Criterion HS106
Adults providing education and care are familiar with relevant emergency drills and carry out each type of drill with children (as appropriate) on an at least, 4-monthly basis.
Documentation required (written or digital)
A record of the emergency drills carried out and evidence of how evaluation of the drills has informed the annual review of the service's emergency plan.
Guidance
How to show you are complying
All adults providing education and care at your service should understand the service’s emergency plan, and their specific role if an emergency happened.
The drills themselves must be run at least once every 4 months. The specific drills are based on your emergency plan under 'HS105 emergency plan'. It should include all relevant procedures from HS105.
HS105 Emergency plan and supplies
Children should participate in all drills, except lockdown drills. Lockdown drills are excluded because they could cause distress, confusion or fear in young children. Instead, you are expected to hold these drills without children present.
It will be important for services in coastal areas to practice tsunami drills. You do not need to use vehicles during these drills, even if vehicle transport is required in your plan. This is because it could be unsafe. Instead, you should rehearse other relevant parts of the drill.
All drills should be recorded. The record should include:
the time and date of each drill
the specific drill carried out
the duration of the drill
who participated in the drill, including children
any issues you encountered
positive and negative outcomes during and after the drill
an assessment about how effective the drill was, areas for improvement.
As there may be some overlap between different drills, you can count procedures from 1 drill as counting towards another in some situations, for example, if elements of multiple drills hold the same risks. If you count some procedures for multiple drills, then this should be clearly recorded.
When assessing whether you comply with HS106
Questions we are likely to ask
Can you walk me through what would happen if you needed to evacuate the building right now?
How do you prepare for and carry out emergency drills with children, and how often these take place?
How are new staff or relievers made aware of the emergency processes?
How do you record your emergency drills?
How do you make sure drill records are looked at and used to help improve your emergency plan?
We are likely to look at, measure or count
Look at records of the emergency drills carried out.
Count the frequency of drills to check drills have been carried out with children at least every four months.
An emergency drill might be observed in some situations.
We are likely to request
Records of each emergency drill carried out.
Records showing how these drills have helped you review and improve your emergency plan.
If your emergency plan says you need a certain number of adults present for a drill, we may check the drill records against staff rosters or attendance records.
The tools below are here to support you. You do not have to use them. You can use other tools or methods that work better for your service.
Template emergency drill
Supporting document examples can be found on the Fire and Emergency New Zealand website.
Download the 'Childcare centre example evacuation scheme' template and adapt for your emergency procedures.
Childcare centre example evacuation scheme [PDF, 222KB]
Prepare your draft evacuation scheme – Fire and Emergency New Zealand
Adults should know how to respond to an emergency to help keep them and children in the service safe. The best way to do this is for adults to practise emergency drills with children, on a regular basis. The drills may also help older children understand protocols and expectations during an emergency.
Doing more than the minimum helps make things better for children and easier for staff. Below are some ideas you can consider:
Run both planned and surprise emergency drills and hold them at different times of the day. Holding surprise emergency drills at during busy times, like lunch or sleeping times, can help you see how well your emergency plan really works.
Keeping records of emergency drills for 2 years will help you to complete annual reviews.
Staff confidence
Adults in the service should be able to:
explain what to do in an emergency without needing to read from a document
know what their job is, and what others will be doing, during an emergency drill
describe how they will care for all children (walking and non-walking).