Safe Working Procedures

Safe working procedures describe in a step-by-step manner how a particular task should be performed so as to ensure the safety of the person carrying out the task and of other people who may be in the same location while the task is being carried out. The documents presented here are working documents. That is, they are subject to revision as new information comes to hand.

These documents are provided here as a resource to assist members of staff and postgraduate students of SoMS in writing safe working procedures for their own work areas. In developing a safe work procedure for a related task or operation of a similar piece of equipment, consideration must be given to the specifics of the environment where the task is undertaken and any differences in the equipment or how the task is performed. Simply reading these safe working procedures does NOT constitute sufficient training to undertake a particular task. All personnel must abide by the specific training requirements indicated in the safe working procedure.

Forms and Guidelines

All new Safe Working Procedures, and all Safe Working Procedures as they are reviewed, need to comply with the form available from the UNSW H&S and Workers Compensation web site. This is to ensure that the forms used and the actions taken are consistent with the UNSW H&S Management System. Additional resources are available from the WorkCover NSW web site, where there is a guide on risk management at work and guidelines for writing work method statements in plain. Both of these can be found in the H&S Safety Guides section of the WorkCover NSW publications.

SoMS Safe Working Procedures

SoMS Safe Working Procedures are available on the Medicine H&S website; when you write a new risk assessment or SWP it should be uploaded onto this website (except those that may be of a sensitive nature).

Uploading risk assessments and SWP’s:

1. Log-in to the Medicine H&S website with your zpass
2. Click on the green button “Create a new page”
3. In the Type drop-down list choose “RA and SWP”
4. Complete the blank boxes. (The keywords used should be those that would be useful in a search for this document).

At present, not all of these documents are in the same standard format but they will be updated to the format required under the UNSW HSMS as they come up for revision. Any feedback that you may have on these documents would be appreciated and can be directed to the SoMS H&S coordinator.