Set up your Safety Management System

There are 4 main components and 12 elements that you must include when developing your SMS. These will provide the structure for creating a scalable SMS.

Safety policy and objectives

• management commitment
• safety accountabilities and responsibilities
• appointment of key safety personnel
• coordination of emergency response planning
• SMS documentation.

To support your understanding, read Booklet 2 – Safety policy and objectives from our SMS resource kit for aviation.

Safety risk management

• hazard identification
• safety risk assessment and mitigation

To support your understanding, read Booklet 3 – Safety risk management from our SMS resource kit for aviation.

Safety assurance

To support your understanding, read Booklet 4 – Safety assurance from our SMS resource kit for aviation.

• safety performance monitoring and measurement
• the management of change
• continuous improvement of the SMS

Safety promotion

• safety training and education
• safety communication

To support your understanding, read Booklet 5 – Safety promotion from our SMS resource kit for aviation.

You will need to perform a gap analysis. This is how you can see how well your organisation is meeting the required SMS elements.

With your GAP analysis results, you can create an implementation plan to meet any SMS requirements your company is missing.

You can use our helpful SMS Gap analysis and implementation tool to do this. This tool is an editable electronic document.

Define staff roles and responsibilities

Your implementation should identify the roles and responsibilities of key safety staff. These staff can include:

• chief executive officer
• safety manager
• operational key personnel, for example, head of flying operations, head of training and checking
• responsible managers
• committees
• staff representatives.

The safety manager is your organisation’s key person for safety. You should involve them in the creation of your organisation’s SMS.

Refer to our Safety Manager Guide for more information.

You and your staff will need SMS training. This can be either internal or with an external provider.

You can also provide SMS information in your organisation's:

• safety bulletins
• newsletters
• promotional posters
• meetings
• workshops.

This includes:

• safety policies
• hazard and risk registers
• incident reporting procedures
• safety training programs
• audit and review processes.

Documentation must be accessible, understood and integrated into daily operations.

All your staff should feel safe reporting of safety issues. This is critical to building trust and capturing meaningful safety information.

You should also consider how contractors and third parties use your systems and what risks could result.