What is a plan?
We have looked at the reasons for planning, some of the objections to planning, and some of the outcomesof planning, but we have not yet addressed the topic of what a plan actually is.
The Australian Emergency Management Glossary (EMA, 1998) carries a few definitions for plans, taken from a number of different emergency management industry areas. They are:
Emergency plan: "a documented scheme of assigned responsibilities, actions and procedures, required in the event of an emergency".
Emergency response plan: "a plan which sets out the roles and responsibilities of agencies in emergency response and the coordination arrangements which are to be utilised".
Plan: "a formal record of agreed emergency management roles, responsibilities, strategies, systems, and arrangements".
As you will remember from EMG101, emergency management planning is not focused on one specific aspect of emergency management, but should be comprehensive and cater for the prevention, preparedness, response and recovery strategies associated with emergency management preparedness.
Therefore, for the purposes of this subject, we shall use a comprehensive definition that takes all of the above into account. The definition of an emergency management plan that we shall use is as follows.
An agreed set of arrangements for preventing, preparing for, responding to, and recovering from an emergency, involving the description of responsibilities, the analysis of resources, and the definition of command and control structures.
