Work Health and Safety Policy

Purpose. This policy sets out how Willow Community Care protects the health and safety of workers, volunteers, clients and visitors in offices, vehicles, community settings and client homes.

1.Purpose and scope

Willow will provide a safe workplace and safe systems of work wherever its people work, including client homes, vehicles and community venues. This policy applies to all employees, volunteers, students on placement, contractors and visitors. It is read with the Home Visit Safety and Lone Worker Procedure and the Manual Handling and Assisted Transfers Procedure.

2.Legal framework

Willow must meet its duties under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (Victoria), the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations and the work health and safety requirements of the NDIS Practice Standards and the Aged Care Quality Standards. Willow will consult workers on matters that affect their health and safety through health and safety representatives and team meetings.

3.Responsibilities

The Chief Executive Officer holds overall accountability for health and safety. Managers must identify hazards in their programs, act on incident reports and make sure workers are trained before they are rostered. Every worker must follow safe work procedures, use the equipment provided, and report hazards, incidents and near misses on the day they occur.

• Chief Executive Officer: accountable for the safety management system
• Managers and coordinators: hazard control, training and incident follow up
• Workers and volunteers: safe practice, reporting and participation in consultation
• Health and safety representatives: consultation and workplace inspections

4.Hazard management

Willow will identify, assess and control hazards using the hierarchy of controls. The main hazards in community work are manual handling during assisted transfers, driving, occupational violence and aggression, working alone in private homes, infection, psychological harm from client trauma, and environmental hazards such as trip risks, animals and smoking in the home. Every client home must have a current home environment risk assessment before the first service.

5.Incident reporting

Every injury, illness, near miss, hazard, act of aggression and vehicle incident must be recorded in the Incident and Hazard Register within 24 hours. Serious injuries and dangerous occurrences must be reported to WorkSafe Victoria by the People and Operations Manager, and the site must be preserved until WorkSafe advises otherwise.

6.Training and fitness for work

Workers must complete manual handling, infection control, occupational violence and lone worker training at induction and every two years. Workers must not attend work while impaired by fatigue, alcohol, drugs or illness that puts clients at risk, and must tell their coordinator if they are unfit for a rostered shift.

7.Wellbeing and psychological safety

Willow will provide reflective supervision, debriefing after critical incidents and a confidential employee assistance program. Managers must monitor workload, respond to reports of bullying or harassment within two working days and treat psychosocial hazards with the same seriousness as physical hazards.