Free SWMS template for Australian builders, in PDF and Word

A free safe work method statement (SWMS) template for small Australian builders, in PDF and Word. It has the job details, a tick list of high risk construction work, a table for each job step with its hazards and controls, then PPE, plant, licences, emergency arrangements, a worker sign-on and a review record.

Free, no email required. It runs to two landscape pages, because a SWMS that does its job rarely fits on one. Add rows for more steps.

A template is a starting point, not a finished SWMS. It only works once it describes this job, on this site, and the workers doing the work have helped write it.

Does this job need a SWMS?

A SWMS is needed before any high risk construction work starts. On a house that is most often roof and upper-storey work with a fall over 2 metres, asbestos in a renovation, a trench past 1.5 metres for services, or work near live electrics. The full list is on the template's first page, so you can tick what the job involves.

For the rules in full, including who writes it and the state differences, read what a SWMS is and when you need one. If you're unsure about a particular job, tick the work into the SWMS checker and pick your state.

How to fill it in

The details at the top

The business doing the work, its ABN and contact, the principal contractor if there is one, the site address and a plain description of the work. Then two names: who makes sure the work follows the SWMS, and who reviews the controls. On a small job these are often the same person, usually the site supervisor.

Put a review date in, even an early one.

High risk construction work covered

Tick every item that applies. A re-roof on a two-storey house is a fall risk. Put the skip and the scaffold on the footpath of a busy street and traffic may be on the list too.

The fall trigger is not the same everywhere. It is 2 metres in most places, but residential work in the Northern Territory has a 3 metre trigger. The checker applies your state's rule.

Job steps, hazards and controls

This is the SWMS. One row per step, in the order the work happens. Row 1 is a worked example for fixing roof sheets along an eave. Replace it.

Job step. What is being done, in the words your crew use. "Strip old tiles", "Lift trusses with the crane", "Fix sheets along the rear eave".

Hazards and risks. What could go wrong on this site, not in general. "Fall from height" is a heading. "Fall from the rear eave, 3.2 m onto the concrete driveway" is a hazard someone can do something about.

Risk rating. Optional. Safe Work Australia's own template doesn't have one. Leave it out if your business doesn't use a risk matrix.

Control measures. Put the most effective control first. Get rid of the hazard if you can. If not, substitute something safer, isolate people from it or engineer it out, and only then add procedures, training and PPE. WorkSafe Victoria and SafeWork NSW both set out this order and say to work down it from the top. If the first control in the column is "wear a harness", ask whether scaffold or edge protection was possible.

How controls are put in place, monitored and reviewed. This column is the easiest to skip, and it is one of the four things a SWMS must include. Who checks the scaffold, when, and what happens if a control is removed. "Supervisor checks edge protection at the pre-start each morning" is enough.

Who is responsible. A name or a role on every row.

PPE, plant and licences

Tick the PPE the work needs. List the plant and tools, and how each is checked before use. Then the licences and tickets: a white card for everyone, plus any high risk work licence the task needs.

Emergency, rescue and consultation

The first aider, the kit, the assembly point and the nearest hospital. Then how you would rescue someone. A worker hanging in a harness, or stuck in a trench, needs a plan made before the work starts.

The consultation box records who helped prepare the SWMS and when. Safe Work Australia says a SWMS is prepared in consultation with the workers who will do the work, and that a health and safety representative, if there is one, should be consulted too.

Worker sign-on

Each worker signs to say the SWMS was explained to them and they will follow it. The regulator's sample SWMS asks for the same: names, signatures and the date workers received it. Sign again after any revision.

Review record

Every time the SWMS changes, write the date, what changed and who reviewed it.

What people get wrong

A generic SWMS. One document reused on every job, with only the address changed. Safe Work Australia warns that a generic SWMS may not meet the WHS laws unless it is first reviewed for the site and changed where it needs to be.

Too long to use. There is no page limit. But the regulator's advice is that a SWMS should be short, and that a long, overly detailed one is hard to understand and apply. If nobody reads page six, page six isn't controlling anything.

Written in the office, signed at the gate. A signature on a SWMS nobody explained proves very little.

Not followed. If the crew aren't working the way the SWMS says, the work has to stop straight away, or as soon as stopping is safe, and stays stopped until it can be done as written. Usually that means fixing the SWMS first.

Not reviewed when the work changes. When a control changes, the SWMS must be looked at again and updated where needed. If the scaffold comes down a week early, the SWMS for the roof is out of date.

Keeping it

Keep the SWMS on site, or somewhere it can be brought to site quickly. A digital copy counts. Hold on to it until the high risk work is done. Outside Victoria, if a notifiable incident is connected with the work, keep it for at least 2 years from the incident.

SWMS rules by state

The rules are close to identical across the harmonised states. These are the differences that change what you write or how long you keep it.

The fall trigger is the height that makes falling-from-height work "high risk construction work". Below it you still have to manage the risk, but a SWMS isn't required for that reason alone.

Victoria is different

Victoria isn't part of the harmonised WHS scheme. Its SWMS rules sit in the OHS Regulations 2017, its high risk construction work list is worded differently in places, and WorkSafe Victoria requires a copy of the SWMS to be kept for the duration of the work. The template works in Victoria, but check the items you tick against WorkSafe Victoria's list. The SWMS guide links every state regulator.

Doing it without the folder

A signed SWMS in the site shed folder tells you who signed. It doesn't tell you who read it, and the subbie who turns up on Thursday may never see it.

In Foreman, the filled-in SWMS goes on the job as a PDF, in OHS Information. From then on it is part of the site induction: someone scans the gate QR code, the SWMS is listed above the declaration, they open it on their phone and then sign. Their name, signature and the time go into that site's induction register. Revise the SWMS and you replace the file, so the next person through the gate gets the current version.

Your own crew with logins don't sign the induction on every visit, so give them a short SWMS acknowledgement form with a signature block instead. The SWMS sign-on help article covers both.

If you'd rather fill the SWMS in on a phone than on paper, build it with Foreman's safety forms: a text field for each step, hazard and control, and a signature block per worker. Limit it to site managers and admins if your leads write the SWMS, and each one is filed against its job.

Foreman holds the SWMS and gets it in front of people. Whether the controls are right is still your call, made with the crew before the work starts.

Related

For the rules in full and every state regulator's guidance, read what a SWMS is. Run a toolbox talk when a new SWMS starts, so the crew hear it from you, and use the daily pre-start checklist to confirm the controls are still there each morning.