SSSP Software

A live SSSP for every site

Main contractors expect an SSSP before you set foot on site, backed by your risk assessments, SWMS and tickets. Complys keeps each SSSP connected to those records and current, so putting one together is minutes, not a weekend.

What an SSSP is, and where it comes from

A Site-Specific Safety Plan sets out how health and safety will be managed on one particular site or project. It is worth being precise: an SSSP is industry practice, not a form named in the law. The Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA), New Zealand’s primary workplace health-and-safety statute, regulated by WorkSafe New Zealand, does not require a document called an “SSSP”. What it requires is that every PCBU (person conducting a business or undertaking) meets a primary duty of care: to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that the health and safety of workers and others is not put at risk by its work. The SSSP is simply the practical way contractors evidence that they are meeting that duty on a specific job.¹

Overlapping duties: why the main contractor asks for yours

On a construction site many businesses work alongside each other, so their duties overlap. HSWA requires PCBUs who share a workplace or a contracting chain to consult, cooperate with and coordinate activities with one another, so far as is reasonably practicable, and a PCBU cannot contract out of its duties or push risk down the chain. Because the lead (main) contractor usually has the most influence and control over the site, it typically prequalifies subcontractors, runs inductions and coordinates the overall safety plan. Asking every subcontractor for a current SSSP before work starts is how it discharges that coordination duty, which is why a missing or out-of-date SSSP stops you getting on site.

What goes in an SSSP

A useful SSSP records how you will identify and manage the site’s hazards, report accidents and incidents, train and supervise workers, engage the crew in health and safety, and handle emergencies including first aid and rescue. It should reflect the actual work: the hazards on this site, the people on it, and the tickets and competencies they hold. A plan that was copied from the last job and never updated is exactly what a good main contractor will notice.

SSSP, SWMS and risk assessments, how they fit

These are different layers, not synonyms. A risk assessment identifies a hazard and the controls for it. A Safe Work Method Statement (SWMS) sets out, step by step, how a specific higher-risk task will be done safely. The SSSP is the site-level plan that ties those together and shows how safety is run across the whole job. Complys keeps them connected, so your SSSP stays consistent with your SWMS and your risk assessments instead of drifting apart.

Site Safe and the three packs

Many New Zealand clients build on Site Safe templates, which come as three colour-coded packs: a Red pack for a main contractor running its own systems, a Green pack for a subcontractor working under the main contractor’s systems, and a Yellow pack for a contractor keeping its own systems while following the main contractor’s site procedures. Site Safe passports and tickets are commonly required alongside the plan. Complys tracks those passports, tickets and training per worker with expiry reminders, it does not issue Site Safe passports or certify your plan.²

Who needs an SSSP, and when

In practice, anyone going onto a managed construction site needs one: the main contractor holds the overarching plan for the site, and every subcontractor, down to sole traders and small crews , is usually asked for their own SSSP (or to work under the main contractor’s) before they start. It is not a one-off document either: it should be reviewed when the work, the site conditions or the people on it change, and kept current for the life of the job. A plan produced late, or left unchanged from the previous project, is the most common reason a subcontractor is turned away at the gate.

Notifiable events: what you must tell WorkSafe

Separate from any client’s SSSP requirement, HSWA places a legal duty on the PCBU to notify WorkSafeof a notifiable event. There are three kinds: a notifiable death, a notifiable injury or illness (a serious work-related injury or illness), and a notifiable incident (an unplanned or uncontrolled event that exposed someone to a serious risk to health or safety). A death must be reported to WorkSafe immediately, and the site of a notifiable event generally must not be disturbed until WorkSafe allows it. Having incident details, witnesses and actions already captured makes meeting that duty far less frantic.³

Engaging your workers is a duty, not a nice-to-have

HSWA also requires a PCBU to engage with workers on health-and-safety matters that affect them and to have worker participation practices, which is why crews often elect Health and Safety Representatives and larger sites run committees. A good SSSP reflects that: it is briefed to the people doing the work, not filed and forgotten. Keeping the plan, the briefings and the sign-offs together is part of showing the plan is real rather than paperwork.

Officers have their own duty

HSWA does not stop at the business. Its officers, the people who make governance decisions, such as directors, have a personal duty to exercise due diligence to ensure the PCBU meets its health-and-safety obligations. In practice that means understanding the work and its hazards, making sure the business has and uses appropriate resources and processes, and verifying that they are actually working, not simply assuming they are. A live, current SSSP with briefings and sign-offs is part of the evidence an officer can point to that the business is managing risk, rather than trusting that it is. Keeping that record in one place is exactly what Complys is for.¹

How Complys keeps your SSSP current

Complys is the place your SSSP, SWMS, assessments, tickets and contractor documents live and stay current, not a certifier and not a guarantee of compliance. When a main contractor asks, you can produce and share a clean, current Site-Specific Safety Plan in seconds, backed by your health & safety records, training and tickets, incident records and contractor documents. You stay in control of what you share and with whom; Complys makes sure what sits behind it is up to date.

¹ Plain-English summary, not legal advice; confirm your obligations against current guidance. Source: HSWA 2015 (worksafe.govt.nz) and overlapping duties (worksafe.govt.nz). ² SSSP structure and packs: Site Safe (sitesafe.org.nz). ³ Notifiable events: WorkSafe NZ. Reviewed September 2026.

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