Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Policy:
ABC Education is committed to complying with legislative requirements on risk
management as part of a cycle of continuous improvement so as to ensure a safe
workplace and quality training outcomes. As required by ANTA and outlined in the
AQTF, ABC Education must:
include documented procedures to identify and manage risks concerned with
compliance with the Standards for Registered Training Organisations and to
correct and prevent any failure to comply with the Standards and the RTOs
quality system, policies or procedures. (Standard 1.8)
Further, the NSW OH&S Act (2000) requires that a risk management strategy be
implemented to ensure compliance. The Australian standard for risk management
AS/NZ 4360 (1999) is the framework used by ABC Education. This approach ensures
consistency in identification, analysis, reporting and updating of risk issues.
Responsibilities:
The Quality Management Group (QMG) has organisational responsibility for the
effective implementation of risk management related to all organisational activity.
2. Faculty and Support Unit Managers are responsible for assessing risks against
their business plan, putting the procedure into operation and monitoring and
following up on control plans.
1.
Definitions:
Risk Management
The practice of systematically identifying and evaluating any threats to the organisation;
establishing priorities for action and making decisions about which risk control measures
need to be implemented.
Generic Procedure:
At the beginning of the planning cycle, Faculties and Support Units prepare and
document business plans. These are to take into account the level of risk involved in
plan associated activities, together with the mitigation strategies to be implemented
where the level of risk is assessed as being too high. When and how risk is assessed
for all major business activities is to be documented within the business plan (refer to the
organisations Self Assessment Guide for Functional Units available from the
Educational Developments Unit). An approach based on the AS/NZ 4360 is to be used.
Faculties and Institute Support Units are therefore to assess risk by:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Once major activities are their risks are identified, all effected stakeholders are to be
included in the consultation process around the assessment of the risk.
Where risk is assessed as EXTREME of HIGH, existing and potential control measures
should be established and a reassessment undertaken. Treatment options are to be
applied to the extent that a LOW or MEDIUM risk level can be gained and maintained
Applying controls
Hard controls may include document trails, reconciliation, physical control over assets,
authority for approvals etc. Soft controls may include ethics, competence, culture,
communication, leadership, integrity etc. The effectiveness of a control should be rated
in a subsequent risk assessment. Effectiveness may be rated as:
Poor control is not addressing the risk (High risk level is not changing)
Fair control is addressing the risk, but is not considered effective
Good control effective in addressing risk (risk level is considered acceptable)
Before employing regulatory instruments as a hard control refer to the document
Principles for the use of regulatory instruments in organisations issued by ABC
Education Legal Branch. This gives guidance on when a regulatory instrument is
appropriate.
Where extensive controls are in place for an activity assessed as low risk, consideration
should be given to risk managing instead of continuing to control it. This frees up
organisational resources. Where the final assessment is still EXTREME or HIGH, the
Educational Developments, Corporate Services or Human Resources Manager should
be contacted and an alternative treatment strategy considered such as outsourcing.
A more detailed guide titled Implementing the Management of Risk is available to
support the methodology behind this approach. It can be downloaded from ABC
Educations Intranet at http://..
Generic Form:
Appendix 1 provides a generic Risk Assessment Worksheet that provides evidence of
assessment within a structured format.
Compliance to AQTF:
NB - The following provides a specific example of the implementation of risk
management in the area of the AQTF. The generic procedure is as applicable here as it
would be in terms of OH&S, financial systems and other compliance standards
management.
The Risk Management procedure outlined in the Risk Management Policy will be used to
identify and manage the risks associated with compliance with the AQTF standards for
Registered Training Organisations (RTOs). Annually the Educational Development Unit
will analyse ABC Educations risk in adhering to the AQTF standards for RTOs. A
number of sources will be utilised to do this. This includes but is not limited to:
Once this Risk Assessment has been conducted and appropriate controls implemented,
a copy of the business unit risk plan is to be provided to the Educational Developments
Manager for endorsement. On an ongoing basis, the Educational Developments,
Corporate Services and the Human Resources Manager will monitor the risks
associated with AQTF and legislative compliance from a variety of inputs including but
not limited to:
Internal Audits
Staff Suggestions
Customer complaints
Ministerials
OH&S Committees
Appropriate legislation and licensing.
Review
This policy was endorsed on January 1, 2003 and is due for review by December 19,
2003.
Appendices
Appendix 1 - Risk Assessment Template.
Appendix 2 - AQTF National Risk Management Approach
Appendix 3 - National Key Risk Areas (KRAs)
Appendix 4 - State and Territory Sources for Identifying Risk
Risk Description
Major Process
Steps:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
(C)
Level of
Risk
Accept
Risk
Y/N
Existing Control
Description
(C)
Controlled
Risk
Accept
Risk
Y/N
Control
Rating
Treatment
KRA6
Complaints
AVETMISS returns
Contract management information
Strategic industry audits (internal/external)
Audit patterns derived from local audits
Newspapers/advertising/training program promotional material
Inter-government/inter-departmental
legislation, forums, committees