Chapter 2: HOW TO DEVELOP AN SPI PROGRAMME
STEP TWO: IDENTIFY THE KEY ISSUES OF CONCERN Clarify the scope of your SPI Programme: Once the SPI team and other arrangements are in place, the next step is to identify the subjects to be addressed in the SPI Programme. Each organisation will have different roles and responsibilities, and a different culture. Therefore, each organisation will need to decide on its own priorities, in order to choose the appropriate indicators and the way they will be measured. It is important to first decide on the scope of your SPI Programme by identifying the issues of concern that would benefit most from SPIs. These include the key safety-related policies, programmes, procedures and practices that are most important for the protection of human health, the environment and/or property. Each organisation will need to decide what makes sense in its own context. Set priorities: After identifying the issues of concern, it may be necessary to limit the SPI Programme to focus on a manageable number of indicators, gain experience and keep within resource constraints. If it is helpful, you can start with just a few indicators and increase the number of indicators as you gain more experience.
STEP ONE Establish the SPI Team
STEP TWO Identify the Key Issues of Concern
STEP SEVEN Evaluate and Refine Safety Performance Indicators
STEP THREE Define Outcome Indicator(s) and Related Metrics
STEP SIX Act on Findings from Safety Performance Indicators
STEP FOUR Define Activities Indicator(s) and Related Metrics
STEP FIVE Collect the Data and Report Indicator Results
To determine priorities, it may be helpful to answer the following questions: • • • •
Which of your safety-related policies, programmes, procedures and practices have the most direct impact on chemical safety and could do the most to reduce risks to human health, the environment and/or property? Have investigations/reports identified key areas of concern? Which of your safety-related policies, programmes, procedures and practices are most important for addressing these concerns? Will collecting and reviewing information about these safety-related policies, programmes, procedures or practices help you identify potential weaknesses that can be fixed? Are there any recent changes in laws, policies, technology or other circumstances that could influence the safety of hazardous installations? Which elements of your safety-related policies, programmes, procedures and practices address these new circumstances? Are there unanswered questions about how well these policies, programmes, procedures and practices will work that would benefit from SPIs?
Avoid pitfalls: During this Step, many organisations fall into the trap of asking what they can measure instead of what they should measure. This could result in identifying indicators that are most obvious and easy to measure rather than indicators that are most valuable for safety purposes. Therefore, at this step of the process, it is important to focus on what to monitor and avoid discussions of how to monitor. Questions about how to measure performance should be addressed after you have completed Step Two and have moved on to Steps Three and Four.
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Guidance on Developing Safety Performance Indicators for Public Authorities and Communities/Public—©OECD 2008