safety Plans is to create a list of Safety Plans that cover all the serious risks in a manageable size but has sufficient detail to cover each serious risk/s.
Working with Safety Advisors
While organisations can generally work out Safety Plans themselves, a Safety Advisor may be able to help prepare and check your Safety Plans by helping analyse and group the risk areas of the work.
Using a 'Safety Hub'
If an organisation is connected to a Safety Hub, it may already contain Safety Plans which may either be sufficient; needing added to; or, needing to be replaced entirely.
If you are setting up a Safety Hub for your own organisation, please see Setting up a Safety Hub
If the organisation you’re managing has its own organisation-specific Safety hub, then consult with whoever manages that for your organisation before adding to or changing the Safety Plan list.
Expected Step by Step Process
- View existing Safety Plans (if connected to Safety Hub)
- Add new Safety Plan/s for the significant risks
- Edit or Review existing Safety Plans
- Deactivate Safety Plans as required
Adding, Editing or Deleting Safety Plans
Only users with Coordinator security clearance can add, edit or delete Safety Plans. PeopleSafe believes it's a 'Manage Users' and 'Standard Staff' role to implement Safety Plans, not to create or modify them.
How to: Add a Safety Plan
Editing and deleting Safety Plans can both be achieved once you've successfully navigated to view the full Safety Plans list.
- Click on the Safety Plans tab
- Click on the Safety Plans box
- Find and Click on the Safety Plan you want to edit or delete
- Click on the Options button
- In the drop-down click on either Edit or Delete
Note: Any Safety Plan displayed in Italics are subscribed from a Safety Hub and cannot be edited or deleted without first Managing the Safety Hubs your organisation are subscribed to.
Access Permissions
Users with Coordinator Security Clearance can:
- View all Safety Plans
- Upload and delete Attachments.
- View and edit all Notes.
- View History.
- Deactivate Safety Plans.
- Print Safety Plans.
Users with Manage Users Security Clearance can:
- View all Safety Plans
- View all Notes.
- Print Safety Plans.
Users with Standard Staff Security Clearance can:
- View all Safety Plans.
- View all Notes.
- Print Safety Plans.
Outcomes
Deactivate
Safety Plans can be deactivated at any time. This will remove the plan from the Safety Plan list.
Deactivating a Safety Plan will essentially delete the record.
Related Processes and Tasks
Safety Plan Tasks
There are two types of Safety Plan tasks. One requires the creation of a Safety Plan to manage a risk, the other requires a current Safety Plan to be reviewed.
Task Name in PeopleSafe: ' Control Task' - *aka* Safety Plan needs to be created
This is a PeopleSafe generated task that's created when a Safety Plan is required to manage a Risk. A Risk will trigger the creation of this task when the risk is identified as significant, the likelihood of injury is certain or the injury is described as serious. This task is given to users with a specific PeopleSafe Job as the designated reviewer or users with Coordinator security clearance.
Task Name in PeopleSafe: ' Control Review' - *aka* Safety Plan needs reviewing
This is a PeopleSafe generated task that's created when a Safety Plan is due for renewal. This renewal maybe be triggered by the review date set coming up to expire or a serious risk already managed by a Safety Plan being identified in the Story Review process. This task is given to users with a specific PeopleSafe Job as the designated reviewer or users with Coordinator security clearance.
Safety Plan Review
PeopleSafe won't recognise a Safety Plan has been reviewed until the Safety Plan has been opened in edit mode and then saved again (thus completing the review). Whether any adjustments or additions are made to the Safety Plan or not won't be a determining factor in the completion of the review.
Reports
- A full or filtered list of Safety Plans can be exported out as CSV or PDF using the Safety Plan Smart-list.
- Safety Plan expiry dates can be reported on in the Risks One-click report section.
Export Data
The Safety Plans list, and directly associated data can be exported in .CSV format at any time.
How to: Export Data from PeopleSafe
Related Topics
PeopleSafe features and processes that make use of Safety Plans include:
- Risks
- Risk One-click Reports
- Expert Advice From
- Jobs