Effective safety leadership in emergency services is a key item in your tool box to develop and maintain a culture in which safety is integrated in everything we do.

It is our belief that safety is part of who we are and how we behave both at work and at home. Having a positive safety culture is more than rules and regulations.

In building a safety culture within the NSW State Emergency Service the commitment started with our Commissioner. His commitment, supported by the Executive, is working towards an environment in which we actively demonstrate safe behaviours both at home and at work. A key phrase in the service is ‘safety is the unbreakable law’.

Key initiatives:
• Consultative arrangements
• All safety reports are reviewed
• Serious incidents are investigated
• Corrective actions are recorded and tracked towards completion
• A 1800 number to enable 24/7 reporting
• Regular safety communications
• Lessons learned shared across the service
• Safety is the first item in any meeting agenda

Our safety culture is developing through supporting our safety leaders across the organisation. We acknowledge that any member can be a safety leader. Whilst we have started with the Executive with education, the safety leadership program (facilitated by DuPont Australia) will roll out across the organisation. This proactive work has been proven to make significant inroads on the human and financial cost to our Service.

Despite having some of our busiest periods on record our injury frequency rate continues to trend downwards.

Encouraging members to:
• Follow their training
• Say no when the risk outweighs the benefit
• Report hazards, incidents and near hits
• Look out for each other

Following this path the Service has made significant safety improvements. Our vision is to create an environment of continuous improvement in a just culture.