The Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995 
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states that risk management must be used as the method to identify risks in the workplace and determine ways to appropriately manage these issues.
The stages of risk management are identified in section 27A of the Act:
Risk management is simply a structured and systematic approach to decision making for a range of issues including health and safety management.
Control measures should be considered in the following order. This is often referred to as the 'Hierarchy of Control' and ranks control measures in terms of effectiveness:
Schools need to conduct risk management processes for a range of activities that occur in the school environment. The level of complexity of the process and documentation will depend on the risks associated with the activity.
(School example)Hazard Identification
Schools must record all incidents - the majority of incidents are to be recorded into the SMS system. Hazards that have been identified (prior to an incident) can also be entered into the SMS Hazard Register. This can assist schools prioritise hazards to manage in the school environment. For more information go to the Accidents and Incidents page.
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© The State of Queensland (Department of Education, Training and the Arts) 2007.