Upgraded Guidelines for Safe Pool Operations hub now open

Royal Life Saving Society - Australia has announced the launch of an upgraded and updated Guidelines for Safe Pool Operations (GSPO) online portal.

Representing a major evolution in terms of how subscribers access and interact with the Guidelines, the portal aims to make the resource more user-friendly with easy to find critical information within the Guidelines.

Under a variety of legal standards and frameworks, facility designers, owners and operators are charged with the responsibility of ensuring public and worker health and safety arising from the business and/or undertaking of aquatic facilities and their activities. 

For 30 years, Royal Life Saving has written the GSPO, which compiles and contextualises these standards and frameworks, making them easier to understand and apply to aquatic facilities. 

This latest iteration, although not a change to the content of the guidelines, will make accessing key information easier than ever. It will allow users to search the guidelines based on keywords to find references to requirements from across multiple guidelines. 

Existing individual subscribers
Existing subscribers will have their accounts automatically rolled into the new hub. 

There are two categories of existing users:

1. Subscribers expiring between 1st July and 30th December 2021 will have their subscriptions migrated into the new system and their existing expiry date for their subscription will be honoured. When their access expires, they will be able to resubscribe on a financial year basis via the website.

2. Subscribers expiring after 1st January 2022 will automatically be subscribed until 30th June 2022 and will need to re-subscribe in the new financial year.

Note: All existing users will need to reset their passwords. For security and privacy reasons, passwords have not been exported and will be required to be reset by individual subscribers.

To recover or reset their password, they should head to: www.royallifesaving.com.au/member-management/reset-password

If an organisation has a number of separate accounts that they would like to group together onto a single corporate account and access group discounts, contact customer support by emailing aquatics@rlssa.org.au

Accessing the GSPO
There will be no increase in price for GSPO subscribers in 2021/22. We have also introduced progressive pricing plans for subscribers with multiple workplaces, members or users. The new process will allow subscribers to easily register up to 10 facilities or users to a subscription with the option to pay by credit card or invoice. 

For subscribers with more than 10 facilities or users, a formalised Management Subscription service is available to organisations who are either managing multiple aquatic facilities or are a member-based association whose membership includes aquatic facilities. This means for the first time; member associations will be able to provide access to the GSPO as part of their member services.

Subscribe to the guidelines
To subscribe go to www.royallifesaving.com.au/Aquatic-Risk-and-Guidelines/guidelines/Subscribe-and-Login-for-Guidelines 

Additional resources
In addition to the Guidelines, an extensive library of templates, forms and key business management documents are available in the GSPO portal that may assist aquatic facility operators in running their businesses efficiently and effectively.

Key changes
It is important to note that there are some key changes to the way that users will interact with the GSPO and how their subscription will be managed.

• Subscriptions will now run by financial year from July-June each year.

• Subscribers will be contacted by email each July to renew their subscription.

Click here for more information and/or responses to Frequently Asked Question. 

Main image: Royal Life Saving Swim and Survive teaching at the Sunshine Leisure Centre.