The Inspector-General for Emergency Management develops the Assurance Framework for Emergency Management in consultation with its sector partners.
As the sector’s overarching assurance framework, it supports continuous improvement and promotes a coordinated sector-wide approach to activities such as debriefs, reviews, evaluations, and investigations.
All IGEM assurance activities are guided by this framework.
Assurance Framework for Emergency Management
Maintaining the Framework is one of our legislative functions.
The Framework supports continuous improvement and promotes a coordinated sector-wide approach to assurance.
Guided by the Framework and its four principles, Victoria’s emergency management sector will have a more coordinated, less burdensome and more valuable approach to assurance activities such as reviews, evaluations, monitoring, and reporting.
What is meant by assurance?
In the context of this Framework, an assurance is a statement designed to increase the confidence of government, the sector and the community in the ability of the emergency management system to plan for, respond to, and recover from emergencies.
Assurance is a feeling of confidence by the government, the sector and the community in the ability of the emergency management system to achieve intended outcomes. This feeling of confidence should be proportionate to the quality of the assurance provided.
Find sector assurance reports with our online resource
Our Assurance in Emergency Management online resource provides contemporary listings of select assurance activities mapped against risk and which are relevant to Victoria.
What are assurance activities?
Sector organisations have been undertaking reviews, evaluations, debriefs, investigations, audits, monitoring and reporting for decades. These are all types of assurance activities which draw on information or evidence to answer certain questions such as:
- What is happening?
- Why is it happening?
- Does it meet standards?
- Does it fulfil commitments?
- Does it achieve intended outcomes?
The findings are then used to support an assurance, or a provide a feeling of confidence in the ability of the emergency management system.
Assurance activities are conducted before, during, and after emergencies. The results from these activities may be published for transparency and accountability.
Using our online resource
Our online resource provides a single point of access to assurance reports published since the 2009 Victorian Bushfires. They provide a valuable insight into the observations, findings and recommendations from previous and current assurance activities related to emergency management. Lists are grouped by risk, and can be filtered by organisation and year of publishing.
The risk categories used in these listings come from multiple sources including the most recent State Emergency Risk Assessment (External link) in 2023.
These risks are:
The assurance activities and associated risks are not exhaustive, and the listings will be updated quarterly.
Please contact us to request an update to these listings.