Minimum Review Requirement

11.01 Planners must realise that planning is a continuous process. Plans, to be effective in an emergency, must be regularly checked, tested and revised/updated as conditions change. This responsibility rests with the planning committee, and a plan review schedule should be established. It is suggested that the minimum requirement is an annual review.

Plan Amendments

11.02 Amendments to plans are required where deficiencies in operational systems and procedures are revealed as a result of:

a. review meetings by the planning committee;
b. exercises;
c. operational debriefs; or
d. changes in hazards, community, environment, or emergency service/support organisations.

11.03 In order that amendments can be efficiently and effectively distributed, responsibility for plan distribution and amendment control should be assigned to one organisation. It is recommended that amendments be forwarded direct to individual officers holding the plan, rather than to their organisations for secondary distribution.

Review Schedule

11.04 A properly implemented plan review schedule ensures that plans become living’ documents, which are continually reviewed, evaluated and amended/updated.

11.05 Plan maintenance, through evaluation of operations, exercises and changing circumstances, is vital so that the planning group has a clear indication of effectiveness of the plan, can identify deficiencies in the plan, and can revise and strengthen the plan to meet possible future emergencies.

11.06 To assist planning committees with review and evaluation of plans, a check list of criteria is included as Annex A.