Management of Staff Occupational Health and Safety in Schools
- ISBN-10
- 1922044482
- ISBN-13
- 9781922044488
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2013
Description
The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD) is Victoria's largest employer, with more than 53620 staff employed in 1531 government schools. In 2007, DEECD employed consultants to review its OHS services. They found an absence of a safety culture, and lack of OHS leadership and accountability. Since 2008, WorkSafe has also prosecuted DEECD five times under the Act for school-related OHS incidents. In response to the OHS review, DEECD developed a new occupational health and safety management system (OHSMS) in 2008 to guide schools to meet their legislative OHS responsibilities and to avoid further prosecution. The objective of the audit was to examine whether schools have managed health and safety risks to their staff, and whether DEECD has provided schools with sufficient guidance, support and oversight. This audit considered only school-based employees. The Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (the Act) is the key legislation covering health and safety in Victorian workplaces. It sets out the duties, rights and responsibilities of all parties and the consequences of breaching or ignoring those duties.
