Pandemic planning introduction

The Ministry of Education has developed this Pandemic Planning Kit to assist your ECE/school/TEO in creating your own pandemic plan. The Pandemic Planning Kit includes a step-by-step guide in the format of a Planning template; supporting documents such as a question and answer document, posters, forms and guidelines; and a wide range of other material to assist in the development and implementation of your pandemic plan.

The Ministry consulted extensively to ensure the Pandemic Planning Kit meets the needs of ECE/schools/TEOs. The Ministry appreciates the input it has received from a range of sector groups including principals' associations, teacher unions, the New Zealand School Trustees Association, and the early childhood education services, school providers and tertiary organisations that participated in Exercise Cruickshank in May 2007.

The templates and guidelines have been developed for the use of early childhood education services, schools, tertiary education organisations, education agencies, students, parents, and other interested stakeholders.

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Benefits of pandemic planning

By planning in advance, your ECE/school/TEO will be better equipped to deal with a pandemic outbreak and, as a result, reduce the spread of the virus amongst your children, students, staff members, family/whānau, friends and community. An influenza pandemic or local infectious disease outbreak will definitely happen one day - it could be next year, next week or even tomorrow! Therefore planning for a pandemic needs to be undertaken as soon as possible.

Planning for a pandemic can also be viewed as an opportunity to refine your ECE/school/TEOs' contingency/emergency planning in case of a crisis - regardless of whether or not it is a health related crisis. This is because many of the tasks involved in preparing for a pandemic can also be used for emergency management planning.

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Contents of Pandemic Planning Kit

The Pandemic Planning Kit contains:

• Introduction (you are here)
  An outline of what the Pandemic Planning Kit contains and the reasons why pandemic planning is important.
• Your ECE/school/TEOs' role and responsibilities
  Information about your ECE/school/TEOs' role and responsibilities as an education provider - including your legal obligations.
• How to develop a pandemic plan 
  The pandemic plan is a template designed to assist you through the pandemic planning process. The plan, once completed, will become your ECE/school/TEOs' pandemic plan.
• Planning guide for ECE/school/TEO 
  The Planning Guide for ECE/school/TEOs contains very useful information and reference material to assist you when developing your plan. The lanning Guide contains lots of detailed information about every aspect of planning for a pandemic and describes the government's strategy to manage any future pandemics. It also contains some strategies for ECE/schools/TEOs to implement during a pandemic. You will find the Planning Guide for ECE/school/TEO a helpful handbook when developing your pandemic plan.
• Questions and answers 
  This includes answers to a wide range of questions relating to pandemic planning. Questions are grouped into nine different areas as follows:
  1. Pandemic planning
  2. Understanding influenza pandemics
  3. Student and staff health
  4. Roles and responsibilities
  5. Education provider closures and notification
  6. Government action
  7. Ministry of Education action
  8. The Bird Flu
  9. More information
• Communications guidelines 
  Communications is an important part of pandemic planning. These guidelines will assist you in developing your own communications processes and procedures before, during and after a pandemic.
• Support material
  This sections contains a wide range of material to assist you in developing and implementing your ECE/school/TEOs' pandemic plan. It includes notices to place at your ECE/school/TEO's entry points during a closure, guidelines on how to rehearse for a pandemic, examples of greetings to leave on your ECE/school/TEO's answer phone during a pandemic, posters on hand hygiene, letters to parents during a pandemic, memos to place on the staffroom noticeboard during the early stages of a pandemic, and a wide variety of templates, forms, websites and other information to assist you before, during and after a pandemic.