On 5 August 2014, the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority (VRQA), Victoria's non-government schools regulator, revised and released a new version of 'Guidelines to the minimum standards and other requirements for registration' (Guidelines). Schools are required to comply with the Guidelines under the Education and Training Reform Act 2006 (Vic).

What's new?

The most significant changes to the Guidelines are the requirements for Emergency Bushfire Management. These changes mainly affect schools on the Bushfire At-Risk Register (schools at the highest risk of fire danger). They relate to:

• procedures to close the school on Code Red days;
• Emergency Management Plans for 'shelter-in-place' or evacuation scenarios;
• evacuation drills; and
• compliance with bushfire regulations.

The guide has also been updated to reflect the promulgation of Ministerial Order 706. This Order relates to the new Anaphylaxis Guidelines, which we wrote about in April 2014. The inclusion of this guide in the registration standards means that formally, compliance will be a condition of registration.

Code Red Days

Code Red is the highest of the Fire Danger Ratings, set by the Country Fire Authority of Victoria (CFA). As they explain, it is higher than the 'extreme' level of rating. According to the Victorian Department of Education, a school that is placed on the Department's Bushfire At-Risk Register, must pre-emptively close on Code Red Days.

The closure of the school, which may mean notifying hundreds of parents or guardians at short notice, can be logistically difficult. The new registration requirements mandate that the school must have plans and arrangements for such an event. Schools must also have arrangements to make preparations for Fire Danger Ratings that are lower than Code Red.

What can schools do?

We recently wrote about the arrangements that schools can have in place to deal with risks, catastrophic events and other interruptions to a school's functions.

The key message we have for schools confronted with an ever-growing array of compliance obligations is: don't panic.  Schools that have an established governance and risk management framework in place will not find themselves in unfamiliar territory.

Obligations and risks such as those triggered by Code Red days can be managed using the same framework that many schools already have in place to deal with their risks. Internationally accepted standards, such as ISO 31000 - Risk Management and AS 5050 Business Continuity Management, provide a rational framework for laying out sensible actions to deal with disruptive events.

A Code Red day for schools boils down to mostly the same responsive actions as other major disruptive events, namely;

• notification of parents;
• ensuring open lines of communication with local emergency services;
• evacuation procedures; and
• mitigating the risk of disruption,

Victorian schools now have a timely impetus for reviewing their Business Continuity Management and Risk Management plans.

The updates in Victoria also provide a reminder for schools across Australia about the impact of the bushfire season. In NSW, the Rural Fire Service has declared an early start to the 2014 bushfire season, according to ABC News. Victoria's CFA Chief Officer has also warned of the significant of a recent dry weather for the upcoming summer.