Worksafe at Schools - Emergency Management Plan
Educational institutions have a responsibility under the Health and Safety legislation amongst other things, to take all practicable steps to ensure the safety of staff at work. In particular employers have to take all practical steps to…develop procedures for dealing with emergencies that may arise when staff are at work. To do this effectively without an Emergency Management plan is very difficult.
Emergencies are hard to predict and can be varied in their nature and effect, but emergency events can be prepared for. Often the biggest challenge with planning is ‘where do we start’. Organisations can be put off by what is seen as a major task. They either try to develop a plan that would save the world but fail their own organisation, or put together a few sheets of paper that say words to the effect that in the event of an emergency, ‘they would meet and decide what to do” Both styles of planning tend to fail.
The purpose of these guidelines is to simplify and clarify the process and provide a set of templates that may be used on a ‘pick and mix’ basis to suit each individual educational institution if required. It is recognised that each institution is unique and a ‘one size fits all’ approach would not be effective.
The purpose of an Emergency Management plan is to provide a number of potential courses of action that can be followed in an emergency. Emergency can be defined in many different ways but the dictionary definition, ‘a serious situation or occurrence that happens unexpectedly and demands immediate action’ should suffice.
The Emergency Management plan should be simple, straight forward and be fit for the purpose of the organisation.
It is extremely important that expert advice is sought from emergency services and the local civil defence group during development of these sections of the plan that relate to emergencies such as fire, earthquake etc.
A responsible staff member should be nominated to be the person in charge of the plan with the responsibility to keep it current and periodically tested. Each section of the plan should be tested on a rolling basis every six months.
It is good practice for plans to be kept on a P C and have reminders programmed to test and update the various sections of the plan.
A hard copy back up plan can be kept in a safe and accessible place within the administration area.
A practical way of putting the hard copy plan together is to use a tabulated ring binder type of folder. This can give a quick and easy reference to relevant sections and contact lists should that be necessary.