What Does a Design for Safety Professional Do in Singapore?
A Design for Safety Professional (DfSP) facilitates and coordinates a project's design-risk review process where appointed to do so: convening DfS review meetings, maintaining the DfS Register, tracking design-risk actions, and communicating residual design risks. The DfSP does not design the building, does not run the construction site, and does not act as workplace safety officer.
Direct answer
In Singapore, a DfSP's role is process facilitation and record-keeping for design-risk review — not design authorship and not site safety management. The DfSP organises the meetings where the Developer, Designers and Contractor identify foreseeable design risks, keeps the documented trail of what was found and decided, and makes sure the resulting residual-risk information reaches the people who need it.
What the DfSP does
- Briefs the project team on DfS principles and process at the start of each design stage
- Plans and convenes DfS review meetings at concept, detailed design and pre-construction stages
- Facilitates discussion between the Developer, Designers (including specialist and temporary works designers) and the Contractor
- Coordinates Design Risk Records and compiles meeting minutes
- Establishes and maintains the DfS Register, with residual risks clearly indicated
- Monitors outstanding design-risk actions and calls follow-up reviews
- Hands the up-to-date Register to the Developer at project completion
See the full breakdown on our DfSP services page.
What the DfSP does not do
The DfS Professional is not responsible for, and is not directly involved in, safety and health at the construction site, and does not take over the responsibilities of Designers or Contractors. Appointing a DfSP does not, by itself, make a project compliant or eliminate all risk.
Concretely, a DfSP does not produce the architectural or structural design, does not approve or reject a Contractor's method statement, does not act as the site's workplace safety and health officer, and does not prepare risk assessments or safe work procedures for site activities — those remain the Designer's and Contractor's own responsibilities.
Official references
- RegulationWorkplace Safety and Health (Design for Safety) Regulations 2015 — Singapore Statutes Online — official source →
- GuidanceWSH Council, Workplace Safety and Health Guidelines — Design for Safety — official source →