Managing health and safety risks in the workplace is essential.
The consequences of unsafe acts or conditions can impact greatly on people’s personal life, family and friends, as well as impacting the reputation of a business.
Businesses have a statutory obligation to ensure the health and safety of their workers.
Specific requirements regarding systems of work, working environment, plant, equipment, substances and materials used in the workplace and the certification and training of workers, must also be adhered to.
At V.E.T. Centre we provide a range of services to help you achieve Work Health and Safety Compliance.
‘White Card’ Training
Work Health and Safety Compliance Training for workers starts with the ‘White Card’.
This is an induction program covering safe work practices, risk management principles, safety signage, personal protective equipment, relevant legislation and more.
Designed for new and existing workers in the building and construction industry, it is also relevant for workers in the pastoral and agriculture industries.
Staff Skills Audit
V.E.T. Centre can audit the proficiency of your workers in the operation and use of a wide range of workplace machinery and equipment. Having assessed their level of competency we provide refresher and/ or gap training as required.
For those in the pastoral industry, we can also audit your workers’ handling and use of horses and the handling and management of livestock.
Certified Training
Under the Work Health and Safety legislation, employers owe a duty of care to their workers to ensure the safe use, storage and handling of machinery, plant and equipment. The best way to fulfil that duty is to ensure that workers have an accredited qualification or ‘ticket’.
Individual workers using machinery and equipment, must be able to demonstrate to WorkCover that they have been properly trained and formally assessed. The best way to do this, is through an accredited qualification or ‘ticket’.
V.E.T. Centre’s highly experienced trainers and assessors can provide the training and assessment services to deliver the required qualifications and meet all of your workplace needs.
Verification of Competency (VOC)
Employers have a legal responsibility to ensure that the skills of their workers are competent and current. In the event of an accident, an employer must be able to prove that they took every reasonable step to ensure the competency of their workers.
Where an accredited qualification has been held for some time, a worker may be unable to immediately verify their competence against current industry standards.
A VOC is a non-accredited method of assessment that assists employers to meet WHS requirements and ensure their workers are competent to operate equipment or perform a task. The knowledge and skill levels of workers are evaluated against defined competency standards, in order to assess their ability to carry out the relevant activity or works.
Conducted by an independent, certified third party trainer/ assessor, the VOC process is transparently separate from any type of in-house process conducted by someone who may or may not have the right skills, knowledge and qualifications to verify competency.
V.E.T. Centre’s highly experienced industry expert trainers/ assessors can assess your workers onsite, ‘on-job’, with minimal disruption to your business.
Work Health and Safety Handbook
Everyone within a business has a role to play in making the workplace as safe and healthy as possible. Under Work Health and Safety legislation, a duty of care applies to everyone within the workplace. As these duties differ, it is important that everybody is informed of and understands their duty.
A Work Health and Safety Handbook provides information about WHS rules and regulations, identifying and managing risk, control measures and first aid. It provides practical guidance on a range of workplace health and safety issues. As well as informing workers of the safety policies and procedures, a Handbook will also help to ensure that everything required by law is in place.
V.E.T. Centre will work with you to design a WHS Handbook that sets out health and safety policy and procedures, outlines workers’ responsibilities, explains how to manage risk and report incidents and hazards, and provides guidance about the arrangements for ensuring safety across all business operations. The WHS Handbook is best used in conjunction with a comprehensive set of Standard/ Safe Operating Procedures.
Standard/ Safe Operating Procedures (SOP)
A Standard/ Safe Operating Procedure or SOP (sometimes called a Safe Work Method Statement) is a key means through which a business can manage risks and meet its health and safety duties to workers.
A SOP is a set of step-by-step instructions for workers on how to safely perform a task or activity which involves some risk to health and safety. A SOP guides workers when performing a particular task (e.g. working with chemicals), operating a particular piece of machinery (e.g. using a chainsaw), working in a particular environment (e.g. in a remote location or hot weather), working with particular materials (e.g. asbestos or silica dust) or managing general risk (e.g. COVID-19).
SOPs ensure that workers carry out operations correctly, consistently and safely. They make workers aware of the risks involved, and the actions they should take to control them.
At V.E.T. Centre we will review your business and design a comprehensive set of SOPs that embody best industry practice. We also provide a comprehensive package of supporting documents to assist in your hazard and risk management including risk assessment and hazard report forms, training and competency registers, accident report forms, worker induction checklists, contractor safety checklist, inspection and safety checklists, records of staff consultations/ toolbox meetings and emergency plans.
