Drafting a SWMS

Brief your job, build your hazard list, collect crew sign-on. Faster than Word — and easier to find at 6am.

What a SWMS needs to cover

Under the Work Health and Safety Act, a Safe Work Method Statement for high-risk construction work must identify each high-risk activity, describe how it will be managed, and be agreed to by the workers before work starts.

RopeLogix structures the SWMS to meet these requirements. You fill in the job-specific details — the platform handles the format.

The three-step flow

Step 1 — Brief

Name the SWMS and describe the scope of work in plain language. Where, what, and who. This populates the cover page of the document.

Select the high-risk activities from the checklist: rope access at height, confined space, electrical proximity, mobile plant, falling objects, etc. Tick everything that applies.

Step 2 — Canvas

The canvas is where you build your hazard table. For each high-risk activity you selected, the platform pre-loads relevant hazards from the IRATA hazard library — including common rope access risks: rope abrasion, dropped objects, suspension trauma, anchor failure.

You can accept, edit, or delete each pre-loaded hazard. Add site-specific ones manually. For each hazard, set the likelihood, consequence, and control measures.

Professional tier: While you draft, an AI assistant suggests additional control measures and flags common omissions based on the activity type. The suggestions are prompts — you decide what goes in. The final SWMS is yours.

Step 3 — Signature

When the SWMS is ready, tap Send for sign-on. Each crew member gets a notification (in-app) or an email link with the document to review.

They draw their signature to confirm they've read and agreed to the SWMS. The document shows a running list of who has and hasn't signed — the supervisor can see this in real time.

Once all required crew have signed, the SWMS status changes to Active. Work can begin.

Version control

If conditions change mid-job — weather turns, scope extends, new hazards emerge — the supervisor can create a Revision of the active SWMS. The crew must re-sign the revision before work continues.

Every version is retained. The audit trail shows exactly what was agreed to, by whom, and when.

Finding past SWMS documents

Go to Records → SWMS. Search by job name, date, or location. Download as PDF for your own records or to send to a principal contractor.

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