The Inspector-General for Emergency Management recommends that Emergency Management Victoria streamlines the existing suite of work underway to identify gaps in the sector's capability and capacity to deliver a comprehensive sector-wide capability development strategy for operational and strategic personnel – including volunteers – that considers:
a) all capabilities identified through the Victorian Preparedness Framework and additional strategic emergency management capabilities
b) all capability development mechanisms (including accreditation, work-based learning, training and exercising).
EMV will work with the sector to review and enhance the Victorian Preparedness Framework to ensure it is fit for purpose and identifies the needs of the sector. The review will consider learnings from the public health response to coronavirus (COVID-19) and recent bushfire seasons. This process will determine the service offering of the sector and potential measures to address identified gaps.
In June 2022 SCRC approved a revised due date for this action of December 2022 to allow EMV time for further sector consultation.
The Victorian Preparedness Framework
The Victorian Preparedness Framework (VPF) – first published in 2017 and updated in 2018 – identifies and describes 21 core capabilities and the related critical tasks required to manage emergencies in Victoria. These core capabilities and critical tasks set the foundation for how the State prepares for, responds to, and recovers from emergencies. The VPF is available at emv.vic.gov.au/how-we-help/emergency-management-capability-in-victoria/victorian-preparedness-framework (External link)
Review of the Victorian Preparedness Framework
EMV led sector and community reviews of the VPF during 2021–22 to deliver this action.
Members of EMCCSC agreed at its 27 January 2022 meeting that 12 core capabilities be deemed in scope for the review based on input from relevant subject matter experts and capability coordinators from the Emergency Management Capability and Capacity project.
To progress the review, EMV undertook targeted consultation with relevant agencies and provided a consultation draft VPF to sector stakeholders for feedback in May 2022.
On 30 June 2022 EMCCSC endorsed proposed changes to the in-scope core capability descriptions and critical tasks, and on 28 July 2022 EMCCSC endorsed the updated VPF.
On 11 August 2022 SCRC approved the updated VPF to replace the current published version.
The updated VPF includes five amendments to core capability descriptors and 16 amendments to critical tasks, helping to ensure that core capability descriptors and critical tasks continue to accurately represent contemporary arrangements. No new critical tasks were created as a result of the review.
Content in the updated VPF on shared responsibility and resilient communities was informed by the responses to a community survey that EMV conducted through the Engage Victoria platform from January to March 2022.
As part of the review the contents of the high-level Victorian Preparedness Goal were consolidated into the VPF and the language revised to be more inclusive and accessible.
Learnings from the public health response to the pandemic and recent bushfire seasons
EMV informed IGEM that the deliberately high-level nature of the core capabilities and critical tasks makes them transferable across many emergencies. Specific emergency events and their learnings are not expected to trigger changes to the VPF.
The review scope identified three core capabilities particularly aligned to these events. However, no need for review was identified by relevant departments and agencies in relation to one (Fire Management and Suppression) and no changes proposed for the other two (Health Protection and Health Emergency Response).
Measures to address capability gaps
The updated VPF provides an illustration of the sector’s current service offering.
Potential measures to address sector capability gaps are being identified through an ongoing capability assessment process; the Emergency Management Capability and Capacity project led by EMV. Refer to FSIP1 Action 15.2 for more information.