Regular reviews and updates to your school’s evacuation policies and procedures are one of those things that tends to get put on the backburner in the hope that it will never be needed. But having an up to date policy in place and procedures that everyone is familiar with is the key to ensuring the safety and wellbeing of your school's most important assets, your staff and students.

If you commit the time to identifying the potential risks and hazards of emergency and evacuation situations you are better able to reduce them when the time comes to put them into action.

There are of course a number of legislative requirements that must be met as part of the Education and Care Services National Regulations 2011 in order for your policy to comply so it is worth double checking to make sure that you’re meeting these requirements. Some of them include:

• 97 Emergency and evacuation procedures.
• 99 Children leaving the education and care service premises
• 168 Education and care service must have policies and procedures
• Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 Regulation 43 Links to National Quality Standard

So what exactly does that mean and how do you implement these requirements?

• Schools need to conduct ongoing risk assessments and reviews of all emergency and evacuation situations including medical situations. At least yearly.
• Each potential emergency situation needs to have its own specific procedure.
• Schools need to ensure that all members of staff are fully aware of the policy and its requirements
• Regular emergency drills need to be conducted to ensure everyone is comfortable with the procedures and are able to respond appropriately
• Appointment of a nominated supervisor to ensure compliance with legislative requirements, to coordinate the emergency response and to keep the policy up to date, in consultation with staff.

What kinds of emergency situations should be included?

• Fire
• Explosions
• Dangerous chemical release
• Medical emergency
• Natural disaster
• Bomb threat
• Violence
• Robbery

The response to these kinds of threats is generally a) evacuation or b) lockdown so Pi have partnered with numerous vendors to give your school and community the peace of mind and assurance that by the push of a button they can isolate a single building through to a full lockdown of the entire school.

Our vendors can give schools the opportunity to implement a site-wide audible evacuation and lockdown system to safely manage the movement of staff and children on site in the event of a crisis. This is not only in the case of a fire, but also in the face of a potential bomb or gunman threat.

Need more information on developing a lockdown procedure? THIS is a great tool to help you create a simple set of steps that are easy to follow and remember.

There is no one size fits all approach so it is crucial that your school is assessed based on your unique needs, infrastructure and importantly, budget rather than just implementing a standard policy that doesn’t take these things into consideration.

To find out more about how Precision Industries can help you with tools to improve your emergency evacuation system get in touch with us on 1300 369 927