Annual review time
Your annual safety review keeps your operation current and your SMS alive. Work through each area below — it takes time to do properly, but your TA will notice if you don't.
Run your annual safety review
Your SMS requires a documented annual review. Work through the structured template below to confirm your systems are still fit for purpose and capture any changes to your operation over the past year.
Check all staff qualifications
Verify that every guide and instructor holds current qualifications for the activities they're delivering. Pay particular attention to first aid expiry dates — these are the most commonly missed. If any qualifications have lapsed, address them before the next operating season.
Audit your equipment
Review inspection records for all safety-critical equipment. Check that inspection schedules are being met, retirement criteria are documented, and any equipment that has been involved in an incident or fall has been properly assessed.
Review and update risk assessments
Risk assessments are not set-and-forget. If anything changed in the past year — new sites, new activities, new hazards, staff turnover, incidents, or near misses — your assessments need to reflect it. Even if nothing changed, an annual sign-off confirms they're still current.
Update your SOPs
If your review has identified changes — new controls, updated briefing processes, revised equipment procedures — update your Standard Operating Procedures accordingly. Your SMS should reflect how you actually run your operation, not how you intended to when you first wrote it.
Review incidents and near misses from the year
Go through every incident and near miss from the past year. Were they all properly reported and investigated? Did the changes you made in response actually get embedded into your systems? If not, close those loops now.
Prepare for your TA audit (if due)
Technical Advisor audits happen every three years for registered operators. If your audit is approaching, use this review as preparation. TAs commonly find gaps in: site-specific risk assessments, staff qualification records, equipment inspection logs, and documented briefing processes.
What TAs commonly find
- — SMS filed away rather than used day-to-day
- — Informal qualification tracking (spreadsheets with no expiry alerts)
- — Near misses that weren't recorded or investigated
- — Generic risk assessments not updated for new sites or conditions
- — Inconsistent pre-activity briefings (not documented in SOPs)