Maturity model · 5 dimensions

Cultural Safety Model.

The Cultural Safety model is a maturity assessment of how an organisation manages safety culture, scored across five dimensions: Policies & Procedures, Balance between Productivity & Safety, Incident Reporting & Investigation, Training & Competence, and Communication & Engagement. For each dimension, people choose the statement that best reflects how things actually work — mapping lived experience onto a five-band ladder from Avoidance through Reactive Compliant, Committed Compliant and Human Focused to Fully Integrated. One off-path pattern — System Obsessed, where compliance paperwork substitutes for genuine safety focus — is surfaced separately as an emergent theme rather than scored as a rung on the ladder. Assessment triangulates six evidence sources: a perception survey, discussion groups, leader interviews, a senior leadership (SLT) workshop, site observations, and document review.

5 dimensions7 methods5 maturity levels

Or get started in your own workspace →

What the Cultural Safety Model model measures

Policies & Procedures: How the organization creates, uses and perceives policies and procedures, and how the need for change is identified and acted on. Watch for the "System Obsessed" trap: procedures and permits become a paper-pushing exercise — too many, and the number keeps growing.
Balance between Productivity & Safety: How the organization resolves competing imperatives for safety and for production/profit, in both the short and long term. Watch for the "System Obsessed" trap: safety is valued mainly because accidents cost money, and complete paperwork is treated as proof that people are safe.
Incident Reporting & Investigation: Which incidents get reported, and how the findings of investigations are used. Watch for the "System Obsessed" trap: people are told to report everything, but heavy paperwork and lengthy investigations rarely surface the real cause.
Training & Competence: Attitudes to the need for training, skills and competency, and how needs get identified and met. Watch for the "System Obsessed" trap: training becomes a box-ticking exercise where completion equals competence, and feedback on training is sought but ignored.
Communication & Engagement: The efficiency, positivity and consistency of safety communication, and the balance between management "telling" and listening. Watch for the "System Obsessed" trap: there is so much safety communication that important messages get missed or signed off without being read.

How it's assessed

Perception Survey — Anonymous site-wide survey. Per dimension, respondents pick the statement that best matches their experience (mapped to levels 1-5); the System Obsessed statement is pulled out as a theme. Also carries supplementary climate items (reported separately).
Discussion Groups — Facilitated focus-group sessions with a cross-section of the workforce. Per dimension the group selects the statement(s) that best fit; the distribution across levels and the System Obsessed share are recorded.
Leader Interviews — One-to-one, ~75-minute confidential interviews with leaders. A statement (1-6) is selected per dimension alongside qualitative notes.
Leadership (SLT) Workshop — Facilitated senior-leadership-team workshop across the five dimensions plus leadership/cascade/contractor themes. Primarily qualitative (themes with strength tallies); a per-dimension indicative level is optional.
Site Observations — Observational tours of 'work-as-done' to validate survey and discussion findings. Recorded as a narrative with an indicative level per dimension.
Document Review — Desktop review of existing safety management documents, risk assessments, incident analyses and related artefacts. Qualitative evidence per dimension; not folded into the composite by default.
Leadership 360 — 360-degree feedback on leadership safety-culture behaviours derived from the five dimensions — self, manager, peer and direct-report views per leader. Individual development data, reported per subject and as a cohort aggregate; not folded into the composite by default.

Results are reported against 5 maturity levels: Avoidance, Reactive Compliant, Committed Compliant, Human Focused, Fully Integrated.