The Safe and Well in Education Strategy 2019–24 and its corresponding framework aim to provide a holistic focus on physical and psychological health, safety and wellbeing in both schools and corporate workplaces. During 2021–22, the strategy enabled the department to continue responding to and managing COVID-19. This included regularly updating the COVID-19 Safety Management Plan (COVIDSafe Plan) for both schools and corporate workplaces, as well as the COVIDSafe Assurance Checklist for schools.
A total of 737 targeted communications were sent to schools and assistance was provided to 720 schools through the COVIDSafe Assurance Program. Compliance to COVIDSafe controls is strong with randomised assessments showing an average compliance score of 96% in Term 4, 2021, and 90% in Term 1, 2022.
More broadly, the department continues to improve occupational health and safety for corporate and school staff by:
- enabling employees and their families to access a total of 8,932 hours from the employee assistance program counselling, manager assist contacts, critical incident response and onsite support counselling services
- enabling workplaces to access 521 hours of conflict resolution services, including mediation, conflict coaching and team facilitations
- providing protective intervention training to equip school staff with the tools to manage and de-escalate challenging student behaviour while maintaining personal safety
- commencing a holistic review of the Occupational Health and Safety Management System (OHSMS) to make it streamlined, practical and easy to use for schools
- launching EduSafe Plus, which provides a single simplified reporting tool for staff and student incidents, and an OHS and Workers Compensation digital management tool to enhance OHS and Workers Compensation performance and injury management
- creating a Respectful Behaviours in the School Community Policy, which promotes the importance of respectful and collaborative relationships between parents, carers and school staff.
Incident and hazard management
Incidents, including injuries and other hazard-related events, increased from 21.35 per 100 FTE in 2020–21 to 21.70 per 100 FTE in 2021–22. This equates to an increase of 494 reports, totalling 16,128 in 2021–22 compared with 15,634 in 2020–21.
A new version of EduSafe Plus was released which coincided with awareness and promotional activities, including direct communications with all staff, as well as training webinars. This has prompted a significant increase in the number of incidents reported.
Number of incidents and hazards rate per 100 FTE: 2019–20 to 2021–22
Updated