On Friday 19th August 2016 Children’s Medical Research Institute was awarded the Western Sydney Annual Business Excellence Award for Excellence in Work Health & Safety. I am proud to lead the team that manages Operational safety at the institute and have been working for many years on transformative programs to make WHS be part of the every day culture.

Some highlights of what we have achieved in recent times

• Implemented an electronic controlled document framework to bring a standard template structure to policies, standard operating procedures and risk assessment.
• Implemented an electronic incident reporting system including standard workflow to safety stakeholders in the institute. This has increased reporting by 100% as well as allowed improved reporting of ‘near misses’.
• Increase safety training compliance to a high 85% by moving to an online training system (Mindflash) which incorporates the institutes ‘Training Passport’
• Implement a simple barcode scanning system for safety seminar attendance tracking. Barcodes are included on staff access control cards. A cost effective hand held barcode scanner is used for scanning staff attendance. Bespoke software is used to generated attended and non-attended lists through reconciliation to staff records.

CMRI strives for continuous improvement in all areas including Work, Health and Safety.

Eyes on Task – Mind on Task – Safe Outcome

Thanks to all the team at CMRI including Scott Cohen, WHS Committee Chair, Kirsten Steiner, Senior Staff Scientist Safety and Compliance, CMRI HR Team and all staff and WHS representatives. The award is a win for all CMRI staff and a win for a safe work environment.