Safety Services

Health and Safety Services That Work in the Real World

Lakes Safety Services helps Taupō businesses build practical health and safety systems that are used by their people, support good decision-making, and stand up to scrutiny.

We work with business owners, managers, boards, trusts, contractors, and organisations across a wide range of industries. Our services include health and safety management systems, contractor management, risk management, audits, investigations, SafePlus assessments, governance support, training, and digital health and safety solutions.

Our focus is simple: helping organisations manage risk, improve performance, and build safer workplaces without unnecessary paperwork or complexity.

Safety and eLearning Software

Health and safety software should support real work — not create more administration.

As an Authorised SafetySeek Consultant, we help businesses implement one of New Zealand's most comprehensive health and safety management platforms. We also support Bracken, one of New Zealand's leading eLearning solutions, and SaferMe where it is the right fit for an organisation.

Our role is simple: help you choose the right platform, implement it properly, and ensure your team gets real value from it.

What to Consider When Selecting a Platform

• Built for New Zealand businesses and legislation.

• Easy for workers to use every day.

• Scalable as your organisation grows.

• Backed by experienced local implementation and support.

• Configured to suit your business — not the other way around.

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Injury Management and Return to Work

When an employee is injured, early and practical support can help them stay connected to work and return to their normal duties safely. Lakes Safety Services helps businesses manage workplace injuries and return-to-work arrangements, including suitable duties, recovery plans, communication, responsibilities and review. We work with employers to develop practical arrangements based on the employee’s work capacity and medical advice, while supporting a safe and sustainable return to their usual role.
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Training and Coaching

Lakes Safety Services helps Taupo businesses identify the health and safety training, information, instruction and supervision their people need to work safely and confidently.

We provide practical, tailored workplace training, inductions, workshops and coaching based on your actual risks and systems. Where specialist or formal training is required, we can help identify what is needed and connect you with appropriate training providers.

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Risk Management

Effective risk management starts with understanding the work, identifying hazards and risks, and putting appropriate controls in place. Lakes Safety Services helps businesses develop practical approaches to hazard and risk management — from everyday workplace hazards through to critical risks that require greater control, monitoring and assurance. We can review existing risk registers and processes, help establish new ones, and work with your people to make sure risks and controls reflect how the work is actually carried out.  
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Incident Management

When something goes wrong, understanding what happened and why is essential to preventing it happening again.

Lakes Safety Services provides independent workplace incident investigations, helping businesses establish the facts, identify contributing factors and understand where systems or controls may have failed. We can support serious and complex incidents, internal investigations and follow-up after notifiable events, providing an objective external view when it matters. We can assist with: • Independent workplace incident investigations • Serious and notifiable event investigations • Support for internal investigation teams • Incident interviews and evidence review • Identifying contributing factors and control failures • Practical corrective actions and recommendations Our investigation approach is tailored to the incident and the organisation. We draw on recognised investigation methods and tools, including ICAM, 5 Whys, causal analysis and other structured techniques where appropriate, rather than applying one methodology to every event. Our focus is on understanding what happened, learning from it and helping prevent recurrence — not finding someone to blame.
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Health and Safety Management Systems (HSMS)

Every business needs a health and safety system that works in practice — not just a manual sitting on a shelf. Lakes Safety Services develops and improves practical Health and Safety Management Systems (HSMS) tailored to your organisation, risks and the way your people actually work. We can build a new system from the ground up or review and simplify an existing one. This may include policies, risk management, incident management, worker engagement, training and competency, contractor management, emergency preparedness, monitoring and assurance, and governance arrangements. Our approach is based on New Zealand health and safety requirements and recognised good practice, with the level of documentation and process matched to the size, complexity and risks of your organisation.

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Monitoring & Assurance

Good health and safety governance requires more than receiving reports. Directors and senior leaders need reliable information and assurance that risks are being managed and health and safety systems are working in practice. Lakes Safety Services provides independent monitoring and assurance to help organisations understand what is working, where gaps exist and where greater attention may be required. Our approach can include targeted reviews, workplace verification, health and safety audits, critical risk and control assurance, governance reviews and broader assessments of health and safety management systems. We look beyond documented processes and speak with the people doing the work, helping leaders understand whether work as done reflects work as intended. From operational reviews through to board-level assurance, we provide practical, evidence-based findings that support better decisions and continuous improvement.
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Worker Engagement

Good worker engagement is about giving people a genuine opportunity to contribute to the health and safety decisions that affect them.

