Safety responsibilities of the Safety Manager (from CASA AC 119-01 V1.1)
The SM is not the sole person responsible for safety. Specific safety activities and functional or operational safety performance outcomes are the responsibility of the relevant operational or functional managers, and senior management should not hold the SM accountable for line managers’ responsibilities. The SM should monitor all cross functional or departmental SMS activities to ensure their relevant integration.
While the SM may be held accountable for the satisfactory administration and facilitation of the SMS itself, they should not be held accountable for the safety performance of the organisation — the CEO alone is accountable.
The SM is responsible for, but not limited to:
- managing the SMS implementation plan
- maintaining SMS documentation and records
- performing/facilitating hazard identification and safety risk analysis
- planning and facilitating safety training
- ensuring that processes needed for the SMS are implemented, maintained and mature over time
- providing appropriate data so senior management can assess the performance of the SMS and the areas where improvement is required
- regularly evaluating and improving the SMS
- coordinating the promotion of operator safety requirements through induction and recurrent training
- providing timely safety advice and assistance on safety matters to managers, employees and contractors at all levels
- promoting safety awareness and a positive safety culture
- co-operating with government agencies on safety-related issues
- liaising with third party stakeholders on safety-related issues
- researching and sharing safety related information with other key safety personnel in the organisation
- monitoring and evaluating corrective and preventative actions
- coordinating incident and accident investigations
- managing a confidential reporting system
- monitoring the progress of safety reports and ensuring that hazards are addressed in a timely manner
- overseeing the management of risks
- identifying ongoing safety training requirements to support the SMS programme objectives
- overseeing the internal and external SMS audit programmes
- maintaining the Emergency Response Plan.