How Y Victoria moved beyond
compliance to measure and strengthen safety culture across 6,000 staff
Y Victoria
“We had a certified safety management system and strong policies and procedures, but most of our indicators were lag indicators such as lost time injuries and premium impacts.”
Dan Coathup, Chief Risk Officer, Y Victoria
The Challenge
Y Victoria is one of Australia’s largest community service organisations, delivering recreation, aquatics, youth programs, early learning and camping services across multiple locations and communities.
With approximately 6,000 employees and thousands of daily interactions with the public, the organisation manages a complex safety environment that includes frontline staff, community participants, contractors and facilities.
Prior to engaging Safe365, Y Victoria already operated a certified ISO 45001 safety management system. Policies, procedures and internal audit programs were well established and governance processes were in place.
However, leadership recognised a critical limitation.
Most safety reporting relied on lag indicators such as:
Lost time injuries, Workers compensation claims, Incident statistics, Insurance premium impacts.
While these indicators were important, they only described what had already happened.
They did not provide insight into the underlying strength of the organisation’s safety culture or how effectively safety leadership was being lived across diverse frontline operations.
The Y wanted to move beyond a compliance‑driven model to better understand:
- How the presence of safety was operating across different divisions
- Whether leadership behaviours and frontline practices were aligned
- Where improvement opportunities existed
- How Y Victoria compared to similar organisations
- How safety performance could be demonstrated to governance bodies, insurers and partners
At the same time, the organisation was emerging from the financial pressures created by COVID‑19.
Many YMCA services, including recreation memberships, swim programs and camps are discretionary for communities. Cost pressures meant leadership needed to manage operational risk carefully while protecting services and reducing controllable cost drivers such as injuries and claims.
The opportunity was clear: develop an evidence‑based way to measure safety culture maturity and use those insights to guide improvement across the organisation.
The Solution
The Safe365 program was delivered through four phases, designed to move the organisation from measurement to action. Engagement included leaders, managers and frontline staff to ensure a representative view of operations.
Phase 1: Planning & Alignment
The initiative began within the risk and safety portfolio led by the Chief Risk Officer. The goal was to understand safety culture across the organisation’s seven divisions:
- Camping
- Youth Services
- Recreation
- Kingswim
- Early Learning
- OSHC (Out of School Hours Care)
- Business Enablement
A structured rollout plan was developed to ensure the program engaged leadership, managers and frontline staff across the organisation.
Phase 2: Measurement
Workshops and surveys were conducted across the divisions to gather insights into safety leadership, behaviours, systems and frontline practices.
Importantly, engagement included a mix of participants from senior management through to frontline staff across each of the 7 business units.
This ensured the assessment reflected how safety was actually experienced across operations rather than only a head‑office perspective.
Phase 3: Insights & Benchmarking
The results produced Y Victoria’s first organisation‑wide safety culture maturity baseline.
The findings were then reported through governance channels including:
- Organisational Risk Committee
- Executive Leadership Team
- Risk subcommittee
- Board of Directors
This data provided leadership with an objective view of safety culture performance and how it compared to broader industry benchmarks.
Phase 4: Improvement
Following the baseline assessment, safety culture maturity became embedded in the organisation’s strategic framework.
The maturity score is now an organisational KPI and forms part of executive leadership performance expectations.
From there it cascades throughout the organisation, including:
- Business unit strategic plans
- Divisional improvement initiatives
- Operational performance meetings at site level
This ensures safety culture improvement is not a one‑off activity but a continuous leadership focus.
The Results:
The introduction of Safe365 has delivered measurable strategic and operational outcomes.
Safety Culture Maturity Growth
Y Victoria established a baseline safety culture maturity index score of 65%, which equated to an early-proactive tier using the Hudson Framework. This reflected a higher than average baseline score, with the global average SCMI being 53%, and represents the strong foundations that had been established.
Within the 12-month assessment cycle the organisation improved to a score of 70 — a five‑point uplift in overall safety culture maturity.
All business units progressed into the fourth maturity tier, reflecting stronger leadership engagement and more consistent safety practices.
Targeted improvement across divisions
The data also helped identify specific areas requiring attention.
For example, the camping division recorded one of the largest improvements, increasing its maturity score by approximately ten points.
These insights allowed leadership to address capability gaps, strengthen management support and ensure the right expertise was in place to improve safety outcomes.
Frontline safety ownership
One of the most significant shifts has been cultural.
Staff are now far more proactive in identifying hazards, addressing unsafe behaviours and intervening earlier when risks emerge.
This increased awareness means issues are identified earlier and addressed before they escalate into more serious incidents
Reduced injury severity
Y Victoria is also beginning to see operational impact through reduced severity of injuries.
While overall incident numbers may remain similar, the seriousness and consequences of those incidents are declining, resulting in fewer severe injuries and lower disruption to staff and services.
This shift is critical because injury severity is one of the strongest drivers of insurance costs and organisational impact.
Insurance and financial outcomes
The programme has also been supported by Y Victoria’s workers’ compensation insurer through dedicated risk management funding, with insurer backing sustained over a three-year period.
Insurers recognise that strengthening safety maturity can directly reduce claims severity and long‑term premium impacts.
In the most recent financial year, Y Victoria recorded just one significant workers’ compensation claim, with the remainder being lower-value matters. While the full financial benefit is still emerging as legacy claims cycle out, the severity trend is a strong leading indicator and early estimates are looking positive.
“Staff are less likely to walk past unsafe behaviour, which has directly improved patron and public safety”
Dan Coathup, Chief Risk Officer.
The Strategic Impact
For Y Victoria, the Safe365 program has elevated safety from operational compliance to strategic leadership.
The maturity score is now embedded in governance and strategic planning processes, ensuring safety improvement is owned at every level of the organisation.
The program also strengthens Y Victoria’s reputation with
partners and communities. Demonstrating evidence‑based safety leadership helps build trust with local governments, community stakeholders and
contracting partners who rely on Y Victoria to operate safe
facilities and programs.
As Coathup explains, strong safety capability also supports the organisation commercially by strengthening its ability to win and retain community service contracts.
“The output and what you get from Safe365 is so much more than what a general consultant would do.”
Dan Coathup, Chief Risk Officer.
What this means for your organisation?
Y Victoria’s experience demonstrates the value of measuring safety culture maturity through evidence‑based methods.
For organisations managing complex frontline operations, the benefits include:
Multi‑site organisations
Large organisations with multiple divisions can gain visibility into how safety culture varies across locations and leadership teams.
Community and service organisations
Organisations delivering public services can strengthen both employee and community safety through proactive leadership behaviours.
Leaders seeking data‑driven safety decisions
Boards and executives gain credible insight into how safety culture is performing and where improvement investment should be focused.
Ready to Transform Your Safety Culture?
Continuous improvement in safety requires the entire organisation to understand what, why and how.
