Technological University Dublin

Safety, Health and Welfare
Strategic Plan 2023-2026

	
Reference Number	SHWSP2023	
Version	004	
Document Owner	Safety, Health and Welfare Senior Manager	
Approval Body	University SHW Steering Committee	
Approval date	14th November 2024 	
		
Next Review Date	November 2025	

1.	Introduction

This Safety, Health and Welfare Strategy is driven by our moral, legal, economic and social sense of responsibility. It demonstrates that the University values and cares about staff, researchers, students and others who engage with us each day. It outlines our intent to create a vibrant, teaching and learning community within a safe secure and healthy environment.

The need for a strategic approach for Safety, Health and Welfare was identified as a result of an internal review of the service. This strategic plan covers the period from 2023 - 2026 and has been informed by, and developed to support the University’s Strategic Plan, which is built upon the 3 Strategic pillars of People, Planet and Partnership.

The University strives to meet the highest standards of health and safety performance and does so to support and enhance research and teaching across the University. A failure to meet these high standards could result in service and reputational impact.

This strategic plan aligns to our core values and sets out our Mission, Vision, Values and our Strategic Priorities. It has been devised to engage all staff to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our health and safety management system, to maintain legal compliance as a minimum, to deliver a safer and healthier work environment for all those engaging with us, and to encourage and enable a positive and sustainable safety culture.

This strategic plan seeks to respond to the changing health and safety climate, enhance existing arrangements and provide further benefits to the strategic and operational management of health and safety at the University.

2.	Mission, Vision and Values

2.1	University Mission – Excellence, Practice-led Co creation.

SHW Mission - We support teaching, learning and research activities across the University by promoting a safe and healthy campus environment. We facilitate risk assessments to eliminate and reduce risks. We recommend measures to ensure that all campus users who may be affected by our activities, are not exposed to risks, injury or ill health.

2.2	University Vision – Creating a better world together.

SHW Vision – Working together to ensure a culture of safety, health and welfare and the highest standards of health and safety practices that enhance and support research and teaching across the University and provide a safe environment for all users.

2.3	Values – Excellence, Inclusion, Impact

SHW Values  
Excellence
•	Continuously support and encourage professional development of SHW staff to expand technical expertise and knowledge.
•	Provide high quality service in a timely, effective and professional manner.
•	Be ambassadors of safety, health and welfare responsibility.

Inclusion
•	Treat everyone in the University community equitably with dignity, courtesy and respect.
•	Make training, consultations and services accessible and understandable.
•	Focus on partnering rather than policing health, safety and compliance.
•	Foster robust relationships with our stakeholders.

Impact
•	Foster a solution-oriented capability focusing on finding rapid resolutions to challenges.
•	Learn from our campus community and beyond; adapt innovative ideas to meet the needs of the university.
•	Support technological and innovative advances.

3.	Strategic Priorities

In order to achieve the Vision for Safety, Health and Welfare, this strategy has been divided into the following strategic priorities.

The SHW business service catalogue contains the corresponding implementation plans and enablers for the strategic priorities.

The Strategic Plan focusses on four key priority areas. Each will have an associated, dynamic action plan that will be reviewed annually. The implementation of these action plans will be monitored with a strategic risk register for health and safety.

In collaboration with schools and services, action plans will be developed to assist in translating the Strategic Plan into activities at a local level. These will be dynamic documents reviewed on an annual basis, alongside a review of strategic plan implementation by the University Safety, Health and Welfare Steering Committee.

Strategic Priority 1: Leadership and Commitment “PE4 Creating a Passion to Excel”

Active leaders take responsibility and accountability for the risks created from activities under their remit. Leadership responsibility occurs throughout the University structure, from first line supervisory academic and management roles in both academic and service settings, academics leading student activities, research group leaders (principal investigators), and Heads of School, to senior role holders, including the Governing Body.

Responsibility and accountability for health and safety cannot be delegated, but its implementation and the day-to-day tasks and activities can. Active leaders ensure they are fully informed of their responsibilities and the risks they need to assess and control.

