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WorkSafe Plan

Information for WorkSafe Plan accredited assessors

Introduction

WorkSafe Plan Assessors play a crucial role in ensuring best practice in occupational safety and health in WA. These days, occupational safety and health is generally accepted as an important issue in both workplaces and the community. Over the past ten years work related injuries and diseases have been significantly reduced, but there is still room for a further reduction in injuries and lives lost.

The only way to eliminate workplace injuries and diseases is to make occupational safety and health an integral part of management practice, and the WorkSafe Plan is a fundamental tool workplaces can use to achieve this aim.

Certificates

Certificates are awarded for achievement in occupational safety and health management.  A Platinum Certificate of Achievement is for organisations with exemplary standards in occupational safety and health management. This high standard indicates best practice standards in a workplace.

The score ranges for certificates are:

• Platinum - exemplary - 90% or more in every element;
• Gold - proficient - 75% or more in every element; and
• Silver - satisfactory - 60% or more in every element.

Products

Three WorkSafe Plan products to form a series of steps to excellent occupational safety and health management:

• ThinkSafe Campaign and The First Step;
• a booklet called The Next Step which is also part of the ThinkSafe campaign. "The Next Step" also takes employers from the starting point of "The First Step" to a position where they should be ready to have their workplace assessed under the WorkSafe Plan; and
• the WorkSafe Plan Workbook to assist in rating a company's performance. An important feature of the WorkSafe Plan Workbook is the inclusion of checklists of examples of evidence.

WorkSafe's processing of WorkSafe Plan submissions

WorkSafe aims to process submissions for WorkSafe Plan Certificates from the date the submission is received by WorkSafe to approval by the Commissioner's office within 20 working days.

Once the certificate is approved, WorkSafe:

• drafts a letter for the Commissioner's signature;
• advises the Assessor by facsimile; and
• adds the organisation to WorkSafe's website; and
• updates the WorkSafe Plan database.
  

When a person from the organisation making the submission responds to the letter, WorkSafe arranges a presentation date. The format of presentation is decided by the organisation.

Lost time injury and disease levels for certification

WorkSafe Plan encourages the continuous improvement of occupational safety and health performance as part of a best practice approach to safety management. This section outlines lost time injury/disease data requirements the assessor needs to collect from the organisation, and what is required for submitting to WorkSafe.

Applications for WorkSafe Plan Certificates must be supported by Lost Time Injury and Disease (LTI/D) performance data. The requirements for lost time injury and disease data are on page 12 of the WorkSafe Plan Workbook.

When presenting lost time injury/disease data, the following checklist may be used as a guide:

• collect LTI/D data;
• check the calculations;
• determine whether there has been a reduction;
• compare with sub-industry incidence rate; and
• ascertain whether other indicators need to be considered.
  

Data can be collected from workers. compensation claims, incident report forms or summaries provided by the organisation making the submission. A lost time injury or disease results in one or more full days or shifts off work, so it may be necessary to distinguish between claims and incidents with lost time and without.

The LTI/D rates are calculated using the following formulas:

• Incidence Rate = number of lost time injuries or diseases / number of employees x 100; and
• Frequency Rate = number of lost time injuries or diseases / number of hours worked x 1,000,000.
  

Determining whether there has been a continuous reduction in LTI/D rates may be straightforward but in some cases the addition of a trend line maybe necessary to show an overall downward trend over time.

The sub-industry incidence rates used by WorkSafe for the purposes of issuing Certificates of Achievement are available here. The sub-industry incidence rates are averaged over the most recent three years, and the average changes from year to year as the new claims figures are released. The most recent figures are carried through until the next update.

Where indicators of performance other than injury rates are used, preparation of a detailed case is required. For example, an organisation with 50 employees has an increase in overall frequency rate over the most recent two years and an incidence rate that is more than 75% of the sub-industry average. However the frequency rate of injuries resulting in five or more days lost time has decreased by 40%. This figure could form the basis of a case for improved performance.

It is important to remember that, in general, the LTI/D data for an organisation reflects the hazards faced by workers, and the organisation.s efforts to reduce the risk of injury or disease occurring.

Audit procedure

As part of the conditions of accreditation, Assessors accept that WorkSafe reserves the right to randomly audit their WorkSafe Plan assessments to maintain a high rate of consistency between Assessors. The conditions of accreditation also state that for auditing purposes, Assessors agree to cooperate with the appointed auditor and provide access to relevant documents in their possession. With the exception of information required by WorkSafe for the purposes of issuing WorkSafe Plan certificates of achievement or for auditing purposes as described above, Assessors must agree to maintain confidentiality of information provided to them by their clients.

Auditing ensures quality and consistency:

• in accordance with WorkSafe's standards;
• for the organisations receiving WorkSafe Plan Certificates; and
• between assessors.
  

Any WorkSafe Plan submitted for a Certificate may be audited. Assessors will be notified that a particular WorkSafe Plan is to be audited, and asked to supply supporting documentation.

The documentation to be submitted includes:

• the completed WorkSafe Plan Workbook;
• copies of key supporting documents;
• personal notes and interview records; and
• the WorkSafe Plan report.
  

The criteria against which accredited Assessors will be audited are the same as that used in the initial accreditation process.

The criteria are:

1. The Assessor has understood the requirements of the indicators.
2. The Assessor’s records include evidence that information has been collected via examination of documents, interview of personnel and observation of work practices.
3. The Assessor has adequately demonstrated the links between documented systems and procedures and actual conditions and practices at the workplace.
4. The Assessor has consistently applied the correct principles when rating each indicator.
5. The Assessor has adequately justified why each indicator has been scored as high/low as he/she did and why it couldn’t be scored any higher.
6. The Assessor has adequately identified the sources of information (documents, interviews, observations) for each indicator.
7. The Assessor has adequately assessed the safety and health management systems at the organisation in line with the key elements of the WorkSafe Plan Assessment.
8. The Assessor has correctly established the overall level of performance of an organisation and their eligibility for a WorkSafe Plan Certificate of Achievement.

Provided the Assessor makes the required documentation available in a timely manner and the audit outcome is satisfactory, the audit process will not delay the issuing of Certificates.

The Assessor will be advised of the audit outcomes. If the audit outcome is satisfactory the Assessor is advised of a successful outcome and the documentation is returned.

Where the outcome of an audit is unsatisfactory, a meeting is set up with the Assessor and the areas of deficiency are discussed.

If an audit shows that the WorkSafe Plan is not satisfactory, the Assessor may be required to undertake remedial action in the form of mentoring or further training. Further training requirements would be agreed between WorkSafe and the Assessor.

WorkSafe may suspend the Assessor’s accreditation until a satisfactory level of competence is demonstrated, i.e. the Assessor will not be permitted to submit other applications for WorkSafe Plan certificates.

If, following remedial action, a satisfactory level of competence cannot be demonstrated in a reasonable time frame, WorkSafe reserves the right to withdraw the accreditation of the Assessor. After remedial action is complete, subsequent WorkSafe Plans submitted by the Assessor will be monitored.

For more information

For WorkSafe Plan and Certificate queries, please contact Beryl Snell, Promotions Manager, on 9327 8657.

For queries regarding registration and auditing of assessors, please contact John Innes, WorkSafe Plan Coordinator, on 9327 8777.

Consumer Protection Call Centre 1300 30 40 54
Labour Relations Wageline Call Centre 1300 65 52 66
WorkSafe (08) 9327 8777
Email: safety@commerce.wa.gov.au
Internet: www.commerce.wa.gov.au

 
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