It is a requirement of the National Quality Framework, that all services have emergency plans in place to protect children and educators. Services must ‘practice’ for emergencies, these practices are referred to as rehearsals in the Regulations.

National Quality Standard 2
Element 2.2.2 — Incident and emergency management Plans to effectively manage incidents and emergencies are developed in consultation with relevant authorities, practised and implemented.

Regulation 97
3) The approved provider of an education and care service must ensure that —

(a) in the case of a centre-based service, the emergency and evacuation procedures are rehearsed every 3 months by the staff members, volunteers and children present at the service on the day of the rehearsal and the responsible person in relation to the service who is present at the time of the rehearsal;

(ab) in the case of a family day care service, the emergency and evacuation procedures are rehearsed every 3 months by each family day care educator and the children being educated and cared for by the family day care educator on that day;

(b) the rehearsals of the emergency and evacuation procedures are documented ‘Emergency’ refers to all situations or events posing an imminent or severe risk to those present at the service.

‘Emergency’ refers to all situations or events posing an imminent or severe risk to those present at the service.