Towards Community Safety and Wellness

Contents

• Victoria University of Wellington

• Risk management as ‘business as usual’

• 2013• Response and learnings

• Our Safe and Healthy Community Framework

• Is our progress sustainable?

Victoria 2013 Annual Activity• EFTSU * 17,000

• Headcount * 23,500

• FTE * 1,900

• Revenue * $350 million

• Ist in NZ research quality in 2013 PBRF assessment

• Faculties – Humanities and Social Sciences, Science,

Architecture and Design, Engineering, Education, Law,

Victoria Business School

• Space (UFA) * 210,000 sqm over 4 main campuses

• Property value * $750,000,000

• Buildings * 174

• Student beds * 2,500

Risk Management as BAU• Victoria had a degree of maturity in risk management

• Assessed strategic risk

• Actively managed project risk, student activity risk, seismic risk, health and safety risk, financial risk, IT continuity risk

• Coached managers in risk assessment /management in their business operations

• Managers in carrying out their roles endeavoured to be conscious of risks and to reduce, mitigate and manage them – as part of BAU – good practice

• Did not have a designated Risk Manager nor complete oversight

• Many areas of risk were under-identified and under- managed

• Universities are complex - information and expertise can become siloed

Think ahead about likely risks and if they happen, just get on and deal with them

Environment 2011-12

• Hall alleged sexual assault• Snow• Bomb threat• Sit-in protest• Student suicide• Increasing demand for mental health services• Brought management of Health and Safety together with security

• Meant Directors of Student Academic Services, Halls, Safety/security, HR and Communications were all working together on response

• We developed strong liaison and communication protocols but maintained our own systems and standards around risk

• Keys were: Meet, get facts, understand current risks and t put strategy in place

Understand what’s going on and work together to manage it

Mainzeal Receivership

• 6 February – public holiday

• Site security – Police- Media

• Sub contractors – some return, others don’t

• Where are contract financials really at? What has been paid for? Who has been paid?

• Who finishes the work? Warrantees? Defects?

• Uncertainty – Hub opening – health and safety

• Day by day

• Pressure from Council, VC

• Receivership – Liquidation

• Financial impact - Bond recovery

2013• Collapse of the main contractor on our $65m Hub project 2

weeks before Orientation and Prime Minister opening

• Alleged Hall sexual assault

• Alleged Hall deviant filming

• Alleged inappropriate staff behaviour in hall

• Major storm right on exam time with transport outages

• Student injured in fall from a stair rail

• July – Fire on construction site

• July – Major earthquake

• August – Another major earthquake

• Asbestos

• Sexual assaults on pathway (plus 3)

EQ1

• Sunday evening – dark, people off-site

• FACTS - Need to check all buildings

• Where is it safe to establish EOC

• Need to decide if closed or open

• Staff and students, need to know

• Media – comms – social media

• Key personnel on leave

• Access to engineers and own team

• Prioritisation of repairs, clean up

• Pipitea closed – implications for teaching, research, access, exams

• Keeping management and council informed

• ……….

July 2013 Learningspost 2012, post EQ1, post contractor, post storm, post some allegations – pre EQ2

• Better risk assessment at planning stage means better recovery

• Get the facts as soon as you can and use those for response not assumptions – if you are not certain it is a fact, don’t act on it

• Keep Communications team close

• Work as a team– Involve all key people immediately– Schedule meetings regularly – eg twice daily – even in wind down phase– Share information– Let jobs fall where the expertise lies – use others’ strengths– If you land the unenviable job of Incident Controller then get on with it – Be the boss but let others lead aspects if their expertise warrants it– Ask the right questions– Keep good records– Keep the VC updated– Review and learn

August 2014 – EQ2

• Learnt more!

• Can always more preparation – risk mitigation

• Better response, better teamwork, better comms

• Particularly focused on the debriefs and the learnings

• What went well – what could be improved

• Make to do lists and do them – follow through and follow up

• Be open to criticism

• But be gentle with each other in criticising 

• DIDN’T NEED EQ3- but we got it in early 2014

• Keep practising – embed – follow up

 

At a personal level• Be brave

• Take on the leadership role

• Share the leadership role

• Be gentle on yourself

• Scared/nervous but just do it – one step at a time

• You will get there and it is very important

• Be aware of the likely length of the impact ‘tail’

• Allow for your own rest and recovery

Remember the Three Little Pigs

Reflection as Directors• Worked well together, had a few learnt skills!

• Focused on minimising silo effects

• Had thought we were doing OK but 2013 challenged that assumption

• Each unit had risk management approaches but

– Multiple priorities

– Multiple strategies

– High level of co-dependency

– New Risk Manager in place

– Increasing organisational and national focus on better risk management

– Goal of a safe and healthy environment for students as part of excellent student experience

But it wasn’t really happy ever after

Oversight Group• Director, Campus Services

– Halls of residence

– Emergency Management

– Occupational Health and Safety

– Campus security

– Facilities Management

• Director, Student Academic Services– Student services

– Health and Counselling

– Student pastoral care

– Link to Faculty student services and students’ association

• Director Human Resources – Staff Wellness, Occupational Health Nurse

• Director, Communications and Marketing

• University Legal Counsel

• Risk and Audit Manager

Safe and Healthy Community Framework

• Purpose - safety and wellbeing for staff and students

• Strategic Context

• Principles and approach– Plans, polices and practices

– Social organisational and physical environment

– Building individual responsibility and knowledge

– Data and research informing decision making

• Priorities

• Goals 2014-17

• Monitoring and Targets

Safe and Healthy Community Framework

Focus Areas

Terms of Reference (shared responsibility and commitment)

• Oversee development and implementation of “Safe and Healthy Community Framework” - integrated VUW document covering staff and students:

• Risk mitigation;• Legislative compliance;• Safety and Wellbeing strategies, and • Related incident response

• Monitor and evaluate effectiveness of Framework based on:

• Programme implementation• KPI data• Incident reports/rates • Staff and student feedback

•  Review and redevelop Framework

• Liaise/maintain relationships for work area responsibilities together with relevant University committees to ensure integrated risk management, response, improvement strategies, communication and assessment of data

Like any happy endingwe want it to last forever

How do we make our progress sustainable?• Never set the Framework in concrete and continue to develop it in

partnership with the rest of the University

• Prioritise the Oversight Group meetings and ensure adequate preparatory work and follow up

• Keep the priorities and work programme alive in our own teams

• Be alert to issues that are relevant to the SHCF goals and highlight these to others

• Talk about the issues, challenges and progress in a range of forums

• As Oversight Group members be alert to the need to manage silo attitudes and be prepared to ‘share’ issues – talk to each other!

• Consider regular reporting and training for new staff• Ensure joint projects are visible under the SHCF banner

Conclusion• Growing a safe and healthy university community is not simple

• It touches on every area of the university

• It has to be part of the cultural fabric and not an ‘add on’ on any one area

• Victoria has developed a strong Framework out of several years of challenges and learnings

• It is about – prevention and improvement strategies

– incident management

– evidence based review and learning

– partnering

• It will undoubtedly continue to evolve

• The key is not to lose the progress and for our successors to have to start again from scratch