Officer Development Programme: Health and Safety Governance in the Public Service

Course modules

Module 1:
22 June, 9:00am-11:30am

Module 2:
3 August, 9:00am-11:00am

Module 3:
7 September, 9:00am-11:00am

Module 4:
12 October, 9:00am-11:00am

*by registering for this course, you will automatically be registered to all four sessions.

Programme outline

The Institute of Directors is delighted to partner with the Government Health and Safety Lead (GHSL) to deliver this three-month professional development programme for public service senior leaders with officer responsibilities under the Health and Safety at Work Act, 2015 (HSWA).

The programme includes eight hours of structured training, supplemented by ongoing sector support and access to materials, resources, tools and case studies.

The programme has been split into four modules and run over a period of up to 3 months.  Each module includes a facilitated workshop (2 or 2.5 hours each), supplemented by pre and post-workshop activities that can be completed at your own pace. Participants are also encouraged to apply their learning on-the-job, and to connect with others from their cohort to gain exposure to what others in the sector are doing. 

 All content has been tailored for the public service, recognising that officers in most central departments and agencies are also senior leaders with management responsibilities for health and safety.  

Module Overview

• Module 1 -Managing, leading and governing Health & Safety - an overview of the three roles and perspectives. Includes leadership behaviours and practices. Recap on the scope of PCBU duties. Bringing it to life –practical application i.e. meeting structures, reporting, questions that should be asked, using the three lenses of governance, leadership and management.
• Module 2 - Health and Safety Risk management. Risk landscape (acute, chronic and catastrophic), risk assessment methodologies, implementing effective prevention and mitigation controls, controls assurance (3 lines of defence), risk tolerance, owning your risk matrix, alignment with Enterprise Risk Management.
• Module 3 - Governing overlapping duties and understanding the complexity and challenges of identifying and managing them (particularly thinking about the public sector’s wider role in policy setting, standard setting, system ownership/funding).
• Module 4 - Monitoring what matters – setting meaningful KPIs, data, insights, reporting and information management systems – this module references the Business Leaders’ Health and Safety Forum guide “Monitoring What Matters”.

Building connections and GHSL support

The Government Health and Safety Lead (GHSL) team are here to support you throughout the three-month programme. To get the most out of it, we also encourage you to use the 4 week time period between each module to apply your learning and to engage and connect with your peers and other course participants.  Please download the following document before undertaking the programme to further understand how you can apply your learnings, build connections and access GHSL support.

Building connections and GHSL support guide