Fire and Emergency’s ACC Accredited Employers Programme (AEP) achieves tertiary level

We recently participated in an annual audit of our ACC Accredited Employer Programme (AEP). We are a self-managing accredited employer which means we self-manage all ACC work related injury claims via our Injury Management Unit. The audit covers two sections: health and safety systems and injury management practices. 

We are pleased to share that we have achieved a tertiary accreditation – which is the highest level.  

This outcome reflects the hard mahi (work) of many people across the organisation over the past year to enhance our health and safety and injury management practices.  

While this is a positive result, we will now build on this work and keep up the momentum from the past year so that we can apply this consistently across the motu (country). It’s not all about audit criteria though, providing a safe and healthy workplace for our people being our ultimate goal. 

How is the audit conducted?  

Each year, ACC selects a primary and secondary site to observe our systems in practice, and to verify if our health and safety and injury management systems are in place and embedded within the organisation. This year, ACC selected Nelson Fire Station and Nelson Marlborough District Office.  

An independent auditor spent two days at the National Headquarters and two days in Nelson at the fire station and District office. The audit involved presenting evidence to the auditor of our systems and processes, manager and employee focus groups to further verify our systems, and case study interviews for ACC work related claims to verify the Injury Management practices.  

Next steps 

The auditor will produce a report with continuous improvement recommendations. This provides us with an opportunity to continue to auahtanga – strive to improve.  

The Safety, Health and Wellbeing directorate will engage with Regional Leadership Teams to support the implementation of these recommendations across the organisation. 

For more information, reach out to safetyhealthandwellbeing@fireandemergency.nz