Emergency and evacuation procedures

A reminder to our Approved Providers that emergency and evacuation procedures should be reviewed regularly and must be rehearsed at each service every three months. 

Ideally emergency drills are rehearsed on days with strong attendance, to ensure as many staff and children as possible experience a rehearsal, to reduce stress or confusion in the case of a genuine emergency and to provide staff the ability to evaluate practice and processes.  

Under the Education and Care Services National Regulations (Regulation 97) the requirement is for services to rehearse a single emergency and evacuation procedure, not every emergency procedure. This means a service may choose, for example, to rehearse a full evacuation on one occasion, and then three months later to rehearse a lockdown. 

Further detail about the requirements of Regulation 97 are available: National Regulations and ACECQA Guidelines.