Risk management¶
When people talk speak disparagingly about safety in the context of the modern workplace, they are most likely referring to the risk management aspect of safety. Most people would agree that performing work in ways that do not adversely affect the health of participants is a good thing; however, not all systems that are put in place by workplaces in order to safeguard the health of workers demonstrate utility. The fact of the matter is that risk management procedures (UTAS specific information is outlined on the [[https://www.utas.edu.au/safety-and-wellbeing/information-and-documents/risk-topics/risk-management|safety and wellbeing page]]) are common to all workplaces in Australia, and navigating them is a necessary skill.
In short, to perform any university related activity, one must complete a risk assessment and should the task pose any risk of harm, a safe workplace procedure must be developed.
Risk assessment¶
Useful links
Links which may be of some use for preparing a risk assessment:
- Risk assessment template: the template provided by UTAS for undertaking a risk assessment
- Risk assessment submission: webpage to which risk assessments should be uploaded for review/approval in maths and physics
- Risk assessment library: a collection of previous risk assessments
Vague details for performing risk assessments can be found on the Risk Management page. The major problem is that there are no firm guidelines around when risk assessments are required, nor are there guidelines for what constitutes risk.
Is a risk assessment needed?¶
A risk assessment is not required when:
- the project/task is routine, has been performed before and a current Safe Work Procedure is in place to manage the project/task; or
- the project/task is deemed to be a low risk, every day task, and appropriate supervision is allocated (e.g. Conferences/Meetings, inter-University travel, and visits to local public venues/attractions e.g. museum)
A risk assessment is to be undertaken when:
- a new project/task not previously performed is to be undertaken;
- reviewing/changing safe working procedures;
- purchasing new project plant / equipment / chemicals, etc;
- investigating incidents associated with a project/task;
- required by legislation and
- new information becomes available concerning a project/task, work practices, and/or project plant/equipment that may impact on the health and safety of a project participant.
Performing a risk assessment¶
The university has a risk assessment template for completing assessments.
All risk assessments must involve:
- a person who has knowledge/experience relevant to the project/task that is being undertaken; and
- a person competent in the form of risk assessment being undertaken with options including:
- involving a trained Health and Safety Representative (HSR);
- completion of the MyLO Officer, manager or worker on line training course;
- completion of an appropriate third party training course;
- engaging a consultant with the requisite competencies;
- in-house training and mentoring by a competent and experienced person.
In practice, you will need to complete a risk assessment (that is, being the person who has knowledge/experience relevant to the project/task that is being undertaken) and the have the assessment signed by the relevant party as listed in the table below.
| Residual Risk | Approver |
|---|---|
| Low | Head of Discipline |
| Moderate | Head of School |
| High | Executive Dean |
| Extreme | A member of the University Council |
If you risk assessment is low risk, which it almost certainly it will be, you should submit it for approval from the head of discipline via the button below. If the risk is moderate or higher, contact the facilities manager.
Risk assessment submission¶
To submit your risk assessment, complete the form which is linked below:
Risk assessment approval notification
When a submission is made to the risk assessment submission page, a Power Automate flow (owned by the Physics Facilities Manager group) will spam the head of discipline. The process is then manual, requiring them to access the submitted assessment (stored here and then place a signed copy in the risk assessment directory. This could definitely be improved, but power automate is very clunky.
When the assessment is completed, it should be stored centrally as to provide a record of its completion, but also as a resource for others completing risk assessments in the future. As it stands, a collection of risk assessments can be found on the university server (in the directory \\Science, Engineering and Technology\School of Physical Sciences\Maths & Physics\OH & S) however into the future, risk assessments are to be uploaded to the risk assessments folder on the Physics Staff Team with the naming convention following <YYYYMMDD_nameofevent>.
Frequently asked questions¶
- What is the RA number? There is no formal numbering system, but it is recommended that one use the date along with a short descriptor, e.g. 200809LHC.
- Does a SWP need to be developed? This should be evident as you perform the risk assessment, provided one is aware of the purpose of a SWP.
Reviewing risk assessments¶
Risk assessments are to be reviewed:
- at least every three years; or
- following an incident or identified hazard; or
- following a change in the workplace that could impact on the health and safety of workers.
Teaching lab risk assessments¶
Risk assessments are to be prepared by the owner of an activity, and in the case of labs, this falls to the unit coordinators. This is not necessarily ideal of the case of physics, as many unit coordinators are not across the experimental content delivered as part of their course, so preparing a risk assessment for the course which accurately captures the hazards is non-trivial. In any case, these are to be reviewed by unit coordinators and then signed off by the head of discipline as per the process described above.
In principle, the assessments should only need to be updated from the previous versions, with major changes only being required with the addition of new experiments and safety protocols.
Useful links
Resources which may prove useful in this process:
- Risk assessments for physics experiments and demonstrations: you will find previous risk assessments here.
- POLUS: the physics lab website: you can find information about the lab program including individual experiments and their safety concerns
It is important to note that the preparation of the risk assessment is only half of the story: as stated above, risk assessments are not needed when tasks are covered by a safe work procedure, so whilst a risk assessment exists for the teaching of labs as a whole, a safe work procedure must be developed for the actual running of the labs.
