A key objective of the
Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld) is the establishment of effective workplace consultative arrangements, which includes the establishment of health and safety committees.
All schools and other departmental workplaces are required to establish a forum for health, safety and wellbeing (HSW) matters. This can take the form of a workplace HSW committee or in smaller locations, it might be more practical to use other consultative forums, such as staff meetings, to discuss HSW matters.
Some HSW matters identified at individual schools/workplaces may not be able to be managed at the local level and therefore, may require escalation as a HSW issue. To support the resolution of these issues and to also support the flow of HSW information, the department utilises the HSW governance structures. These governance structures support the consideration and resolution of issues that may affect other departmental workplaces across the state.
Resources
The Term 1 2026 HSW workplace and regional committee packs are available for departmental staff on the health, safety and wellbeing committees page on OnePortal.
Workplace (including school) HSW committee resources
Regional HSW committee resources
Departmental procedures and guidelines
General resources
HSW Executive Committee
The department’s Health, Safety and Wellbeing Executive Committee (HSWEC) leads continuous improvement strategies for HSW and provides assurance to the Executive Leadership Team (ELT).
The HSWEC is responsible for:
- reviewing the effectiveness of the department’s HSW Management System (HSWMS) including the departmental HSW strategy, policy and commitment statements and approving changes or updates
- providing strategic oversight, assurance and monitoring of the HSW enterprise risk
- reviewing critical HSW incidents including contributing factors, investigation outcomes and learnings, ensuring appropriate resources are in place to remediate and recommend actions and controls to reduce risk of incidents occurring
- reviewing HSW performance across the department and providing recommendations to ELT
- identifying HSW strategic priorities and developing strategies and solutions to address identified HSW risks
- supporting ELT due diligence responsibilities by reporting on safety performance, emerging legislative changes and case law, and HSW information and issues
- building understanding of HSW matters across regional and workplace committees and ELT
- supporting and providing advice on any HSW issues raised by subordinate committees or escalating issues to ELT where required.
The HSWEC is a strategic risk-based governance committee. The ToR is available for departmental staff on the strategic governance committees page on OnePortal.