SAVEM training is aligned with the requirements of many other emergency services. An article in Fire Australia, Issue 4, 2023, pages 38-39, outlines the Fitness for Role program developed by the SES, the National Council for Fire and Emergency Services (AFAC), Natural Hazards Research Australia (NHRA) and Human Performance Science. This article dovetails nicely with an AJEM article reported on the SAVEM website on 23 November 2021: Understanding skill maintenance and decay, which can be reviewed here:
https://www.savem.org.au/news/skills-maintenance-decay-ajem-october-2021/
It is imperative participants maintain currency and competency between deployments. The logical corollary to this is the need to be physically fit for the role you undertake.
Fit, Willing and Able is an article published in Fire Australia, Issue 4, 2023, by AFAC and the Fire Protection Association (FPA) Australia. You can find Fire Australia here:
https://www.afac.com.au/auxiliary/publications/magazine
though issue 4/23 is not yet online. Skill sets and assessments for SES personnel are summarised in the table below, taken from the original article by Alana Beitz. While SAVEM skill sets are different, the importance of physical fitness is equally applicable.
SAVEM’s completed deployments across wildfire and flood scenarios remind us that our Tier 2 volunteers have many of the same capability demands as do first responders. While we don’t expect to confront the primary hazards directly, even when deployed to areas of an incident ground deemed safe by Incident Control it is still essential to practise dynamic risk assessment and have the required physical stamina to safely complete taskings.
The SAVEM training team continues to be alert to the evolving demands of hazards and responses as well as participant capabilities. This is part of SAVEM’s mantra of continuous improvement, including fitness for and in line with changing intensity of events.
Our participants are encouraged to contribute themselves by being alert to opportunities to refresh knowledge and expand understanding as all emergency services improve ways to keep everyone safe.
(Header image source: NSW SES).
Image below:
(Reproduced from Beitz, A. Fit, Willing and Able: National SES Fitness for Role program, in Fire Australia, Issue 4, 2023 pp38-39. FPA/AFAC, Canberra).
