Both options are valid. The right choice depends on your team’s capacity, the complexity of your site, and how much your people need to learn through the process.
Your team will need to be involved either way. No consultant can write a useful emergency plan without input from the people who actually know the site.
Writing your emergency plan in-house
You might be surprised that ACTWELL, despite offering this service, encourages many organisations to develop their own.
The real value is not just in the finished document. It is in what your team learns while building it.
When your people lead the planning process, they can:
- Identify the real risks specific to your site
- Get clarity on roles and procedures
- Involve the right people in your Emergency Planning Committee
- Build understanding of your obligations under AS 3745-2010 and WHS legislation
- Develop ownership of the plan before an emergency ever happens
Using trusted templates, guides and checklists can make the process far more manageable. You can also bring in an external review once you have a draft, to make sure it meets requirements.
Outsourcing your emergency plan
If your site layout looks a bit like Hogwarts and you are not entirely sure how many moving staircases you are dealing with, outsourcing may make sense.
The same applies if your site is complex, your team does not have capacity, your risks are higher, or you need someone to ask the right questions and turn the answers into a compliant document.
An experienced provider can manage the process from start to finish by visiting your site, gathering the right information, consulting with your team, and delivering a plan that meets AS 3745-2010.
It is a more hands-off approach, but it does come with trade-offs, including cost and sometimes less internal ownership of the final document.