Are you providing a safe work environment?

The safety and security of your staff should be your top priority as an aged care provider, particularly when it is a sector that can be busy, fast-paced and has a number of safety risks.

Most older Australians will be a delight to work with, however, some situations are difficult to avoid while in the workplace – whether it is an aggressive client or poorly maintained tools and equipment.

It is vital that aged care providers are putting the health and safety of their workforce first, so it can lead to better care and outcomes for older clients.

So how can you improve your occupational health and safety strategies to ensure your staff and clients are protected?

Safe workplace practices

In 2020-21, there were over 130,000 serious workers’ compensation claims across all industries and in 2022, there were 160 people killed while at work. The health sector, including aged care, is among the top industries with the most number of serious injury claims. 

It is a no-brainer that your workforce needs to be protected and safe from harm as much as possible, just as you would when caring for your clients.

But it is also a legal requirement as an Australian organisation to not have your staff put in dangerous scenarios.

Aged care providers can be fined and charged for failing to properly safeguard their employees, which can be a hefty fine to pay for a business owner.

You can find your State or Territory relevant legislation around safe workplace practices on the Safe Work Australia website.

Organisation requirements

As a ‘person conducting a business or undertaken’ (PCBU), you have specific duties you need to adhere to, to ensure the safety of your workers.

Under the Model Work Health and Safety Act, you need to ensure the safety of your workers and others at your workplace, discuss workplace safety regulations and procedures with staff who work at your business and will be impacted by health and safety matters, and liaise and organise activities that are relevant to duty holders.

This means reducing any physical or psychological risks that could impact the health and safety of workers, and ensuring staff have all the information, training and supervision they need to be able to work safely at your organisation.

Safe Work Australia identifies the below as the top hazards that you need to be looking out for in an aged care setting, including:

• The manual handling of people, including lifting or moving clients
• Chemical hazards – including COVID-19 or other illnesses
• Medical equipment or other relevant equipment (such as bed hoists)
• Violence in the workplace
• Harassment or bullying, no matter who this abuse is coming from
• Mental health stressors
• Fatigue and shiftwork
• Any falls, trips, or slips, or dangerous environmental factors

Minimising risk in the workplace for staff not only ensures you are following Australian Government worker safety requirements, but also provides staff with a safe workplace environment – which leads to good work conditions for your staff, reduces work-related injuries and illnesses, and results in better quality care and worker efficiency.

Improving your staff safety

Accidents in the workforce can sometimes be avoidable, but you can still take strides to safeguard your employees.

To ensure that your workplace is safe and staff are able to work comfortably and free from injury or illness, there are a number of strategies you can put in place:

Understand the hazards in your workplace

The hazards within your workplace might be obvious in some areas and not in others, so it is important to look at your business as a whole and understand where these hazards could be.

For instance, what services are your staff providing and where could they be faced with danger? Where are they working – are they on the road and visiting older clients’ houses or within an aged care facility? Who are they providing care to and could that client be a danger or has shown dangerous behaviours in the past?

These questions can help you pinpoint potential hazards and put in the relevant measures needed to keep your staff safe.

It can be a good idea to catch up with your staff and ask them if they have noticed any issues or experienced any scenarios where they didn’t feel safe – this can be a good way to find out from the source what parts of your business may be posing a safety risk to your workforce.

Assess potential risks that may arise

Once you understand what hazards there may be in your workplace or for your workers, assess how these risks would arise.

A risk assessment can determine what sort of harm could be caused, how likely this harm is to occur to a staff member, as well as the seriousness of the harm.

For instance, if your staff member is going to provide care to a client who has a known history of aggression, you can determine what needs to be done to control risk as best as possible – like sending two staff members instead of one, or ensuring a family member is available to assist with the delivery of the care while keeping the older person calm.

What measures you put in place will be determined by how you assess different risk scenarios.

Put in place measures to help reduce risk or manage risk

For risks that you are aware of and have been assessed, you can put in place a series of procedures or policies that need to be followed during certain scenarios.

For example, in cases where a staff member is manually handling a resident, you should ensure your workforce is trained in utilising bed hoists and other equipment to reduce their risk of lifting injuries.

Another good example of a beneficial workplace policy is how your workforce reacts to a COVID-19 outbreak. If everyone understands that protocol, your staff are best placed to know how to handle the difficult situation. This also means ensuring you have adequate supplies to handle a COVID-19 case, like Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

You may find that you can also reduce hazards by updating equipment or substituting processes for safer alternatives. Say your cleaners are using dangerous chemicals, you can instead opt for a safer, more environmentally friendly product to reduce exposure to these chemicals.

Another measure to reduce risk to staff is to isolate any hazards or potential hazards, this could be in the case of an aggressive resident where staff need to follow policy and remove themselves from a room if it becomes dangerous. This policy could be incredibly important when a home care worker is on a home visit.

It is important your staff are aware of the policies you put in place so they understand what steps they need to take in an emergency or dangerous scenario.

Review your safety strategies regularly

It is important that any safety strategies you have in place are often reviewed to ensure they are the best safety measures possible for your staff.

It can be a good idea to discuss safety policies with your workforce to see if they have suggestions on how to improve your current strategies or to see where some things are going right and where they are going wrong.

You will also be able to get assurance that your staff are feeling safe with the current policies you have in place. This could also mean refresher courses with staff on different safety training.

Reducing and managing your workplace risk is never stagnant, but an ongoing process that needs to be measured for success.

Nominate a staff health and safety officer

It may be a good idea to nominate a staff safety officer or hire a health and safety officer, to ensure that all of your employees are following the right safety procedures.

They are best trained and placed to manage ongoing risks in your workplace, create reports identifying new or existing hazards, and implement safety strategies that will best work for your organisation and your staff.

It also gives your staff a direct line to the best person to handle dangerous scenarios that have made them feel unsafe or uncomfortable. And there is an added benefit in that it encourages a company culture of safety among staff.

If you are unsure where to start, you can engage a safety officer for a consultation of your facility or service to determine where your risks lay and how to best manage them.

Discussing safety management and security with your workforce is also a great way to ensure they feel like they can raise concerns about dangers that arise and make proactive steps to safeguard everyone within the business.