Task 1 – Safe Design Standard Operating Procedure
This assessment task requires the development of a Standard Operating Procedure for inclusion of
safety in design. You should refer to the examples (Queensland U
an Utilities and Australian Rail
Track Corporation ATRC) as a basis for the document you produce.
Assume you are engaged by a civil engineering organisation that undertakes civil engineering and
design for public infrastructure works. As part of meeting your obligations under the WHS Act and
Regulations 2011 you are required to prepare a safety report and issue this to the client where the
client is a Person Conducting A Business or Undertaking (PCBU). The aim of this report is to help
prevent possibly future injuries or death by identifying, assessing and eliminating hazards or
potential risks at the design stage. You also have a legal obligation to do this under the legislation,
specifically regulation 295 of the WHS Regulation 2011. You also have an obligation under section
22 of the WHS Act to provide information on how you have designed the structure to be without
isk to health and safety during construction, maintenance, use and demolition to anyone who is
issued with a copy of the design. This information can be incorporated into the safe design report
equired under the WHS Regulation. Your standard operating procedure document must ensure
these requirements are met in the designs developed by your organisation.
Observation Checklist
Observation Criteria S NS
Advised decision-makers of their duties under WHS laws to manage
WHS risks throughout a product’s life cycle
Sourced and made available to decision-makers the most cu
ent
information and data on WHS principles, materials, technology and
systems that apply to product design
Advised on methods and tools that can support WHS hazard
identification and WHS risk assessment throughout a product’s life
cycle
Identified and addressed learning and development needs of decision-
makers to manage WHS risks that may arise during a product’s life
cycle, including during its design phase
Advised on consultation with known and/or potential users of the
product during the design phase, according to organisational policies
and procedures
Identified situations where specialist and other advisers may be
equired to support safe design activities
Advised on selection and implementation of required WHS risk
controls in design, based on the hierarchy of control measures
Advised on documentation requirements relating to decision-making
during risk assessment process
Advised on establishment of a residual WHS risk register and
distribution of this information to those involved in downstream or
subsequent product life-cycle stages
Advised on monitoring the design as it evolves, to identify and
manage potential WHS hazards that may arise during product life
cycle and their associated risks
Identified and addressed learning and development needs of decision-
makers in relation to managing design-related WHS risks in a
product’s life cycle
Observation Criteria S NS
Supported decision-makers in considering the needs of those using or
interacting with product throughout its life cycle
Facilitated involvement of technical experts as required according to
organisational processes and procedures
Advised on consultation a
angements with required personnel during
all phases of design process to identify WHS hazards and control WHS
isks that may occur throughout a product’s life cycle
Advised on communicating residual WHS risks in product to those who
will use or interact with the product throughout its life cycle
Advised decision-makers involved in purchasing and contractual
a
angements to include requirements to identify WHS hazards and
control WHS risks, and to provide information and data on residual
WHS risks as part of procurement process
Advised on including a requirement to ca
y out a safe design
approach in the design
ief or draft specifications
Considered basic human cognitive and perceptual capabilities and
other basic and fundamental factors relevant to the design of human
machine interfaces in development of the standard operating
procedures (SOP)
Outlined basic information about relevant psychosocial factors,
occupational violence, shift work, repetitive work, awkward postures,
lighting, thermal environment and work layout in SOP
Outlined the basics of anthropometry and biomechanics in SOP
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Safety In Design In Construction:
An Introduction
JUNE 2019
2
Introduction 3
Who is a designer? 3
Safety in design 4
The design project lifecycle 4
Benefits of safety in design 5
Person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) 6
Responsibilities of upstream PCBUs 7
The three Cs 8
Steps to ensuring health and safety in design 9
Step 1: Engage with your client 10
Step 2: Research and
ainstorm 11
Step 3: Understand the health and safety risks 12
Step 4: Sense check/test for safety 18
Step 5: Provide information 18
Step 6: Review 20
Your checklist 20
How Site Safe can help 20
Other resources 20
CONTENTS
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This guide is designed to help you as a designer of
structures, and those that work with you, understand
the basics of safety in design, so your work will not put
anyone’s health and safety at risk.
As a person conducting a business or undertaking
(PCBU) in design, it is good business practice, and a
legal requirement, for you to create designs that will
educe risk to the safety of clients, builders, users, those
who service and maintain the structure, and any other
people who could be affected by your work. The best and
most cost-effective way to do this is to plan for health
and safety right from the start, when design decisions
can most proactively influence the way buildings and
structures are constructed, used and maintained – Safety
in Design.
Safety in design is about changing the health and safety
outcomes throughout the lifecycle of a project or asset.
This is achieved by embedding safety concepts at the
earliest stages of project development.
In developing this approach and implementing it
efficiently, the costs of every stage of a project, as well
as its long-term costs, tend to be reduced. A safe design
equires a good understanding of human behaviour - it’s
not just about reducing injuries and deaths; it also leads
to better staff morale for those who will work on and with
your designs, higher productivity and reduced ongoing
costs for you and your client.
Other PCBUs, such as clients and contractors, will also
find this guide useful in helping to ensure the designers
they have engaged are meeting their duties and
delivering a quality project.
The Health and Safety at Work Act requirement is the
designer must, so far as is practicable, ensure that the
plant, substance or structure is designed to be without
isks to the health and safety of persons.
