An essential component of your pre-tender and pre-contract planning is to establish your site. An efficient and effective site establishment provides the foundation for a successful project by configuring, structuring and organising the temporary facilities needed to support the works on site.

While small construction works might require little temporary site establishment, larger projects may require extensive site infrastructure. This needs to be costed, built into the tender price and actually delivered to your site before work commences, to ensure that you can provide your employees and contractors with appropriate facilities from the start.

One of the key tasks in establishing your site is to produce an Occupational Health and Safety Coordination Plan.

An OHS Coordination Plan is required for construction projects with a permit value of, or in excess of, $350,000. Master Builder Victoria recommends to its members and builders that they always have a health and safety coordination plan developed and readily available for workers to access on site. The plan should be displayed in a prominent and accessible location, such as in the shape of a sign mounted to the temporary fence or hoarding.

OHS Coordination Plans are important because they clearly identify:

• The persons who have specific health and safety responsibilities at the workplace, what these responsibilities are and how the relevant people can be contacted;
• The arrangements in place for coordinating health and safety at the site;
• Basic steps (procedures) to follow in the event of an incident;
• Basic steps (procedures) to follow in the event of an emergency;
• The site safety rules which apply to everyone, at all times.

It is your responsibility to prepare the coordination plan and have it accessible at the site prior to the first day of work. The OHS Coordination Plan should also be one of the first things that you brief your employees on during their site safety induction. Employees should also be shown where they can access the OHS Coordination Plan, whether it is in an office, inside the building or home under renovation, or in a prominent location on the site fence or hoarding in the form of a sign.

If there are any changes to project personnel throughout the build, the OHS Coordination Plan must be updated accordingly.