Comcare - Australian Goverment
Comcare - Australian Goverment
Putting you first at the centre of what we do. Keeping you healthy and safe at work. Supporting you when you are harmed at work. Ensuring your scheme works and is sustainable.
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Schedule 1 - Better Practice and Compliance Measures

This schedule describes measures to achieve better practice and for monitoring compliance

Better practice and compliance measures

Comcare assists employers and workers in our jurisdiction to meet their legislative responsibilities and strive for better practice in safe and healthy workplaces. This involves Comcare working collaboratively with employers and workers in the jurisdiction by:

  • providing information and advice on better practice in health and safety at work
  • promoting development of culture and systems that support worker health, wellbeing and resilience
  • assist and support in the rehabilitation and compensation of injured workers
  • partnering with stakeholders, industry and social partners, and across government on initiatives to improve the health of workers.

Better practice and collaboration principles

The elements of Comcare's regulatory approach applied through better practice and collaboration are underpinned by the following principles:

  1. Leadership commitment - Organisations need engagement and commitment from their leaders to develop and continuously improve safety and rehabilitation management culture and systems. Partner engagement at the leadership level is a key element of our approach.

  2. Systems-based approach - OHS, rehabilitation and compensation management systems provide a framework within which the employer is able to meet their legal responsibilities and achieve sustainable and continuous improvement in OHS, injury management and rehabilitation outcomes.

    Effective organisational approaches require a combination of primary, secondary and tertiary level interventions:

    1. A primary intervention is the undertaking of prevention measures by employers to address hazards in the workplace through risk identification, assessment and control
    2. Secondary intervention is prevention that aims to reduce the severity of consequences of hazards and harm including responding to early indicators such as near misses, incident reports or absenteeism.
    3. Secondary intervention also provides a safety net to catch people who are showing early warning signs of illness or injury so that early rehabilitation intervention and support can be provided before symptoms develop into illness
    4. Tertiary interventions deal with the consequence of injury, in particular effective rehabilitation strategies.

  3. Effective and regular consultation - Interactions with our partners are open. We facilitate information exchange and feedback to enable more effective regulatory approaches to current and emerging challenges. We also work in partnership with a range of representative bodies, including employer organisations, unions, service providers, inter-jurisdictional bodies and legal advisors to achieve healthier and safer workplaces.

  4. Evidence-based approaches - Facts, evidence and analysis are fundamental to how we assist employers and employees to improve workplace safety and the rehabilitation of injured employees. Development of advice, products and solutions is linked to research on better practice.

  5. Incentives that workers are at the centre of what we do to ensure that they return safely to their families, friends and communities everyday.

Key strategies

Comcare applies a range of information, education, advice and assistance strategies to encourage better practice through partnerships and collaboration with employers in the jurisdiction.

These key strategies are applied to varying degrees across the priority areas. The key strategies include:

  • Consultation and engagement - Activities that engage our partners in strategic improvement and developing solutions to identified issues. These activities include meetings with our stakeholders, employer forums, practitioner networks and workshops.

  • Research and collaboration - Conducting or supporting research and sharing better practice in the prevention and management of workplace injury or diseasecollaborative research and new initiatives partnering with stakeholders, business and government.

  • Awareness and promotion - National Comcare Conference, regular seminar series, workshops, forums, website resources, regular communications and sharing of information through newsletters, electronic updates and Safety Alerts.

  • Better practice guidance - Specific guidance developed and provided to employers to promote prevention as the primary means of reducing the human and financial costs of workplace injury - guidance on particular high frequency or high severity risks such as psychological injuries.

    Rehabilitation guidelines developed and provided to employers (rehabilitation authorities) to promote effective rehabilitation to also reduce the human and financial cost.

  • Practical tools - Advice and assistance for employers to adopt an integrated systems approach through continuous improvement of OHS and rehabilitation management systems. For example, performance indicators, self assessment guides, case studies, business case for investment in broader approaches to organisational health.

  • Education and training - Training programs to build awareness and capability in health, injury prevention and rehabilitation. These programs are delivered, fee for service, through a calendar of training and tailored in-house training to meet identified needs.

  • Cooperative compliance - A targeted strategy to improve work health, safety and rehabilitation compliance by working with a range of stakeholders such as employers, unions, HSRs, rehabilitation case managers, approved rehabilitation providers and other jurisdictions on areas that have been identified as requiring significant improvements in health and rehabilitation services. Compliance plans are designed to improve knowledge, skills and relationships between stakeholders involved.

  • Performance information - Monitoring and reporting scheme OHS, rehabilitation and injury indicators and jurisdictional targets. Assistance to enable employers to improve the measurement and monitoring of injury management performance. Premium paying employers have access to an online database Customer Information Services (CIS) and a dedicated helpdesk.

If you require information or guidance contact Comcare by email general.enquiries@comcare.gov.au or telephone 1300 366 979.

Compliance activities

As a general policy, compliance activities are undertaken cooperatively and without using legislative powers. Comcare may monitor or encourage compliance using a number of different strategies including:

  • audits (10)
  • self-audits with mandatory reporting
  • health and safety site visits and inspections
  • monitoring of internal investigative processes and reviewing provision of advice concerning health and safety issues
  • education
  • collaboratively identifying opportunities for improving worker health and safety.