Designers include those who direct, constrain, undertake
or alter designs. The following groups can have
esponsibilities as a designer to a greater or lesser extent
depending on their involvement:
› Architects, engineers, interior designers, landscape
architects, town planners, building service designers,
temporary works engineers, planners, architectural
designers.
› Owners, clients and project managers because they
direct or constrain designs and are responsible for
employing suitably qualified persons to undertake
the design.
› Contractors undertaking works when they alter or
change a design or materials in such a way that it
changes the safety outcomes for an asset.
INTRODUCTION
WHO IS A DESIGNER?
4
SAFETY IN DESIGN
As “upstream PCBUs”, designers are in a prime position
to influence the health and safety aspects of the products
and structures they design before they are built and used
in work situations. As the lifecycle of a design project
progresses, the ability to influence the design for health
and safety decreases and the cost of incorporating health
and safety strategies increases, as shown in Figure 1.
A design project should assess and incorporate
considerations of every lifecycle stage of a structure –
from conception and design through to construction, use
for purpose, maintenance and repair, decommissioning or
epurposing, and eventually to demolition.
THE DESIGN PROJECT LIFECYCLE
Conception Design Construction Demolition
Use for purpose,
maintenance
& repai
Decommission
Repurposing
Co
nc
ep
t
De
m
ol
iti
on
P
el
im
in
a
y
De
sig
n
De
ta
il
of
De
sig
n
Op
e
at
io
n
&
M
ai
nt
en
an
ce
Co
ns
tru
ct
io
n
Figure 1: Symberszki chart of influence over a product’s life cycle
(adapted from Symberszki, R, (1997), Construction Project Safety
Planning. TAPPI Journal, 80 (11), 69–74)
Ability to
influence safety
of the design
Cost to manage
health and
safety risks
Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, the end
users – the workers who will work in or with a building
or structure you design, and/or anyone who will be
affected by it — have the right to the best level of health
and safety protection that is reasonably practicable.
Foreseeing and managing potential health and safety
isks early in the design stage is far cheaper and much
more effective than mitigating risks during construction,
or retrofitting for health and safety later in the lifecycle of
a design project.
5
There are many benefits from safety in design, some of
which include:
✓ Significant reductions in work-related ill health and
injuries – particularly during the construction and
maintenance stages of a project lifecycle
✓ Improvement in the health and wellbeing of workers
✓ Reductions in damage to property and the
environment – with associated reductions in
elated costs
✓ Elimination of potential hazards at the beginning of
the project – which is often cheaper and easier than
minimising their effects later in the lifecycle
✓ More efficient and effective risk management at the
design stage rather than retrofitting for health and
safety during the use and maintenance stages
✓ Reductions in operational maintenance and litigation
costs when things go wrong
With these benefits in mind, good designers seek to
incorporate safety by design concepts and details into
every aspect of their designs and for every stage of the
project lifecycle.
BENEFITS OF SAFETY IN DESIGN
Safety in design is NOT about:
› Stifling the creativity of designers; rather it
encourages imagination and innovation
› Requiring designers to specify standard construction
processes
› Requiring designers to take into account
unforeseeable hazards
› Requiring designers to spend meaningless time on
paperwork; efficient and transparent procedures will
minimise effort and paperwork
› Developing site safety plans which address typical
construction risks. This is expected to be the
esponsibility of the contractor once appointed.
Design for safe
construction
Design
considerations
Design for safe
demolition
Design for safe
modification
Design for safe use
Design for safe
inspection
Design for safe
maintenance and repai
6
All PCBUs must ensure, so far as is reasonably
practicable, the health and safety of people is not put at
isk by the work it undertakes. This is the PCBU’s primary
duty of care. Examples of who might be affected by a
PCBU’s activities are shown in the following figure.
PERSON CONDUCTING A BUSINESS OR UNDERTAKING (PCBU)
All PCBUs have a range of duties that they must, so far as
is reasonably practicable, meet as shown in the following
figure.
Visitors to the workplaceMembers of the public
People who work for the PCBU – includes
contractors, subcontractors and their workers
People whose work activities are influenced or
directed by the PCBU, such as contractors or
other workers at a shared workplace
Provide and maintain a work environment that is without risk to health and safety
Provide and maintain safe plant, structures and systems of work
Ensure safe use, handling and storage of plant, substances and structures used for work
Provide information, training instruction and/or supervision to protect all persons from
isk to health and safety
Monitor the health and safety of workers and conditions at the workplace for the
purpose of preventing injury and illness.
Engage workers and/or their representatives about decisions on health and safety in
the workplace
REASONABLY PRACTICABLE DUTIES OF PCBUS
PCBU Duties - Primary Duty of Care
Duties of PCBUs
PEOPLE WHO MAY BE AFFECTED BY A
PCBU’S WORK
Provide adequate facilities for the welfare of the workers at work.
7
Designers may also be what is known as ‘upstream
PCBUs’. These designers have specific duties as PCBUs as
shown in the following figure.
RESPONSIBILITIES OF UPSTREAM PCBUS
› design structures or other
works where people will, or
may occasionally, work or
equire access for operation and
maintenance
› design things for use at a
workplace, o
› install, build or commission plant,
or structures that will be used
as a workplace
Designers who: Duties of designers as upstream PCBUs
– so far is reasonably practicable:
› ensure that structures, plant and substances are without
health and safety risk