The Design for Safety Process, in Plain English
Design for Safety review follows a structured process — commonly referred to by the acronym GUIDE in Singapore's WSH Council guidance — that repeats and adapts as a project moves from concept to completion and beyond.
GUIDE stands for the stages a DfS review typically works through: identifying who is affected, assessing risk, and driving design decisions toward eliminating or reducing that risk. In practice, review meetings are held at concept design, detailed design and pre-construction stages, with further reviews whenever the design, method or risk profile changes materially.
Project lifecycle, from plan to handover
Plan
Scope the DfSP engagement and brief the project team on the DfS process.
Review design
Convene DfS review meetings with the Developer, Designers and Contractor to identify foreseeable risks.
Record decisions
Transfer identified hazards into Design Risk Records and meeting minutes.
Communicate residual risks
Issue the Register so residual risks and controls are known to those who face them.
Monitor actions
Track outstanding design-risk actions and call follow-up reviews as needed.
Handover register
Hand the up-to-date DfS Register to the Developer at project completion (TOP).
How this maps to project stages
| Project stage | Typical DfS activity |
|---|---|
| Concept & feasibility | Initial DfSP briefing; first identification of major foreseeable design risks while the design is still flexible. |
| Detailed design | Structured DfS review meetings across permanent, specialist and temporary works design; Design Risk Records opened and tracked. |
| Pre-construction | Review with the appointed Contractor on construction-method-related design risks before work starts on site. |
| Construction-stage design changes | Follow-up review whenever a design, method statement, temporary works scheme or access arrangement changes materially. |
| Completion & handover | DfS Register finalised and handed to the Developer at Temporary Occupation Permit (TOP) stage. |
| Future use, cleaning, maintenance, alteration & demolition | Residual-risk information in the handed-over Register informs how the building is later operated, maintained, altered and eventually demolished. |
Additional DfS reviews may be required whenever the design, construction method, temporary works, access arrangements or risk profile of a project changes after the original review — not only at the fixed milestones above.
What happens in a review meeting
Who is considered
Reviews consider people who carry out or are affected by construction work, people for whom the finished structure is a workplace (including those who later clean or maintain it), and people affected by its eventual demolition.
What is discussed
Foreseeable design risks are identified and, where reasonably practicable, eliminated through design. Where elimination is not reasonably practicable, risk is reduced at source, with collective protective measures generally preferred over individual protective measures.
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