Principles applying to Comcare's compliance activities

Comcare is accountable to the Minister, the Commission and the Australian public to ensure that the jurisdiction is meeting its obligations under the OHS and SRC Acts.

The following principles provide the rationale for undertaking compliance activities and guidance in relation to the delivery of regulatory services within the jurisdiction.

1. Continuous improvement

A systems based approach provides for good governance and encourages continuous improvement.

Comcare's approach to regulation is to encourage continuous improvement through a systems based approach with the flexibility to achieve outcomes and work towards ensuring work health and safety.

Audits conducted by Comcare provide objective evaluation and are an important tool in helping managers to stay on track and identify areas for improvement. Evaluation and audit results can be an important input into the design or improvement of internal policies, procedures and processes. Decision makers can use these results when assessing their systems to determine if intervention is required and the extent to which progress is being achieved toward established goals.

Implementing effective management systems for prevention, rehabilitation and compensation management which are assessed internally and externally, provides senior managers with their own assurance mechanism and assists good governance.

2. Co-ordinated and constructive

Comcare will ensure a co-coordinated and constructive approach to regulation.

As outlined in this Regulation Policy, Comcare uses a range of regulatory strategies to address work health and safety priorities. A work health priority is a key issue or theme that Comcare is focusing on in a given year.(11)

Comcare coordinates work on priorities through its campaigns. Services delivered within these campaigns - be they education, advisory, or audits - will be co-coordinated and aimed at building organisational capability to properly manage workplace risks.

Campaign activities will maximise regulatory effectiveness by targeting resources toward priority issues, incorporating lessons learned and sharing best practice with the jurisdiction.

Comcare will:

  • assist in promoting the development of better practice OHS, compensation claims and rehabilitation management systems
  • assist the adoption of a regular cycle of performance evaluation to underpin continuous improvement
  • monitor the influence and reach of advice and guidance
  • provide an active regulatory assurance plan.

3. Targeted and proportionate

Regulatory interventions will be targeted at identified risks or priority issues. Where non-compliance is identified, compliance and enforcement responses will be proportionate to the seriousness of the non-compliance.

Where compliance issues are identified, responsive regulation seeks to use the most effective, appropriate and proportionate measures to achieve compliance.

Regulatory risks need to be systematically reviewed. Comcare and the jurisdiction need to be able to respond to new and emerging risks. When determining which organisations will be targeted for intervention, consideration will be given to employer risk profiles, identified trends of non-compliance within employer and industry groups, the impact on productivity and any requirements of the Commission.

4. Assurance and consistency

Comcare will provide assurance that legislative obligations are being met.

Licensees are subject to annual audits across the three functions of prevention, rehabilitation and claims management as part of the Licensee Improvement Program. This program recognises continuous improvement and rewards high performers with a co-operative approach to regulation and reduced licence fees. Comcare conducts audits, on behalf of the Commission, of all licensees in the first two years that they hold their licence. Where proven good performance has been established, the Commission may determine that the Licensee is then able to manage their own audits and report to Comcare and the Commission on outcomes. All Licensees undertake their own audits and will undergo audit by Comcare in their final year of licence when seeking licence renewal.(12)

For further information about options available to the Commission in regulating self insurance licences, refer to the Commission website www.srcc.gov.au

All employers and employees covered by the OHS Act are currently subject to Comcare's system and targeted safety audit programs.

Comcare is expanding compliance monitoring activities to include rehabilitation under the SRC Act.

Comcare has a capable pool of auditors and investigators with a broad range of backgrounds, and also draws on external expertise when necessary. Comcare is committed to continually building the skills and capability of its in-house auditors and investigators.

Where a serious issue is detected during any cooperative compliance activity, it may be referred for further and appropriate escalation.

Where there is an identified non compliance with the SRC or OHS Act, corrective actions will be taken.

5. Comcare accountability and transparency

Comcare will be accountable for decisions, and activities will be delivered by a skilled workforce, demonstrating impartiality, balance and integrity.

The skill and attributes required to deliver the audit program are:

  • knowledge of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 1991 and Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988
  • competence to conduct audits, including auditor training and experience
  • strong relationship skills, with the ability to work collaboratively and professionally with internal and external stakeholders
  • ability to identify emerging issues, deficiencies and non-compliance and to assess actions to address these issues
  • behaviours and conduct that display impartiality, balance and integrity

When Comcare contracts external audit expertise, Comcare remains responsible for the quality of regulatory decisions. Systems and procedures will be in place to ensure outsourced activities are undertaken in accordance with performance standards set by Comcare. Contract management principles and practices provide a framework for managing an outsourced activity, that is - defining the outputs to be purchased, stipulating quality and performance standards, and monitoring of the contract.(13)


(10) The purpose of an audit is to assess compliance and enhance the effectiveness of management practices. Comcares audits are based on agreed standards such as AS4801/ISO 9001 and the requirements of the legislation and regulations administered by Comcare

(11) For further information, refer to the annual Work Health and Safety Plan available on the Comcare website.

(12) The Commission has endorsed the use of specific audit tools by Comcare when undertaking audits of Licensees for Rehabilitation, Claims Management Systems and Prevention. The Commission endorsed audit tools must be used when undertaking audits of Licensees under the Licensee Improvement Program or tier. These audit tools cannot be amended or changed without consultation with both the Commission and Licensees.

(13) ANAO Better Practice Guide to the Administration of Regulation 2007.