Helping Aged Care Providers to be Better Prepared for Emergencies

Fire safety training should be current and retained by the workforce in complex environments like residential aged care, an industry report highlights.

Most organisations have fire safety plans but they are often not current, visible or readily available when an incident occurs, the inaugural benchmarking report from emergency preparedness company Locatrix shows.

The report, Fire Safety Readiness Benchmark Report, draws on the responses of 75 safety, compliance and facilities professionals across seven industries, including aged care. It found half were not fully confident they could produce evidence of emergency training if asked.

The report also found a gap in confidence and actual evidence, with respondents rating their confidence in the accuracy of their floor plans at an average of 8.2 out of 10. But 22 per cent of those surveyed noted that their plans were updated three months or more after a building change, rarely or only before an audit.

Locatrix fire safety assessor Kimberley Probert said this gap can have serious consequences in environments like residential aged care, where many people inside the building may be living with cognitive impairment or frailty and may be unable to evacuate independently.

High rates of workforce turnover also increase the risk that some employees will lack awareness or confidence with fire safety plans, she said.

The report includes a case study on Queensland-based aged care provider Ozcare, which has been using PlanSafe for the last 15 years to track fire safety training, evidence and oversight.

Ozcare fire and safety project manager Tyson Fitzpatrick said that through the dashboard he can see who has completed training and receive alerts when someone is due for training.

“Every record, current and historical, is available whenever I need it,” Mr Fitzpatrick said.

Ozcare has trained more than 68,000 people through PlanSafe. It can also access site-specific floor plans through the platform, which it uses to store compliance documentation.

Homes should practise physical evacuation plans

Evidence accessibility is not the only tricky element of fire preparedness.

As the benchmarking report noted, there is a knowledge gap in people understanding what to do in their own building, what their role is and what the emergency response plan is.

Ms Probert said auditors and assessors often look for evidence that required training is complete, but that the more important thing to consider is whether that training will help staff respond effectively when necessary.

In the aged care context, training can be generic instead of site-specific and repeated without being adapted to changing conditions. It can also be difficult to deliver consistently due to staff turnover or a feeling of disconnect from realistic emergency scenarios.

Ms Probert recommended that training in aged care homes include practising the physical movement of people so that staff can familiarise themselves with what to do and where to go before an emergency occurs.

“In some situations, residents cannot simply be disconnected from essential medical equipment and relocated in a hurry,” she said. “Staff may need to manually support breathing while moving them safely.”

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This article first appeared in The Australian Ageing Agenda, written by Katarina Lloyd Jones and published on October 6, 2026. For the original article please follow this link: https://theageingagenda.com.au/noticeboard/providers-urged-to-be-better-ready-for-emergencies/

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Click on the image below to view the recorded webinar with Kimberley Probert.

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