The actions on this page are identified in the Victorian Government response to Recommendation 14 from the IGEM Inquiry into the 2019-20 Victorian Fire Season - Phase 1 report.
IGEM Recommendation 14: Personnel management
The Inspector-General for Emergency Management (IGEM) recommends that Emergency Management Victoria – in consultation with relevant agencies – develop a system to manage personnel and asset deployments to all tiers of incident management to meet the needs of the emergency and support the health and wellbeing of personnel. Where appropriate and within occupational health and safety requirements, this may include:
- standardised shift rosters across agencies and incident management tiers
- a single or integrated platform to allow consistent recording of shift times and locations
- records of accreditation, qualification, training and currency.
Actions
Action 14.1: Examine the application and constraints of resource management to develop a state strategic resource plan
Emergency Management Victoria will work with the sector to examine the application and constraints of resource management, with a view to developing a standing state strategic resource plan. This review will include safety management systems and processes.
Action 14.2: Maximise deployment and resourcing through common incident resourcing principles and safety management system
Emergency Management Victoria will as a priority, develop common incident resourcing principles to maximise deployment and resourcing, along with a fit for purpose safety management system that can integrate information from across agencies. We see this action incorporated into actions 14.1 and 14.5.
Action 14.3: Update and re-issue the multi-agency Fatigue Management Safety Fact Sheet and include in pre-season briefings
Emergency Management Victoria will work with the sector to update and re-issue the multi-agency Fatigue Management Safety Fact Sheet and include fatigue management content within pre-season briefings.
Action 14.4: Develop sector guidelines to optimise emergency management workforce delivery, employee health and wellbeing
As part of the development of a contemporary emergency management operating model identified in the response to the sector capability and capacity recommendation of the IGEM Review of 10 years of reform in Victoria's emergency management sector report, Emergency Management Victoria will develop sector guidelines that optimise:
- deployment
- service delivery
- employee health
- wellbeing.
These guidelines will seek to enhance consistency where appropriate, while supporting an agile and diverse workforce.
Action 14.5: Develop a robust system for Occupational Health and Safety incident management
Emergency Management Victoria will work with the sector to develop and implement a robust system for Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) incident management.
Action 14.6: Research interstate and international resource management models to identify improvements for use in Victoria
Emergency Management Victoria will initiate research into interstate and international rostering and resourcing management arrangements, to identify potential improvements or alternative models to the current Victorian arrangements.
Action 14.7: Develop consistent fatigue management guidance to inform multi-agency incident operations
Emergency Management Victoria will, in consultation with all agencies, develop consolidated fatigue management guidance to inform multi-agency incident operations.
An update on these actions can be found in IGEM's progress report
Updated