13 Jul 2023
Safe at School Taskforce: System-wide safety review
Nothing is more important than the wellbeing and safety of staff, children and young people across our ACT public school system.
In 2022, the Safe at School Taskforce was established to lead a system-wide transformation to enhance the safety and wellbeing of our students and staff in ACT public schools and the Education Directorate.
A key component of the Safe at School Taskforce was to deliver a safety review that would inform the very best practice in health and safety systems in ACT public schools.
What the review tells us
The review shows that the ACT public school system has strong foundations in place to ensure the best health and safety practices.
To further strengthen these foundations, and to help inform a roadmap for the coming years, the safety review makes seven recommendations:
1. Develop an overarching ACT public school Safety Strategy.
2. Design and implement a Service Delivery Model.
3. Develop a comprehensive Work, Health and Safety Risk Management Framework.
4. Develop a system wide Psychosocial Risk Management Framework.
5. Develop an Incident Management, Notification and Response Framework.
6. Strengthen Work, Health and Safety capability through information, induction and training.
7. Strengthen measurement, evaluation and audit programs to align with Work, Health and Safety policy, legislative and operational deliverables.
Implementation of the recommendations
The ACT Education Directorate is committed to the implementation of all seven review recommendations.
The Rapid Review Action Plan outlines the roadmap for the implementation of all the recommendations.
The Safe at School Taskforce has already made progress in matters identified in the review. Moving swiftly to full implementation of the review’s recommendations, in consultation with union representatives, is a priority for the Education Directorate.
Some of the Safe at School Taskforce’s key activities to date include:
- Establishment of a Safety Notice and Alert notification system
- Delivery of safety culture workshops, negative incident scenario training, and training in due diligence obligations under the Work Health and Safety Act to staff, as well as training for Health and Safety Representatives (HSRs)
- Development of a safety leadership video series, sharing the best practice approaches and insights of safety leaders in schools
- Enhanced support to schools to rectify compliance issues identified by WorkSafe
- Updating of Work, Health and Safety (WHS) policies and procedures.
This work builds on the ACT Government’s nation-leading Occupational Violence Management Plan launched in 2017 and is supported by continued investment in expanding work health and safety supports in ACT public schools, including $1.851 million in the 2023-24 Budget.