They will plan the effective use of resources to ensure health and safety risks are reduced to as low as reasonably practicable and set objectives to improve performance. Active leaders participate in communication and consultation processes, including health and safety committees, inspection and investigation, reviews, and audits.

Objective(s)

I.	Our approach to the management of safety, health and welfare will continue to be proactive, fostered by leaders who clearly understand their roles and responsibilities and accept ownership and full accountability for safety, health and welfare matters.

II.	We will ensure that all leaders and managers receive appropriate training, briefings and legal updates to enable them to continue to discharge their legal duties, and as a result are able to demonstrate a sufficient level of competence to strategically plan, manage, monitor and continuously improve health and safety performance in their sphere of influence. This also includes the proposal to embed safety, health and welfare as part of the Faculty/Function Executive meetings.

III.	The SHW office will ensure that leaders across the University are equipped to drive a culture of safety, health and welfare from top down.
I.	
Strategic Priority 2: Training and Competence “PL2 Creating Responsible Global Citizens”

A successful, cost effective health and safety management system requires competent, well trained people at every level of the organisation to ensure that all stakeholders fulfil the health and safety responsibilities expected of them on a consistent basis and play their part in ensuring continual improvement of the health and safety management system

Objective(s)

I.	The University will continue to invest in health and safety training for our staff and where appropriate, will seek more effective, user friendly methods of delivery.
II.	The SHW office will develop and implement the University Policy on SHW Training.
III.	A bespoke induction and training programmes for leaders will be developed to enable them to fully understand their roles and responsibilities in relation to health and safety.

Strategic Priority 3: Performance Management “PA4 Organisational Effectiveness”

Monitoring, measuring and reviewing performance are all vital components in appraising full compliance with statutory and other SHW regulations, by enabling leaders and managers the opportunity to test the robustness and effectiveness of the health and safety management system. Therefore, the SHW Office intend to continue to evaluate the University’s performance against a meaningful set of health and safety key performance indicators set annually and refresh our audit programme in line with recognised standards in order to identify continuous improvement.

Objective(s)

I.	We will extend our monitoring activities and will make greater use of information technology to ensure we learn from experiences both positive and negative.
II.	We will provide more accurate, factual information so that leaders and managers will be more empowered to take the necessary action to prevent and correct unsafe behaviours before circumstances escalate.
I.	
Strategic Priority 4: Risk Management “PA4 Organisational Effectiveness”

The identification of hazards and assessment of risks is a legal requirement and enabler to excellent health and safety performance allied with effective controls risk reduction. The focus is on real risks, i.e. those with serious consequences and those that arise more often. Risk assessments record identified hazards and the mitigation activities (controls) that are in place or planned to reduce the risks produced. Risk assessment is a dynamic process requiring regular review when activities change.

Objective(s)
I.	The University will refresh the procedure on risk assessment and look towards providing an online risk assessment database and toolkit.
II.	The University commits to facilitating risk assessment workshops.
III.	The University will continue to develop models based on !SO 45001 Safety Management system adopting the Plan, Check, Act model of continual improvement.

4.	Framework and Delivery

As there is already a well-established foundation of good health and safety management at the University, shaped by existing Health and Safety documents and systems, it is not envisaged that the success of this strategy will be heavily reliant on extensive investment; however, we will need to consider how we best plan, resource, organise, monitor and review our activities to guarantee consistent levels of compliance and conformity across all activities in delivery this professional service.

By engaging the right people, with the necessary level of expertise and competency to actively manage health and safety and to challenge poor practices, we will create a safer, more secure and healthier environment. The organisation design framework supports this with the appointment of specialist roles.

5.	Governance

The day-to-day management of this strategy lies with the Safety, Health and Welfare Senior Manager who reports to the Head of Governance and Compliance. The implementation of this strategy will be monitored and reviewed bi-annually by the Safety, Health and Welfare University Steering Committee and annually by the University Executive Team.

The bi-annual review will include reporting on progress made against an agreed set of Key Performance Indicators.