Health and Safety Committees – Refresher Course
Topic 10: Safety plans and programs
This topic is about how the Safety Committee can get involved in the design of safety plans & programs.
A safety plan is a document that sets out a list of topics that the Safety Committee would like to see progressed over a certain time frame. So for instance towards the end of the year, the committee may spend time to identify specific safety activities they would like to see progressed the following year.
For example:
| Proposed Safety Plan for the year 2025 | From: Site Safety Committee 26 October 2024 |
| First quarter | Review and re-implement safety induction programs for employees and contractors |
| Second quarter | Review and re-implement the committee’s safety inspection program |
| Third quarter | Design and assist with the implementation of an incident investigation program |
| Fourth quarter | Design and assist with the implementation of a manual handling program |
A safety plan does not contain in-depth detail and will require senior management approval, ownership and commitment.
Each planned activity can then be worked out in fine detail and then becomes a safety program.
So a safety program can be seen as a set of detailed activities that the committee has come up with to manage a particular topic in safety. So for instance, programs on manual handling, safety inspections, safety inductions, incident investigation, emergency preparedness or contractor management just to name a few.
Designing a safety program is not difficult and once a safety plan has been approved, the following steps are a simple way to get started with designing a safety program.
| Step 1 | Develop program content and activities |
| Step 2 | Implement |
| Step 3 | Monitor progress and effectiveness for each activity |
| Step 4 | Evaluate the overall success of the program |
Step 1 – Developing program content and activities
Step 1 can be achieved by doing a brainstorm session with safety committee members. Typically there are certain details that will always be part of any program for instance:
- identifying relevant legal requirements and codes of practice/compliance codes
- objectives and targets
- training
- resources
- corrective action and feedback processes
Step 2 – Implementation
This is the doing stage and thus involves the who – what – where and when.
Step 3 – Monitoring
At this stage you start to measure the progress and effectiveness of each activity and make changes on the run if needed.
Step 4 – Evaluation
After having run the program for a certain amount of time you need to evaluate if the program is meeting it’s objectives and targets.
In other words, are you going to continue as is, continue with changes or taking a different approach.
Of course, no program will succeed without solid management involvement and commitment.
General comment with regards to safety programs:
When designing a program, do not try to have it perfect from the start. Once you have a decent looking program:
JUST DO IT
You can always make adjustments on the run.
Perfection is a process without an endpoint.