A Safety Management System (SMS) is a systematic and proactive approach to managing safety risks. Risk management activities are at the heart of SMS, including the identification of safety issues, risk assessments and risk mitigation. It is supported by a strong assurance function that monitors compliance and performance as well as managing changes.
To be effective, the SMS needs the right policies, processes and procedures in place, in addition to the safety leadership to enable it to perform.
Training also plays a key role in implementing effective safety management systems. Training maintains personnel competencies, the sharing of safety information across the organisation, and with external organisations where there is a safety interface.
An effective safety management system is woven into the fabric of an organisation and its culture.
Evaluation tools
The SMS evaluation tool is used for initial SMS evaluations (Phase 1), to confirm the SMS is fully operating (Phase 2) and for ongoing evaluations (continued oversight).
The Management of change evaluation tool will be used by the CAA for the assessment of management of change documentation such as safety risk assessments and safety cases submitted to the CAA. Organisations may choose to use this to verify that they have captured all the necessary considerations before submitting any documentation to the CAA.
The previous Phase 1 SMS evaluation framework tools are still available to be used by organisations as a gap analysis tool.
- Phase 1 SMS gap analysis (evaluation framework) for complex organisations
- Phase 1 SMS gap analysis (evaluation framework) for non-complex organisations
Guidance and templates
- CAA Safety Management Systems Guidance Material(CAP 795)
- Safety Management Systems: Guidance for small non-complex organisations (CAP 1059)
- Safety performance indicator template
- Safety report form template
- Safety policy template
- Hazard log template
- SMS manual contents template
- Management of change guidance template
- SMICG Guidance for small organisation templates
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