Emergency and Critical Incident Management Planning

Business continuity

Schools must consider business continuity arrangements as part of their emergency management planning.

It is recommended that schools plan for:

• inability to access part or all of the school site
• loss of essential services such as power, water, technology, data and communications
• loss or shortage of staff or critical skills.

Unable to access school buildings/site

Considerations for all schools:

• Pre-arrange alternative accommodation (such as other school) identified, agreed and documented
• Record contacts for alternative locations emergency management plan
• Emergency kit includes hazard and cordon tape and signage

Loss of power

If the school has a generator:

• Generator details and procedures are documented
• Regular maintenance and testing is scheduled and undertaken
• Ensure full fuel supply is available

If the school is on the BARR or Category 4 list:

• Ensure battery lighting/torches are available in SIP in case of a bushfire emergency occurring

Considerations for all schools:

• UPS battery backup is available for servers (short-term use only; time limits recorded)
• Access to generator hire for critical infrastructure identified (such as fridges)
• Identify and plan for the impact on water supply (for example pumps)
• Identify and plan for students requiring powered medical equipment
• Relocate classes to natural light or outdoor areas where appropriate
• Provide portable lighting for essential indoor spaces (such as toilets)

Note: If you receive a notification of an upcoming planned power outage, contact your EMSO immediately as it is sometimes possible to have these moved to school holidays or weekends.

Loss of technology

Considerations for all schools:

• Test and isolate backups from the network so that they are usable
• Update systems with current software, antivirus, and malware protection
• Educate staff and students in cyber security and incident reporting
• Create a backup list of all student and staff contact details in an accessible yet secure location
• Maintain hard copies of curriculum content, scope and sequence
• Consider alternative content options which do not rely on access to computers/ network/internet such as paper-based, flexible lessons plans
• Communicate with IMTD for support

Loss of telephony/internet/communications

For schools with satellite phones/similar device(s):

• Ensure satellite phone(s) operating instructions are readily available
• Ensure charging method and equipment is ready and on hand

Considerations for all schools:

• Ensure school mobile phone is available for emergency use and charged at all times
• Ensure power banks are available for mobiles
• Forward school landline to school mobile phone for duration of outage
• Ensure families know the emergency arrangements and where to find information from the school when communications may be impacted

Loss of water supply

For schools with water tanks:

• Install taps on water tanks so that buckets can be filled
• Consider whether the location of water tanks can provide easy delivery to toilet cisterns as a temporary workaround for toilet flushing

Considerations for all schools:

• Maintain a supply of bottled drinking water onsite at all times
• Encourage students and staff to bring water bottles to school
• Check offsite evacuation area for water supply and bathroom options – make alternative plans if not available onsite
• Ascertain if water disruption is on or offsite
  • If offsite, contact water provider. If the outage is across a wider area, the water supplier may provide a tanker or bottled water.

Note: If you receive a notification of an upcoming planned water outage, contact your EMSO immediately as it is sometimes possible to have these moved to school holidays or weekends.

Shortage of staff/skills

Considerations for all schools:

• Details of temporary staff arrangements and key contacts updated in EMP
• Multi-skilling/cross training of staff to support internal redundancies
• Consider alternate operational arrangements, suspending non-essential activities and/or mutual support with other school(s)
• Maintain awareness of factors that may impact staff attendance, including distance travelled, living in or travelling through a bushfire or flood prone area, arrangements of household fire plans, or if they are a volunteer for CFA/VICSES. Document and ensure contingences are in place at high-risk times

More information

For detailed guidance on business continuity planning in the online EMP, refer to the Emergency and critical incident management planning guide for government schools (PDF).