Risk assessment database¶
As mentioned previously, old risk assessments can be found in the in the directory \\Science, Engineering and Technology\School of Physical Sciences\Maths & Physics\OH & S on the shared drive, and recent and new assessments are to be stored in the risk assessments folder on Teams. At one point, a Risk assessments table was created in the physicslabs database in an effort to ensure that a repository of risk assessments exists, and people can access previous risk assessments to help identify risks.
Safe work procedure¶
Introduction¶
Safe work procedures, also called safe work practices of safe systems of work, are essentially the how-to guides for activities which carry risk. A risk assessment will identify sources of risk for a given task, and a SWP will provide detailed instructions on how the work which is to be undertaken as part of said task are to be performed. Information on how to prepare of these documents is somewhat scarce, but following a template will usually get you there.
Useful links
Links which may be of some use for SWP preparation:
- University template: a long and detailed template which will help first-timers to understand what kind of content should be present.
- SNS template: a pared back version which is commonly used within science, recommended for those who know what they are doing.
- Directory of physics SWPs: the repository of both current and previous SWPs
Teaching lab SWPs¶
As described for the teaching lab risk assessments, these documents must be periodically reviewed and approved, a task which is to be undertaken by the owner(s) of the activity: the unit coordinator(s) and head of discipline respectively. These tasks should be conducted in consolation with the facilities manager or if they are unavailable, the operations manager for the school.
Workplace inspections¶
Useful links
Links which may be of some use for workplace inspections:
- MySafety: The SaaS platform used to perform inspections.
- Workplace inspections tracking: MySafety does not have the ability to monitor inspection completion/compliance (really) and so this is done manually, and this is the master record keeping sheet for CoSE.
Introduction¶
Workplace inspections are to be completed on a schedule as dictated by the risk posed by the area. In the vast majority of cases, the room/facility will be classified as low risk and thus require an inspection every 6 months, and physics has typically conducted these inspections in March and August.
Inspections for labs and workshops are to be undertaken by the "responsible person", whereas office inspections are to be undertaken by the occupants of the office. Inspections are performed using the university's safety platform MySafety, although as of the time of writing, the platform was being migrated to a new version. In any case, the current process for completing an inspection is to access the platform, and select Please click here for Inspections and Checklists in the Workplace and Inspections window, which will take you to the old MySafety instance, which is janky to say the least. From here, select
Checklists Inspections
Go See Fix_General
where will then be prompted to select a location, and from here put in the location of the inspection, which will likely be either Physics or Mathematics. You will then need to complete the Find Business Unit task, which should be completed with the following:
University Of TasmaniaCollege of Sciences & Engineer[sic]School of Natural SciencesPhysicsorMathematics
Hot take
Did I mention this thing was janky?
From here, you will be able to enter the people present for the inspection, the date of the inspection, and the specific location of the inspection, which is likely your office. A .gif of the entire process can be found above.
Purpose and utility¶
The completion of a safety inspection may seem tedious, and there is indeed a pinch of that, it is also an opportunity to identify hazards to yourself and those around you, some of which may not be immediately obvious but can have a major contribution to your health and well-being. For example, if your work space is too hot, too cold, too loud, too dark, or your desk is too low, your desk is too high, etc., these are all things that make a workplace less enjoyable and can cause a suite of issues, so if something is not in a good state, use this as a forum to speak up and have the issue investigated and rectified.
Example SPAM email
Dear all,
Be advised that office and lab inspections will take place this coming
Below is a list of items that are relevant for workplace inspections, so for any areas over which you have responsibility, please ensure the space meets these standards, or in cases where the issue(s) is (are) beyond your control, please let us know during the inspection.
- Space is neat and tidy
- Items are ordered and stored appropriately (i.e. books/folders on shelves, files in filing cabinets, bulky items in cupboards). No heavy or bulk items stored above shoulder height. Nothing stored on top of shelves or cupboards
- No rubbish (i.e. empty boxes) or unused items (i.e. old IT equipment) left lying around
- Clear and easy access and egress from space, and around office and furniture
- Office Furniture/Equipment
- Office furniture is modern, suitable to space, and fit for purpose
- Furniture is inspected regularly and is in good working order/condition
- Office structure /Floor & window coverings
- Office structure and walls are sound, in good order and coatings well maintained
- Doors open and closes freely and door handles/locks are in good working order
- Floor coverings are firmly secured with no lifting edges and joins. Coverings are clean and in good condition
- Window coverings are suitable to office location. Coverings are clean and in good working condition.
- Cables/Electrical
- All Electrical cables are in current test and tag (with label)
- Cables are organised and secured and not being caught, squashed or pinched by furniture
- Cables have been positioned so they are not a tripping hazard and are not under desks where they may be rolled over by chairs or contacted by persons feet
- Lighting/Heating/Cooling
- Office space is well lit, with adequate lighting in/over primary work area (i.e. desk with computer)
- Heating and cooling is suitable to space to ensure temperature is maintained as per UTAS thermal Comfort Management Protocol (maintain room temperatures in occupied spaces within the optimum range of between 20°C and 26°C)
Lab and workshop spaces have additional requirements which will need to be managed by the responsible person(s) for the area.
If you have any questions or concerns about inspections (or any other safety matters), please don’t hesitate to get in contact. Happy compliance!