What Victorian Schools Need to Know About Annual Height Safety Recertification

Annual recertification is not optional for Victorian schools. Yet many are still operating with expired certifications, often without realising it, because nobody on staff owns the roof.

Why Annual Recertification Is a Legal Requirement

AS/NZS 1891.4 requires permanent anchorages, horizontal lifelines and rail systems to be inspected by a competent person at intervals of no more than 12 months. The anchors themselves are manufactured and tested to AS/NZS 5532:2013, and static lines to AS/NZS 1891.2. The standards become binding in practice through the OHS Act: duty holders must control risks so far as is reasonably practicable, and WorkSafe Victoria measures what is reasonably practicable against the published Australian Standards.

Under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004 (Vic), sections 21, 23 and 26, schools as employers and as the party controlling the site have a duty to ensure the health and safety of workers — including contractors who access the roof for maintenance, solar panel servicing, HVAC work or gutter cleaning. If a contractor accesses your roof using an anchor point that isn't currently certified and an incident occurs, the school's principal and governing body face serious exposure.

Part 3.3 of the OHS Regulations 2017 applies wherever someone could fall more than 2 metres, which covers almost every school roof. It requires the risk to be controlled in a set order: guardrails and other passive protection first, with anchor points and harnesses used where passive protection is not reasonably practicable.

What Happens During an Annual Recertification

A proper annual recertification involves a physical inspection of every anchor point, static line and associated component on your buildings. A competent inspector checks:

• The structural integrity of each anchor point and its fixings
• Corrosion, wear, damage or deterioration to any component
• That the system was installed correctly and in accordance with the relevant Australian Standard
• That signage and tagging is in place and current
• Load test records and installation history

Where systems are compliant, a compliance certificate is issued for each one. Where defects are found, they must be documented in a corrective action report and the system tagged out of service until repaired.

What Documentation You Should Receive

After every recertification visit, your school should receive a complete compliance package. If your current contractor is only handing you a single certificate, that's not enough. You should receive:

• Individual compliance certificates for each anchor point or system inspected
• A written inspection report covering all systems on site
• Photographic evidence of each system and any defects identified
• A corrective action report if any non-compliant systems were found
• Confirmation of your next inspection due date

This documentation needs to be retained in your school's OHS records. In the event of a WorkSafe audit or incident investigation, it's the evidence that your school has met its obligations.

Which School Frameworks Apply

Victorian schools operate under different frameworks depending on their sector, but the underlying Australian Standards obligations are the same across all of them.

• Government schools operate under DET's Education Safety Management (ESM) framework and VSBA asset management obligations. Annual recertification of height safety systems is explicitly required.
• Catholic schools under MACS, DOSCEL and the other Victorian dioceses are subject to the same OHS Act requirements as all Victorian employers, with their own sector-specific procurement and compliance processes.
• Independent schools manage their own procurement but are equally bound by the OHS Act and relevant Australian Standards.

How to Know If Your Certifications Are Current

Each anchor point should have a physical tag showing the date of the last inspection and the next due date. If you can't find tags, if tags show a date more than 12 months ago, or if you don't have documented records of a recent inspection — your certifications have likely lapsed.

The simplest first step is to contact a certified height safety inspector to conduct a compliance audit of your site. This will give you a clear picture of what you have, whether it's compliant, and what needs to be done.