Lakes Safety Services helps businesses put practical worker participation arrangements in place — from everyday conversations, toolbox meetings and consultation through to elected Health and Safety Representatives (HSR's) and Health and Safety Committees.

The right approach depends on your workplace, your people and your risks. We help make sure it works in practice, rather than becoming another process that exists only on paper.

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Hear It from Our Clients

See the impact we've had on businesses and how we could do the same for you.

We can’t speak highly enough of Lake Safety Services and Derek in particular. Rather than applying a cookie-cutter template, Derek took the time to genuinely understand our business and our processes before putting anything together. The result was a health and safety solution that fits like a glove – tailored, practical, and clearly built around how we actually operate, not just a generic checklist. If you’re after a consultancy that treats your business as unique rather than “one of many,” Derek and the team at Lake Safety Services are the ones to call!

Jacques Schoeman
Director

MAD Media Ltd – New Plymouth

Highly recommend this health and safety company! They provided top-notch service for our roofing business, ensuring everything was up to standard. Their team was professional, thorough, and easy to work with. We feel confident knowing our safety measures are in excellent hands. Great job.

Laurence
Director

 

Storm Tech Roofing – Hawkes Bay

We are a small yet complex organisation and have been working with Derek for the past year with the goal of creating a robust health and safety system that is maintained through internal ownership and embedded into business as usual. While Derek is knowledgeable, professional, and enthusiastic, his real superpower is working alongside the team to create a system which is tailored and practical, all while growing internal capacity. We would absolutely recommend Derek.

Lake Taupo Hospice

Through Derek, Lakes Safety Services provided an extremely thorough and personalised service to Broadlands School. Derek’s scope was the review the school’s EOTC practices and to make recommednations in changes to policy and day to day management practices including practical EOTC staff documentation. This brief was very well achieved! Derek has also provided great follow up service and a willingness to assist with any future EOTC draft policies before being adopted by the Board.

Graeme Taylor
Principal

Broadlands School

Derek was approachable, experienced, and readily available (at very short notice) for what was required for our H&S work site induction. Highly recommend should your company be in need of a person to tackle H&S matters.

Grace Solomon
Resident Manager

Two Trees Ngā Rākau e Rua – Taupō

We had a great experience with Lakes Safety. Derek provided practical, on-site support for our small business, taking the time to look at what we already had in place and offering straightforward guidance on how we could improve our systems.

He was very easy to chat with and came up with practical, workable solutions that actually fit our business. He really does make health and safety much easier and more manageable for a small business.

Carolyn Inglis
Director

Taupo Employment Services

As a business, we’ve had a fantastic experience working with Lakes Safety Services: professional, reliable, and highly knowledgeable, making every interaction seamless from start to finish.

The commitment to people, safety, clear communication, and attention to detail gives us complete confidence in the services provided.

We highly recommend Lakes Safety Services to any business or individual. They’ve shown us that health and safety doesn’t have to be complicated. Practical approach and expert guidance have made a real difference to our business and our staff.

Mirela Petrar
Operations Manager

Taupo DeBretts

Derek provided excellent health & safety consultancy. His advice was practical, thorough, well-delivered, and easy to implement. He helped us identify risks we’d overlooked and suggested cost-effective solutions. Recommend for any business needing H&S guidance.

Murray Beadle
General Manager

BFA Business Advisors and Accountants – Taupo

Very knowledgeable and willing to put the effort in upfront to understand our situation. Tailored things to fit our business requirements without creating a pile of confusing admin for us.

Spenser Christiansen
Director

That Dingo Guy – Manawatu

I got Derek in to update our H&S management system. He was honest and did a great job. Highly recommend.

Mark Bowsher
Station Manager

Whareroa Station – Waikato

Thank you, Derek, for your professional and objective advice. Your insights were incredibly helpful. We also really appreciated your enthusiasm in sharing your social networks and experiences, it was truly inspiring!

Eve Liu
Office Manager

Hauraki Civil Engineering – Rotorua

Practical Health and Safety Support That Works

Experience You Can Rely On

With over 30 years of real-world experience, Lakes Safety Services helps businesses manage risk, build practical safety systems, manage contractors, complete SafePlus assessments and improve health and safety governance — without unnecessary paperwork or complexity.