Every approved early childhood service must have procedures in place for emergencies to ensure the safety of children and staff on site. These must be reviewed at least annually and practiced every 3 months.
Winter is the perfect time to review and update your facility's Emergency Management Plan in preparation for the high-risk weather season in 2025-26.
Templates and guides are available on the department’s website.
Your plan must assess and consider mitigations and procedures for emergencies and critical incidents, including:
- heatwave
- pandemic
- medical incident such as anaphylaxis or asthma attack
- severe weather
- loss of essential services
- death or serious illness
- missing child
- gas leak
- aggressive person or intruder.
Assessing and managing bushfire risk in early childhood services
Victoria is one of the most fire-prone areas in the world. The Victorian Climate Science Report 2024 states bushfires have become more frequent and severe, and burn larger areas.
To ensure the safety of students, children and staff on site, we work with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) to assess all early childhood education and school sites annually for bushfire risk, using the most up to date scientific information.
We are currently reviewing all services for bushfire risk for 2025-26.
Services at risk of bushfire or grassfire
Some early childhood services are at higher risk of bushfire or grassfire because of their location.
Services assessed as being at the highest risk of bushfire are placed on the Bushfire-at-risk register (BARR) (Categories 0, 1,2 and 3).
Services assessed as being at some risk of bushfire or grassfire are listed as Category 4.
Services categorised as 5 or 6 are not considered to be at significant bushfire risk.
Family day care services are not placed on the BARR or the Category 4 list.
Actions for approved providers
All approved providers should:
- check your service approval conditions
- review your Emergency Management Plan
- check your rating on the BARR and Category 4 list in July 2025, following the review. If your service does not appear, you are likely considered low risk. New services may not yet appear online, so always follow your service approval conditions
- download the Vic Emergency app, set up a watch zone around your service and monitor for local incidents, forecasts and warnings
- familiarise yourself with how to monitor the fire danger rating in your area, through the Country Fire Authority Total Fire Bans and Fire Danger Ratings webpage
- familiarise your families and local community with your emergency procedures and any triggers for closure
- ensure that your service approval shows your correct address including the street number so that the correct site can be included in the department’s bushfire risk assessment.
Remember not to publish your full Emergency Management Plan on your public facing website. These plans can contain sensitive information, such as staff contact details. Be sure to socialise only relevant aspects of your plan with your families and key contacts.
Sign up for a webinar
You can join a webinar in August to learn more about emergency management planning in early childhood facilities and the outlook for the 2025-26 high-risk weather season.
Sessions are:
- Tuesday 5 August 2025, 10:30 am to midday. Register here.
- Tuesday 5 August 2025, 2:30 pm to 4 pm. Register here.
- Wednesday 6 August 2025, 10:30 am to midday. Register here.
- Wednesday 6 August 2025, 2:30 pm to 4 pm. Register here.
Find out more
For more information, visit the Emergency management in early childhood services and Managing bushfire and grassfire risk in early childhood services webpages.
For further emergency management queries, contact the Security and Emergency Management Division by email: emergency.management@education.vic.gov.au
For queries relating to service approval conditions, contact the Quality Assessment and Regulation Division by email: licensed.childrens.services@education.vic.gov.au
Updated