Take 5 safety template for Australian worksites

A Take 5 is a short point-of-work pause to check the actual task, today's conditions, exposed people and controls before starting or resuming work. The name describes a practice, not a statutory form or a promise that five minutes is enough for every job. Use the template below to record what changed, which controls are present, and who must resolve a hold. If the job requires a SWMS, licence, permit, engineering plan or specialist assessment, a Take 5 can support those documents but does not replace them.

Safe Work Australia's model risk-management Code describes identifying hazards, assessing risk where necessary, controlling and reviewing controls. Its risk-management guidance explains that the team should check whether safeguards work as planned. Check which Code and legislation have effect locally; Victoria has a separate OHS framework.

The best use of a Take 5 is a fresh decision at the workface: a new delivery vehicle blocks the pedestrian route, a machine develops a defect, weather changes, another trade enters the area, or the agreed exclusion zone has moved. The worker should be able to stop, escalate and wait for a real control rather than merely choose “low risk” on a form.

Copyable Take 5 form

1. Task and people

Do not use a copied task title if today's work is different. Say whether the team is setting up, operating, maintaining, cleaning, lifting, travelling or handing the area back. A separate crew may be exposed even if it does not touch the equipment.

2. What is different today?

“No change” is a meaningful answer only if the worker compared actual conditions with a current plan. If a significant change is outside the approved work method, stop and have the right person review the underlying SWMS, risk assessment, design or permit. A Take 5 note must not silently amend a formal approval.

3. Hazard, control and proof table

Use the hierarchy of control. Eliminate the hazard or avoid the work where reasonably practicable; then consider substitution, isolation and engineering controls before relying on instructions or PPE. A high-visibility vest is not a barrier between a person and a reversing vehicle. A sign is not proof that a live service is isolated. The chosen control must be physically present and suited to this location, and the table should say how the worker checked it.

4. Stop-and-escalate decisions

Do not start or continue the affected task if any of these apply:

• A required SWMS, permit, licence, isolation, engineered design, inspection or supervisor release is missing or no longer fits the work.
• A safety-critical control, guard, barricade, ventilation/extraction, restraint or rescue arrangement is missing or failed.
• The ground, load, structure, services, atmosphere or material is uncertain and the consequence could be serious.
• The work would expose another person because the boundary, traffic route or simultaneous-work arrangement has changed.
• The worker does not understand the method or cannot apply the control.

Recording “supervisor notified” is not a release. The responsible person must fix or control the hazard, update the work method when required, brief everyone affected, then explicitly release the work. If the danger is outside the team's competence, seek the right specialist rather than adding another tick to the form.

5. Confirm and review

Safe Work Australia's consultation guidance emphasises worker participation. Ask the person doing the work to describe the main hazard and stop point. A silent signature or app tap should not be treated as proof of understanding. If a health and safety representative is involved, use the applicable consultation arrangement.

Example: changed delivery route

A crew is moving materials on a building site. The morning site plan uses a physically separated pedestrian path. A large delivery parks across that route. A fresh Take 5 records the blocked path and people who might enter the vehicle area. The crew stops movement and contacts the site traffic controller. A new protected pedestrian route, crossing arrangement and delivery holding point are set and communicated to the affected trades before work resumes. “Wear hi-vis and look out for trucks” would not solve the original separation failure. The formal traffic plan and site induction may also need updating; the Take 5 flags the change rather than replacing those records.

When a Take 5 is the wrong sole document

A Take 5 is useful for a short, familiar task in known conditions and for rechecking an approved method. It is not a substitute for the SWMS required for high-risk construction work. Safe Work Australia's SWMS information sheet describes the required content and use. Structural demolition, confined-space entry, electrical isolation, complex lifts, asbestos or silica exposure may require specialist planning, permits, testing and competent approval. The field form can record the fact that those controls were checked; it cannot design them.

It is also not a universal statutory record. The legal duty is to manage risks and consult under the applicable law. Some tasks or hazards have specific documentation and retention duties; the local regulator and employer system should determine them. Avoid presenting a five-point tick list as a legal certificate or a “compliance score”.

How to use this with existing Complys pages

The observed Complys AU risk-assessment software page is the commercial owner for planned task/area assessments. The AU SWMS guide explains the high-risk construction document. This template owns the short point-of-work check and should link to those owners rather than repeat their whole content. The money page markets hazard libraries, a risk matrix and SWMS linkage; those public claims still need implementation and plan verification. Do not claim a dedicated Complys Take 5 function, automatic risk approval or offline sign-off without proof. A safe CTA after verification is: Ask Complys how its current AU product can keep a changed-task check with the underlying assessment and action record.

Source, claim, owner, link, product and writer-side QA register — 5 October 2026

Terminal writer-side disposition: READY. No live content or Complys repository was modified.