Major commitment from ACC to drive health and safety initiatives | IMPAC health and safety

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ACC has announced that they have earmarked $22 million over the next five years to help businesses reduce workplace injury through Workplace Injury Prevention Grant and Subsidy programmes. 

According to Paul Gimblett, Head of Workplace Safety & Levies at ACC, the funding “will support Kiwi businesses to access effective health and safety solutions and share learnings and innovations to tackle the unknown.”

ACC Minister Iain Lees-Galloway confirms this commitment, saying “the Government is determined to ensure that all New Zealanders can return home to their friends and whanau in the same health as when they began their day at work. The Government is serious about improving health and safety in Kiwi workplaces.”

Details of the fund

As ACC outlines, two types of assistance will be available as part of this initiative:

Workplace injury prevention grants

These grants will provide funding for organisations to help solve workplace health and safety problems that affect multiple businesses in an industry or supply chain, to create changes that lead to workplace health and safety improvements for many businesses and their staff.

Workplace injury prevention subsidies

Injury prevention subsidies are available to small to medium businesses, especially in higher risk sectors, to access services and other supports that are known to improve workplace health and safety.

There are three types of subsidies:

• workforce capability development (e.g. training courses)
• professional health and safety consulting advice
• capital investment that has health and safety outcomes (e.g. people moving equipment).

The focus for the first round of funding is the construction and the healthcare and social assistance sectors. Subsidies for other sectors will be offered in the future.

When is this happening?

There will be two funding rounds for grants, in February and September, and three for subsidies, in February, June, and September. Click here for more detailed information.

With the imminent release from ACC of application details for both initiatives, IMPAC would encourage New Zealand businesses to take this opportunity to drive continuous improvement in their workplace health and safety. We would be happy to provide more information and guidance to develop submissions once the funding applications are available, so feel free to contact us for assistance.