On Wednesday 19th May the PFWA participated in a workshop focusing on the governance for Workplace Health and Safety, with Department of Education staff and other representative groups and unions.
The day presented an opportunity for all stakeholders to explore how the Department of Education could achieve a health and safety culture across its workforce at all levels. There seemed to be a genuine desire to have a more supportive environment to make schools and department sites safe. As it was discussed during the day it is a mindset to have a safety culture and raise the importance of this issue and of course the resourcing that will need to be applied to make it happen. The safety priorities for school leaders at this stage are to make sure each worksite has a Workplace Work and Health plan, a process for hazard identification and risk management, the necessary training available and ensure that there is a safety committee.
In the afternoon the governance overview was discussed at length with a steering committee sitting between corporate executive above and Directors of Education and Directors below. With the need to make sure there were people with expertise on the steering committee led the discussion to investigate how this group could be supported with a reference and/or advisory group.