Readynet

New Zealand School Trustees Association [NZSTA]  -  Readynet - The Emergency Preparedness Network  (Order Form 2011)

Emergency preparedness is an essential part of school planning, as an emergency situation can arise literally at the moments notice, without warning, and present an immediate risk to the health and safety of both students and staff. Not only is emergency preparedness a desirable thing to do, but is consistent with the need for the board to provide a safe environment for both students and staff.

NZSTA in conjunction with Emergency Management Associates (EMA) have produced a web based emergency management tool (Readynet) which was designed for the NZ schools sector.

Readynet allows:

-    schools access a secure website where they use prepared templates to create and store detailed information useful in 
     an emergency
-    records to be easily reviewed and modified and hard copies printed 
-    for a wide range of emergency possibilities/scenarios, which each school is prompted to identify in an risk analysis 
     process 
-    the uploading of school site plans
-    identification of  the public use of school facilities
-    identification of children on site with special needs 
-    identification of risks arising from proximity to industry 
-    the inclusion of GPS coordinates of the school to enable quick determination of geographical location.

Perhaps the most important feature of Readynet is that the records are immediately accessible to the 111 emergency services (Police, Ambulance) through a secure network, which means that the emergency service concerned can access all of the relevant details prior to arriving on site. This can be a crucial element in any emergency situation. Another important feature of Readynet is the ability of the emergency services to activate text and email alerts to subscribers of the system.

NZSTA and EMA are working closely with the Police and the Ministry of Education around the importance of Police being able to access school site plans before deployment. This work is continuing and NZSTA/EMA, working with the Ministry of Education, will be looking at the possibility of all school site plans being accessible to Police through the Readynet system.

To date some 500 schools have subscribed to the “on line” Readynet emergency management system. In addition, a number of Local Authorities have also chosen Readynet as their preferred emergency management tool for their local area.

Readynet is a great “fit for purpose” emergency management tool for schools, and available at a very favourable price. If your school has not yet subscribed to Readynet, we would strongly encourage you to do so, so that you can be confident that you have taken all reasonable steps in preparing for the worst. More information on Readynet can be found on the NZSTA website.

Technical details

The Emergency Preparedness Network is a web based tool.   High levels of data security and availability are provided. The Network contains an audit feature which automatically alerts the user if the Emergency Action Guide has not been reviewed within the last six months.

Further information

For further information please contact : Readynet Coordinator

Or go to website:  http://www.readynet.co.nz/