Introduction to Work Health and Safety 

Facilitated by Emily McKenna

Outside School Hours Care Services and their environments are designed primarily to support children’s participation and engagement. These environments can pose hazards for the people who work in them, use or visit them. OSHC premises are varied and given the context of service operations they can have multiple users e.g., sharing indoor and outdoor spaces with a school. It is important to consider how the environment can be arranged to meet the needs of both the children and adults in the service.

Requirements of Workplace Health and Safety mean that employers and employees have a legal responsibility to meet certain standards of health, safety and wellbeing. Employers must ensure the health, safety and wellbeing at work for all employees. Employees must cooperate with their employers’ attempt to meet these health, safety and wellbeing requirements. Management and staff need to consult and review policies and practices regularly to ensure there is alignment with these requirements.

During this workshop we will:

• Review the legal requirements pertaining to work health and safety in the education and care sector;

• Discuss policies and procedures to guide safe practice; 

• Unpack key processes as required by legislation including consultation, staff training and supervision and risk management; and

• Consider safety issues unique to the education and care industry