The Inspector-General for Emergency Management recommends that Emergency Management Victoria collaborate with the emergency management sector to develop a capacity model that considers current and future:
a) career and volunteer emergency management personnel requirements
b) identified and trained personnel for surge requirements
c) emergency risks and climate scenarios.
The sector, supported by EMV’s leadership, commits to:
- Adapting emergency management training and accreditation programs in the lead-up to the 2020–21 fire season to maintain delivery during COVID-19 response restrictions, including eLearning and eBriefing processes. This approach will be reviewed with a view to informing the longer-term approach detailed below.
EMV adapted its training and accreditation processes in line with COVID-19 restrictions ahead of the 2020–21 summer season as follows:
- All pre-season briefings were undertaken online via the sector's EM Learning platform. A total of 1394 individuals completed the eLearning briefing materials and 1077 individuals attended 16 live webinars. The webinar recordings were viewed 1987 times in total. Users provided positive feedback on the online briefing program format.
- Accreditation panels moved to online formats. In total 32 new accreditations were issued along with 35 reaccreditations.
IGEM considers that this action has been implemented with regard to activities ahead of the 2020–21 fire season, with the longer-term approach being addressed through Action 15.5.
EMV also continues to work with the sector to improve its incident management accreditation and training systems (refer to 10 Year Review Action 4.4 on page 45 of IGEM's 2021 progress report).