One of the best ways to prepare for and get the best value from an assessment is review your safety case and safety systems to identify any gaps.

When your assessment date is confirmed, you should ensure that people who may be required to speak to the safety assessor are available. This ensures the safety assessor gets a broad view of the safety issues that need to be assessed. 

Please make clear to the safety assessor before they arrive if there are any particular environmental conditions, PPE, training requirements or access information required to enter your premises. If your premises are hard to find and the safety assessor has not visited before, it would be helpful to advise them where to go when they arrive. 

Area assessed 

Criteria

Examples of documentation and evidence 

Governance and leadership

  • The organisation’s safety policy is documented and endorsed by the CEO, or designated person. The safety policy is regularly reviewed
  • Safety responsibilities and accountabilities are clearly defined and documented. Key safety personnel are appointed and appropriately resourced
  • Leadership from the top; CEO or other designated senior person has ultimate responsibility for safety management
  • All personnel understand and recognise their duties and accountabilities
  • Operational procedures and policies are documented and communicated throughout the organisation
  • Safety policy and documented processes (eg reviews, staff sign off)
  • Standards, rules, codes, practices, procedures, audit trails
  • Annual budget associated with safety management system
  • Health & Safety (H&S) training evidence
  • Continuous improvement (staff feedback/suggestions on safety related matters)
  • Document control and maintenance related evidence
  • Standard Operating Procedures
  • Safety record keeping and filing system
  • Risk management policy and framework

Operational management

  • Worker health and safety processes documented throughout policies
  • Third party safety obligations are met
  • Selection and monitoring of suppliers is transparent and in line with safety obligations
  • Safety management training embedded across the organisation
  • Safety management communicated throughout the organisation
  • Key personnel identified, trained and appropriately resourced
  • Assets managed effectively
  • Worker health and safety policies and processes
  • Third party/contractor health and safety policies and processes
  • Key operational interfaces/interoperability arrangements/contracts and associated policies
  • Asset management plan
  • Maintenance records/reports
  • Equipment inspections/tasks/check lists
  • Training programme, syllabus, requirements and processes
  • Safety meetings
  • Safety critical task controls
  • Roles & responsibilities documentation      

Risk management

  • Reporting systems in place that combine reactive, proactive, and predictive modelling
  • Risk assessment process embedded across organisation
  • Risk management is part of day-to-day activities and decision-making
  • Transparency of acceptable level of risk for the organisation
  • Safety reporting evidence, including systems, processes, data collection, policies
  • Fitness for duty policies, processes and evidence of application
  • Risk policies, controls, practices, standards, codes, procedures
  • Analysis, reporting and reviews
  • Risk assessments and related processes
  • Roles and responsibilities
  • Emergency response plan and related processes
  • Documentation and processes around changes that may impact safety

Safety assurance

  • Incidents investigated and action taken
  • Safety reports completed in a timely manner and recommendations captured and assigned for action
  • Safety goals set and regularly reviewed
  • Culture of continuous improvement
  • Risk-based approach adopted and independently reviewed and verified
  • Safety investigation process and documentation
  • Incident registers/data collection systems
  • Safety reports and corrective/recommended action documentation
  • Causal factor analysis
  • Feedback/adoption into safety management system
  • Safety performance targets, objectives, measures, and indicators
  • Verification of safety performance evidence
  • Risk/hazard monitoring and managing process
  • Continuous improvement process documentation and evidence of past improvements
  • Safety performance improvement register
  • Evidence of consultation of key stakeholders
  • Auditing processes
  • Risk-based auditing programme
  • Monitoring process
  • Independent audits
  • Safety management review process, documentation
  • Review schedule and results data collection and follow up

 

Evidence

You must be able to provide evidence that shows you are meeting the objectives in your safety case and safety management system. Having robust systems and keeping them up to date will help your assessment run smoothly and lessen the likelihood of the assessment finding management and documentation issues. 

During an assessment, safety assessors may need to view or take copies of documents or information.  

Evidence will need to be provided to demonstrate the documented system has been implemented and is being used.