Do you provide services to District Health Boards (DHB's)? Have you received communication from the DHB about getting a Tōtika PreQualification and/or a Safe365 health and safety maturity self-assessment?

All DHB's are subject to the Health and Safety at Work Act (2015) which includes specific obligations they must meet in relation to overlapping risks they share with suppliers and contractors that do work for the DHB.

To avoid DHB suppliers and contractors needing to duplicate health and safety requirements (as many provide products and services for multiple DHB's), Safe365 has been working closely with the DHB's to develop, test, and implement a streamlined, nationally recognised model that not only provides the assurance DHB's require, but also adds value to suppliers and contractors and keeps costs as affordable as possible.

1. Tōtika Health and Safety PreQualification: In 2021, CHASNZ launched the Tōtika PreQualification standard with Safe365 becoming the very first accredited provider to issue Tōtika certification through our prequalification product Qualify365. Since launching Qualify365, we have assisted hundreds of contracting businesses through both our digital platform and our team of highly competent, qualified and experienced health and safety professionals to attain their Tōtika PreQual certification.

• Click here to determine which Totika Category your organisation is
• Click here to get started with Qualify365 Tōtika PreQual process

2. Safe365 Maturity Self Assessments: The Safe365 online maturity self-assessment has been developed to help businesses understand their health and safety capability, to continually improve it over time and to monitor how things are progressing. It is more holistic than a prequalification process, and algorithms embedded in the product give each business its own unique improvement pathway in real-time, together with the tools to make those improvements.  Some DHB's are now requiring their larger and/or higher risk activity suppliers and contractors (defined as CAT-2 or CAT-3 under the Tōtika framework) to complete and maintain a Safe365 maturity profile as assurance of a contractor's ongoing commitment to work health and safety continual improvement. 

Frequently Asked Questions for Healthcare Contractors & Suppliers

1. What is Tōtika PreQual? 

Tōtika PreQual is a national standard for health and safety prequalification. The Tōtika standard is independent of any commercial prequalification provider. Providers like Qualify365 gain accreditation from Construction Health and Safety New Zealand (CHASNZ) in order to be able to offer Tōtika PreQual certification services. Safe365 Limited, who operate the Qualify365 Tōtika PreQual service, are regularly audited by CHASNZ to ensure we are providing a fair, transparent and professional service consistent with the Tōtika Scheme Rules. Introduced in 2021, Tōtika is rapidly becoming a nationally recognised, cross-industry certification that contractors/suppliers can present to multiple clients with the aim of reducing the duplication that existed previously when each prequalification service was proprietary based with various private prequalification providers meaning contractors were often asked to complete multiple different prequalification processes in any given year. 

2. We are a CAT-2 or CAT-3 business and we already have a digital health and safety system - do we have to use Safe365?

There is no requirement for contractors to adopt Safe365 as their health and safety management system. Safe365 is underpinned by two major feature sets - digital health and safety maturity profiling & health and safety management system. CAT-2 and CAT-3 contractors are being asked by many DHB's to complete and maintain a Safe365 maturity profile (not to adopt Safe365 as their HSMS). The reason why is that the Safe365 maturity profile provides ongoing visibility to the DHB of the contractors' commitment to health and safety (as compared to a prequal which is a 'point in time' 3rd party verification of your policies & procedures). For higher-risk activity contractors, this combination provides a good level of assurance to the DHB of your health and safety status as a business and enables them to meet key aspects of their overlapping PCBU obligations while also assisting your business to understand and demonstrate it is meeting its own primary duty of care and officer due diligence obligations as required under the NZ Health and Safety at Work Act (2015). 

3. Can I use my Qualify365 Tōtika PreQual and Safe365 Maturity Profile with multiple DHB's? 

Yes - this is a key driver of why the DHB's are collectively working with Safe365. The DHB's meet as a sector health and safety group and are taking steps to harmonize common health and safety processes like supply chain management. As the model gets fully implemented, this will reduce costs and complexity to all parties and increase the quality of health and safety across the system. This means, over time, less duplication in time and cost for contractors and suppliers in terms of meeting procurement requirements. And if you supply into other industries, such as construction, it is likely your Totika PreQual will be transferrable to those clients also, outside of health.