Specific practice guidelines, rules, and regulations
Your board is responsible for ensuring the right policies, processes, and systems are in place to prove the requirements are being met.
Your board’s overarching Health and Safety policy represents the school’s approach to delivering health and safety in the workplace.
It sets out and describes the standards against which the school measures and accounts for its health and safety performance.
By taking an active role in being aware of the various requirements, with effective monitoring and reporting, your board can be confident that the necessary mandatory requirements are being adhered to.
This article will examine boards' mandatory requirements and explore the available guidance, tools, and resources.
What support is available to boards to help them meet their responsibilities?
As well as advice and support from us, various resources and guidelines are available from different sources.
Approved Codes of Practice
Whilst these are guidelines and the requirements are not mandatory or enforceable, their observance has been accepted in Court as an indication of good governance in situations where something has gone wrong.
These are guidelines approved by the Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety under the Health and Safety at Work Act (HSWA).
For example – Working safely with boilers and other pressure equipmentopen_in_new.
Standards
New Zealand or relevant international standards also provide technical guidance on health and safety.
For example – NZS 5828:2004 - Playground equipment and surfacingopen_in_new.
Best-practice guidelines
WorkSafe Mahi Haumaru Aotearoa provides guidelines recommending ways to comply with the HSWA.
For example – Tools and resources to prevent bullyingopen_in_new or Safe working with ladders and stepladdersopen_in_new.
Ministry of Education
The Ministry has developed a number of guidelines and tools for boards to meet some mandatory requirements.
For example – School child protection policyopen_in_new and Education Outside The Classroomopen_in_new.
For more information, visit the Ministry’s page on Health and Safetyopen_in_new and the links in the reference section below.
Your board should work with school management and staff to ensure that what is written in policy complies with the legislation and best-practice guidance.
Why is it important to comply with the legislation?
The legislation, guidelines and safety standards have been established to manage work-related risks that could cause serious injury, illness, or even death.
As a good employer, you must ensure, as far as is reasonably practicable, that everyone who comes to work should go home healthy and safe.
The HSWA and other regulations ensure that everyone has a role to play in achieving a safety-conscious workplace while allowing individual workplaces the flexibility to manage their own health and safety risks.
Penalties are in place for workplaces that fail to have systems that can identify potential harm and have not worked collaboratively to keep everyone safe.
Board members are exempt from fines for failing to meet the officer’s due diligence obligations, but the board, the legal entity, can still face prosecution.
Notifiable events
Under the HSWA, you must notify WorkSafe when certain work-related events occur, including:
- A death.
- A notifiable injury or illness (requiring immediate medical treatment other than basic first aid).
- A notifiable incident – an unplanned or uncontrolled incident that exposes a worker or other person(s) to a serious health or safety risk, such as chemical spills, fire, electric shock, the collapse of a building or equipment, etc.
Refer to the WorkSafe websiteopen_in_new for a full list of notifiable events, regulations, and forms.
Questions your board could ask
- What systems are in place to ensure that hazards and risks (including risks to worker health and wellbeing) are identified, assessed, and effectively managed?
- Do we know if the school’s health and safety procedures and processes are based on best practice guidelines and meet legislative requirements?
- How well will the school’s emergency management plan and state of readiness ensure an effective response to any potential emergency? When was it last tested?
- How do we know the information we receive is supported by a strong and honest reporting culture?
- How much of the information we receive is also shared with workers and their representatives so they can take the necessary responses?
- Are we receiving sufficient information about health, wellbeing, and safety to be assured that we are managing all identified risks?
- Are all staff aware of, suitably trained, and have the skills to meet their health and safety requirements? How do we know?
- How do we recognise and celebrate successes?
Templates, resources, and references
Click on the link(s) below to access the templates, resources, and references related to this topic.
These may download or open in a separate browser depending on your device.
Ministry of Education
- Health and Safety responsibilities for schoolsopen_in_new
- School child protection policyopen_in_new
- Education Outside The Classroomopen_in_new
- Tool Kit for EOTC Managementopen_in_new
- Safe and responsible use of digital technology in schools guideopen_in_new
- School responsibilities for bus safety and behaviour managementopen_in_new
- Firearms policy guidelinesopen_in_new
- Running a school hostelopen_in_new
- Safe use and testing of electrical equipment in schoolsopen_in_new
- Health and safety standards for running a school poolopen_in_new
- School responsibilities for bus safety and behaviour managementopen_in_new
Smokefree
Water Safety NZ
WorkSafe Mahi Haumaru Aotearoa
- WorkSafe Mahi Haumaru Aotearoa Websiteopen_in_new
- What events need to be notified?open_in_new
- Adventure activitiesopen_in_new
- Laboratoriesopen_in_new