EMV will establish a full-time, permanent workforce for the SCC, significantly increasing the State’s standing capacity to deliver public information, intelligence, logistical support, emergency management planning, and emergency risk and consequence analysis. This will be achieved through a funding commitment of $17.06 million to support an additional 46 permanent staff based at the SCC.

EMV will work with the sector in partnership with communities to review the Victorian Preparedness Goal by June 2022. The updated and refreshed Victorian Preparedness Goal will further promote the principles of shared responsibility and self-reliance and will be informed in part by the outcomes of the review’s risk assessment recommendation. It will also build community awareness of the capability, capacity and resilience required in preparing for, responding to and recovering from emergencies

As part of this review, EMV and sector partners will consider integrating and building on the community preparedness work of the Australian Red Cross and the National Disaster Risk Reduction Framework (or revised national policy) and exploring best practice from other national and international jurisdictions.

EMV will work with the sector to review existing community resilience and preparedness strategies and initiatives and measure their effectiveness. The review will inform a future performance framework aligned with sector outcomes developed through the response to the Review’s sector-wide outcomes.

EMV will deliver the first Victorian SEMP in September 2020. The SEMP will clarify the roles and responsibilities of different actors with a shared responsibility for emergency management, including:
•    individuals and households
•    community groups and networks 
•    small, medium and large businesses, and the 
•    emergency management sector.
 

The VicEmergency App and website have been designed to promote shared responsibility for all emergencies, providing platforms to share information to empower individuals to make informed decisions and better support their communities. The 'Prepare and Get Ready' section of the VicEmergency App and website detail what preparedness arrangements communities can undertake to avoid situations becoming an emergency, and what they can expect in response to one. EMV will continue to enhance this section to inform action-based community preparedness.

In 2021, EMV will lead the development of a contemporary and systemic approach to identifying and mitigating risk across Victoria:
•    This approach will consider key drivers of change and make use of predictive forecasting tools to inform data analytics and intelligence.
•    It will establish partnerships with other jurisdictions and research organisations to establish and embed world-leading practice for risk assessment and the technological interdependence of systems and services.

By December 2023, as part of the three-year rolling program of assurance, the Municipal Emergency Management Plans (MEMPs) will be revised by local government and community representatives, using existing risk assessment processes that align with the national risk assessment guidelines and consider state and regional assessments.

Using these Guidelines, EMV and sector partners will support regional emergency management planning committees to develop and endorse REMPs by December 2020 and municipal emergency management planning committees to update their existing MEMPs to align with reformed planning arrangements

Guidelines to facilitate the development of Regional and Municipal Emergency Management Plans (REMPs) will be published in September and December 2020 respectively.