Guide for NSW businesses
What the NSW psychosocial code of practice means for your business
From 1 July 2026, a NSW business must either follow the approved Code of Practice for managing psychosocial hazards, or manage those hazards in a different way that gives an equal or higher standard of health and safety. Before that date, the Code was guidance a court could look at. Now it sets the standard. For most small businesses the practical answer is simple: work through the Code's four steps, involve your workers, and keep a record of what you found and what you changed.
From 1 July 2026, s 26A of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW) requires a business to comply with an approved code of practice, or manage the risk in a way that is equivalent or better.
Source: Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW), s 26A; the NSW Code is approved under s 274.
What changed on 1 July 2026
Psychosocial hazards are the parts of work that can harm people's mental health. Think high workloads, poor support, unclear roles, bullying, harassment, and aggression from customers. They come from how the work is set up and run, not from the people doing it.
A psychosocial hazard is a hazard that arises from, or relates to, the design or management of work, a work environment, plant at a workplace, or workplace interactions or behaviours, and that may cause psychological harm, whether or not it may also cause physical harm.
Source: Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025 (NSW), s 55A.
SafeWork NSW publishes the Code. It sets out, step by step, how to find and deal with these hazards. It has been an approved code since 2021.
The NSW Code of Practice: Managing psychosocial hazards at work is approved under s 274 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW), and commenced on 28 May 2021.
Source: SafeWork NSW, Code of Practice: Managing psychosocial hazards at work (May 2021), page 2.
What changed on 1 July 2026 is what an approved code means for your business. It is no longer background reading. You now have two ways to meet the duty in s 26A:
- Follow the Code. Do what it sets out, scaled to your size and your work.
- Take a different route. Manage the same hazards your own way, as long as the result is at least as good as following the Code.
What the Code asks you to do
The Code uses the same four steps that apply to any other work health and safety risk.
The NSW Code applies the same four-step risk management process used for other hazards: identify the hazards, assess the risks, control them, and review the controls.
Source: SafeWork NSW, Code of Practice: Managing psychosocial hazards at work (May 2021), section 3.
- Identify the hazards. Look at how the work is designed and managed, and ask the people doing it what makes it harder.
- Assess the risks. Work out how serious the harm could be, how likely it is, and which risks to deal with first.
- Control the risks. Change the work itself where you can, before relying on training or policies.
- Review the controls. Check the changes are working, and look again when the work changes.
Two threads run through all four steps. You talk to your workers, and you write down what you did.
You must consult workers, so far as is reasonably practicable, when identifying hazards and deciding how to control them.
Source: Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW), ss 47 and 49.
The Code's Table 1 lists the most common psychosocial hazards, from role overload to poor support from managers. Our guide to doing a psychosocial risk assessment in NSW walks through each step in more detail.
Table 1 of the NSW Code lists common psychosocial hazards, and the Code says a workplace may have hazards that are not on the list.
Source: SafeWork NSW, Code of Practice: Managing psychosocial hazards at work (May 2021), section 1.1 and Table 1.
What "equivalent or higher standard" means in practice
The second route sounds flexible. In practice it is more work than following the Code, not less.
In our view, a different route only makes sense if you can show, in writing, that your way works at least as well. For each part of the Code you handle differently, you should be able to say:
- what the Code sets out
- what you do instead
- why your way gives the same or a better result for your workers
- what tells you it is working, such as lower overtime, fewer complaints or what workers say.
In a prosecution, a business may give evidence that it met the Act in a different way from the code, if that way gives a standard of health and safety equivalent to or higher than the code.
Source: Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW), s 275(4).
Different does not mean less. A business that skips the steps, or that answers every hazard with an employee assistance program, is not taking an equal route. It is doing less.
Our reading of the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025 (NSW), s 55D, is that an employee assistance program or wellbeing policy on its own is not a control of a psychosocial hazard.
In NSW, the Regulation applies the hierarchy of control to psychosocial risks: where it is reasonably practicable, change the work itself before relying on training or procedures.
Source: Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025 (NSW), ss 55C(a) and 36.
For a business with 10 to 60 people, following the Code is usually the simpler choice. The Code is written to scale. It says a small business can keep the assessment step simple, though more may be needed where serious risks turn up.
The NSW Code says that for a small business, a psychosocial risk assessment may be as simple as regular toolbox discussions with affected workers, with a fuller process that may be required where serious risks are found or suspected.
Source: SafeWork NSW, Code of Practice: Managing psychosocial hazards at work (May 2021), section 3.3.
If you take a different route for any part of the work, write down the comparison when you decide, not months later.
How the Code is used if something goes wrong
Two other sections of the Act explain why the Code matters beyond s 26A. Section 274 is how codes are approved. Section 275 explains how an approved code can be used in a prosecution.
Under the Act, the Minister may approve, vary or revoke a code of practice.
Source: Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW), s 274(1).
In a prosecution under the Act, an approved code of practice can be used as evidence of whether a duty was met.
Source: Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW), s 275(1) and (2).
In a prosecution under the Act, the court may treat an approved code as evidence of what is known about a hazard, a risk or a way to control it, and may rely on the code to decide what was reasonably practicable.
Source: Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW), s 275(3).
In plain terms, the Code is the yardstick. If questions are asked, they are likely to start with what the Code sets out and what you did about it. A dated record of what you found, what you changed and when you checked is worth more than a polished policy.
The phrase "reasonably practicable" appears throughout. It does not mean doing everything possible at any cost.
Reasonably practicable means what can reasonably be done, weighing up all relevant matters, including how likely and how serious the harm is, what the business knows or ought reasonably to know about the risk and ways to control it, whether those ways are available and suitable, and only then the cost, including whether it is grossly disproportionate to the risk.
Source: Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW), s 18.
What it does not mean
- It does not mean you need a consultant.
- It does not mean assessing your staff. The Code is about how the work is designed and run. It is not about diagnosing people or asking about their health.
- It does not mean doing everything at once. The Code treats risk assessment as an ongoing process that you keep improving, not a one-off project.
- It does not mean a wellbeing program is enough. It supports people who are struggling, but it does not change the work causing the strain.
The NSW Code describes itself as practical guidance on the process a business could use to identify and manage psychosocial hazards at work.
Source: SafeWork NSW, Code of Practice: Managing psychosocial hazards at work (May 2021), Scope and application.
The NSW Code says a risk assessment is not something that happens only once, and should be part of a continuous improvement process.
Source: SafeWork NSW, Code of Practice: Managing psychosocial hazards at work (May 2021), section 3.3.
What to do first if you have 10 to 60 staff
You do not need to read every page before you act. Start here.
- Get the Code. It is free to download from the SafeWork NSW website. Read Table 1, which lists the common hazards, and section 3, which sets out the four steps.
- Take a quick snapshot. Our free four-minute check shows where you stand across six areas and names your three biggest gaps.
- Ask each team one question. "What part of the job puts you under the most pressure?" Write down the answers without names.
- Start a simple register. List each hazard, who it affects, how serious it is, what you will change, who owns it and by when. Our free psychosocial hazard register template gives you a layout to copy.
- Change one thing about the work. Pick the most serious hazard and change the work itself: a roster, a staffing level, a deadline, or who handles a task. Training and policies can follow.
- Book a review. Put a date in the calendar to check whether the change worked, and to look at the list again.
None of these steps needs a purchase, and together they give you a dated record.
Related guides
Find out where your business stands
The free check takes about four minutes. It compares your answers with what the NSW Code expects, names your three biggest gaps, and gives you one thing to do this week for each.
When you want the full set of documents for these steps, the Psychosocial Risk Pack for NSW is $349.