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A systematic approach


Attitudes and behaviours

Safety culture is critical to ensuring safe activity on the water

It is difficult and time consuming to get right, but you know it when you see it.

You will find many definitions out there, but safety culture is likely to include

  • Communication about safety issues founded on mutual trust
  • Shared perceptions about the importance of safety
  • Confidence in the measures in place
  • Attitudes and behaviours of everyone involved – procedures are followed, incidents highlighted, lessons learned
  • Competencies of everyone involved - proven skills, ability and knowledge

Look for:

Commitment and visibility

The time, budget and people committed to managing safety on the water and the active involvement of those that lead the organisation and have lead responsibility for safety.

Communication and involvement

Safety on the water is part of everyday conversations – questions are asked and responded to; and anyone is able to raise concerns, they are actively listened to and taken seriously. Staff and volunteers on the water see safety as a joint exercise, and they are involved in managing risk, identifying issues and improving practice.


Functional concise documents

Every organisation is different and so has different requirements for documentation

It is easy to say documents should be functional, concise, and shared – but harder to achieve.

Keep in mind the objective

Is the document a policy, a statement of intent? Is it a procedure, a process to follow set out step by step? Is it a tool to be used to ensure the steps set out in the procedures can be followed or a form for example? is it something else?

Keep in mind the audience

What prior knowledge do they have? What jargon or language do they use? How much time do they have?

Be concise

Make it short and readable and don’t include too many steps. Seek input from experts and users of the documents.

Review regularly

Check whether what is documented can and is being implemented.

Share

Documents are there to be used, so people need to know where to find them.