Health and safety in government and local government.
Public sector organisations carry the same duties as any other PCBU, with the added weight of public scrutiny. Councils and agencies run an unusually wide range of activity, much of it through contractors, and councils have elected members who are officers in their own right. QHSE works with them on assurance, governance and the risks spread across all that activity.
What matters here
A council is not one workplace but dozens: roads and water, parks and pools, libraries and service centres, building inspectors and animal control officers working alone in the field, contractors doing most of the physical work, and the psychosocial load on staff dealing with an often difficult public. A central government agency or Crown entity has a similar spread, sometimes across the whole country. No single manager can see all of it, which is why governance and assurance matter more here than in a business with one site and one product.
Elected members, board members and chief executives are officers under the Health and Safety at Work Act and carry the personal due diligence duty. For many elected members that is a surprise, and the organisation has to give them what they need to exercise it without turning every meeting into a health and safety briefing. From 1 April 2027 the Amendment Act narrows the officer duty to its governance role and puts the focus on critical risks, which makes it easier to do well and harder to do badly.
Rob Feasey, principal of QHSE, has led the national health and safety function of a large public sector organisation and is a Member of the Institute of Directors, so boards and elected members are briefed in their own terms. QHSE works with councils and agencies as an independent assessor and adviser.
Where the risk sits
What QHSE does here
- SafePlus assessments across the organisation's activities, with deep dives typically on contractor management, lone and field work and psychosocial risk, and findings written for elected members and boards as well as executives.
- Officer due diligence support and briefings for elected members, boards, audit and risk committees and chief executives, and the reporting that lets them be actively satisfied.
- Risk framework design and critical risk reviews across the whole spread of activity, so the organisation knows which of its many risks could kill someone.
- Contractor management review and health and safety system audits, including how the organisation checks the contractors it relies on.
- ACC AEP audits and readiness reviews for councils and agencies in the Accredited Employer Programme.
- Independent investigation where a serious event needs an investigator from outside the organisation, and root cause analysis training for the people who investigate inside it.
- Readiness for the 2027 HSWA changes: what changes for the organisation and for its officers, and the work to do before April 2027.
- Internal auditor training for staff who audit the organisation's own health and safety and quality systems.
Who it suits
Regional and district councils, council-controlled organisations, central government agencies and Crown entities, their health and safety and risk teams, and the elected members, boards and chief executives who are officers.
Discuss your organisationFrom first call to close-out
Talk
A conversation about the organisation, its sites, its people and what is worrying it.
Scope
A written scope and a fixed fee wherever possible, with the critical risks or the system elements to be looked at agreed up front.
Look
Time on site with the people doing the work, looking at how it is really done rather than how the paperwork says it is done.
Report
A written report with evidence, findings and prioritised recommendations, presented in person to the leadership team.
Follow through
Help closing the gaps where the organisation wants it, or a plan it runs itself, with QHSE available by phone either way.
Describe the organisation.
Get in touch and describe the organisation.