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SSSP, Task Analysis or SWMS: which one do you need?
Site plan, task document or both. What each one covers, who asks for it, and how they fit together.
Three names circulate on New Zealand sites and they are not the same document. An SSSP covers the site. A Task Analysis covers one task. A Safe Work Method Statement is the same document under a different heading. Most contractors asked for paperwork need two of the three, and sending the wrong one is the most common reason it comes back.
The difference in one line each
- SSSP, a Site-Specific Safety Plan. The site-level plan. Who is working there, how the businesses on site coordinate, how hazards get reported, what happens in an emergency. One per site.
- Task Analysis. One task, broken into steps, with the hazard and the control at each step. One per task, and a job usually has several.
- SWMS, a Safe Work Method Statement. Widely used on construction sites for the same task document. Same content, same structure, different heading.
- JSA, a Job Safety Analysis. Another name for the same task document, more common in some sectors than others.
Side by side
| SSSP | Task Analysis (or SWMS, or JSA) | |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | The whole site, for the whole job | One task |
| How many | One per site | One per task, often five to fifteen on a job |
| Who writes it | Usually the business in control of the site, with input from everyone on it | The business doing that task |
| Main content | Parties, roles, coordination, inductions, emergency arrangements, hazard reporting | Task steps, hazards, risk ratings, controls, equipment, competence, sign-on |
| Typical trigger | Winning the job, or being asked to go on site | Starting a task with a risk that needs managing |
| Where it lives | The site folder | Filed inside the SSSP, and at the work face |
| Required by law? | No. Industry practice, not a statutory document | No. Industry practice here, not a statutory document |
New Zealand law does not require a document of either name. What the law requires is that risks are managed so far as is reasonably practicable and that the businesses sharing a site consult, cooperate and coordinate with each other. These two documents are how the industry has settled on evidencing that.
How they fit together
Think of the SSSP as the folder and the task documents as what goes in it. The SSSP says this is the site, these are the businesses on it, this is the emergency plan, this is who to tell when something changes. It then points at the task documents for the detail of how each piece of work is actually done.
That nesting is why a main contractor usually asks for both, and why sending an SSSP alone rarely satisfies the request. The site plan does not say how your crew will set up edge protection on that roof. The Task Analysis does.
Working out what you have been asked for
If the request says SSSP
They want the site plan, and almost always the task documents that go with it. Read the rest of the request: a prequalification portal asking for an SSSP template is checking you have a system; a site manager asking for your SSSP before Monday wants the completed plan for that site.
If the request says SWMS, JSA or Task Analysis
They want the task documents. Send one per task you will be doing, not a single document covering the whole job. If the heading on yours does not match the word they used, say in one line that this is the same document under the New Zealand name. The same task is sold here under either heading at the same price, so you can order whichever the request names.
If the request says safety paperwork, or health and safety docs
Send the SSSP and the task documents for the work you are doing. That is the complete set and it is what the request almost always means.
If the request names a prequalification scheme
Schemes such as SiteWise and TÅtika assess your system rather than one job. They want to see that documented processes exist and are used, which means templates plus evidence of completed ones. That is a different exercise from the paperwork for a single site, and doing one does not complete the other.
How many task documents does a job need?
One for each task that carries a risk worth managing. A small roofing job might need edge protection, roof removal, material handling and working near services: four documents, not one. Bundling everything into a single sheet is the usual shortcut and it is the one that fails on site, because the crew doing the roof removal should not have to read past three other tasks to find their controls.
What does not need one is low-risk routine work where the control is obvious and already in place. The test is whether writing it down changes what anyone does.
What goes wrong
- Sending the SSSP when the task documents were asked for. The site plan does not describe your method, so the request comes back and the start is delayed.
- One task document for the whole job. It reads as a formality and the crew stops using it.
- An SSSP written for a different site. The site-specific part is the point. Addresses, parties, emergency arrangements and hazards all change.
- Treating the template as the finished document. A template is a starting point. Deleting what is not present and adding what is, is the work.
What we sell, against this
If you need the site plan, that is the SSSP. If you need the task documents, that is the Task Analysis range, one document per task, with the Safe Work Method Statement heading included in the same download. Most trades need both, which is why the site packs hold a site plan and the task documents for the trade together.
Sources
- Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, s34 (duty to consult, cooperate and coordinate) and s36
- Health and Safety at Work (General Risk and Workplace Management) Regulations 2016, regs 5 to 8
- WorkSafe New Zealand, guidance on overlapping duties and working with other businesses
- Work Health and Safety Regulations 2011 (Australia), Part 6.3, safe work method statements
This guide is general information about New Zealand health and safety law as at the review date. It is not legal advice and it does not describe your site. Confirm what applies to you with WorkSafe New Zealand or your adviser.