Health, Safety, and Welfare Policy updates

These policies were updated following scheduled review in term 1, 2025. Changes were published to school sites during term 3, 2025.

Shaded rows indicate policies that were retired (removed from sites) as part of these updates.

Health, Safety, and Welfare Policy

• Brought key information into one place for clarification, including content from Health and Safety Management, Safety Management System, Primary Duty of Care, and Due Diligence.
• Clarified health, safety, and welfare roles of everyone.
• Moved board assurance into this policy and clarified wording.
• Aligned language more closely with Health and Safety at Work Act wording.
• Clarified that subpolicies listed in this policy outline how the policy is being implemented.

Health and Safety Management

(retired)

• Retired policy (removed from sites). Relevant policy information moved to Health, Safety, and Welfare Policy.

Safety Management System

(retired)

• Retired policy (removed from sites). Relevant policy information moved to Health, Safety, and Welfare Policy.

Primary Duty of Care

(retired)

• Retired policy (removed from sites). Relevant policy information moved to Health, Safety, and Welfare Policy.

Due Diligence

(retired)

• Retired policy (removed from sites). Relevant policy information moved to Health, Safety, and Welfare Policy.

Risk Management

• Moved content from Hazard Register and Audit to this policy so the information is in one place.
• Added section on monitoring and reviewing existing hazards.

Hazard Register and Audit

• Retired policy (removed from sites). Relevant policy information moved to Risk Management.

Chain of Custody

(retired)

• Retired policy (removed from sites). Relevant policy information will be moved to the Emergency Management section.

Worker Engagement, Participation, and Representation

• Previously, this policy differed based on schools having a health and safety committee or a delegated person responsible for health and safety. We updated the policy to focus on the requirement under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 to have appropriate worker representation.
• Updated information to reflect Health and Safety at Work Act requirements about engagement, participation, and representation.

Elected Health and Safety Representative

(retired)

• Retired policy (removed from sites). Relevant information moved to Worker Engagement, Participation, and Representation.

Health and Safety Induction and Training

(formerly Health and Safety Induction)

• Updated title to convey ongoing training requirements for schools.
• Clarified the health and safety induction and training responsibilities of the board, workers, and others at the school.

Visitors

• Strengthened wording about health and safety requirements for visitors and school.
• Referred back to the School Community Conduct Expectations policy about expectations for visitors and added links to other relevant policies.
• Added wording to Communicating with Parents and Whānau about parents/caregivers limiting disruptions to teaching and learning and contacting students during school hours.
• Added wording to Getting to and from School Safely about students being aware of potential hazards presented by school driveways.

Contractors Working at School

• Updated this policy to clarify and strengthen legislative responsibilities of school and contractors (including subcontractors and employees of contractor).

Health Support (formerly Healthcare)

• Updated policy title to Health Support.
• Added content to make responsibilities of school and others clearer.
• Linked to health subpolicies and other related policies.
• Added content about record keeping.

First Aid Training and Supplies

• We've strengthened the introduction to show school responsibilities to provide first aid.
• We've added content to explain the oversight of first aid supplies, and how schools can determine their first aid needs (i.e. what first aid equipment is needed, how many first aiders are required, and how information is communicated).
• We've added section headings to make the policy clearer.
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Managing Injuries and Illness

• We've focused this policy on responsibilities of the school (including immediate response to injuries and illness) and responsibilities of others.
• We've moved information about communicating with parents/caregivers about injuries and illness into this policy and added content about dealing with blood and body substances.

Communicating about Injuries and Illness

(retired)

• Retired policy (removed from sites). Relevant information moved to Managing Injuries and Illness.

Recording and Reporting Injuries and Illness

(formerly Recording and Reporting Accidents, Injuries, and Illness)

• Simplified policy title.
• Consolidated content and merged related information about recording and reporting into this policy.
• Updated Injury and Incident Record.

WorkSafe Notifiable Events

(retired)

• Retired policy (removed from sites). Relevant information moved to Recording and Reporting Injuries and Illness.

Medicines

• Reorganised content to make responsibilities of school and others clearer.
• Updated default wording about not administering medication without formal parental consent.
• Added new optional wording about medicine documentation and designated/trained staff.
• Schools that allow students to manage their own medication can choose to add wording about this.
• Updated Medicine Authority Form.

Dealing with Blood and Body Substances

(retired)

• Retired policy (removed from sites). Relevant information moved to Managing Injuries and Illness.

Health Conditions

(retired)

• Retired policy (removed from sites). Relevant information moved to Health Support.

Allergies

• Reorganised content to make responsibilities of school and others clearer (including content about students with severe allergies).
• Removed "Immediate actions in the event of severe reaction" section as schools should manage emergencies by following student individual plans and Managing Injuries and Illness.

Asthma

• Reorganised content to make responsibilities of school and others clearer.
• Removed "Immediate actions in the event of an asthma attack" section as schools should manage emergencies by following student individual plans and Managing Injuries and Illness.

Diabetes

• Reorganised content to make responsibilities of school and others clearer.
• Removed "Immediate actions to treat low or high blood sugar" section as schools should manage emergencies by following student individual plans and Managing Injuries and Illness.

Head Lice

• Reformatted this policy and made minor content updates for clarity.

Infectious Diseases

• Clarified legislation that applies for infectious diseases at schools, how school tries to prevent infectious diseases and how school responds if a student or staff member has an infectious disease.
• Added optional wording about immunisation programmes at school.
• Moved wording about an immunisation register into this policy, for relevant schools.

Immunisations

(retired)

• Retired policy (removed from sites). Relevant information moved to Infectious Diseases.

COVID-19 Health Measures

(retired)

• Retired policy (removed from sites). Relevant information moved to Infectious Diseases.
• Also retired the Pandemic Plan Guidelines previously available on the Model site.

Chronic Communicable Diseases

(retired)

• Retired policy (removed from sites). Relevant information moved to Infectious Diseases.

Review Schedule and Board Assurances

• Updated policy titles and assurances to align with recent scheduled review updates.