There has been a technical issue with forwarding this newsletter and unfortunately, we have lost the text in Tina’s column. I am unable to fix this now the newsletter has been sent, so have pasted the column into this email, below.
OHS Tina Marchington
On August 28, District 14 hosted a Health and Safety Facilitators forum for all of the brigades in Northern and Western Metropolitan Region.
The forum was extremely successful with a total of 29 participants.
Topics discussed included the role of the facilitator, legislation, the D14 Annual Health and Safety Plan, CFA’s Chemical Management Program and more.
Two workshops were facilitated - one on “working alone” and the other on “working with trailers”.
The information gained from the workshops has helped developed a risk profile in these two areas for the district.
The feedback was great with participants enjoying the ability to be able to network between other people in like roles.
Most participants were really pleased with seeing how the CFA chemical management program operated and were pleasantly surprised at its ease of use and were looking forward to using it in their locations.
To build on the good relationships that were developed at the forum, further sessions are planned at a catchment level.
Also in health and safety news, D14 was internally audited against AS 4801 (Australian Standard for Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems) and against our CFA Health and Safety Procedures.
The following sites were audited:
- District 14 Headquarters
- Point Cook Fire Station
- Caroline Springs Fire Station.
OHS 1.5 - Managing Hazards: Chemicals Products
OHS 1.7 - Managing Hazards: Work Alone
OHS 1.8 - Managing Hazards: Work at Height
OHS 10 - Emergency Preparedness and Response
Overall at a district level we scored relatively well, with all procedures except “work alone”. There is clearly work to be done in the “work alone” area, hence why this risk is also in our annual plan and was work-shopped at the facilitator forum. The goods news is that since the forum, work has already began at some locations with this risk, so it is great to see.
The next Health and Safety Meeting will be held on November 15 at Greenvale 7.00pm.
