Application
This unit of competency covers the skills and knowledge required to develop relationships with community stakeholders and facilitate:
appreciation of the plant’s contribution to the economy and the local community
community contribution to the organisation’s ecological and social objectives
public safety awareness information
public confidence in the competence of the organisation and its personnel.
This unit of competency applies to persons who are required to identify community stakeholders and information to be communicated, and to plan, implement and evaluate engagement and communication activities.
In a typical scenario the person is a member of the incident team and is designated with the task of ensuring the preparedness of the communities surrounding and/or affected by the facility to respond to an incident. For example, the organisation is preparing to shut down part of the plant for routine maintenance and as part of that process some of the gas will be flared off. This will create a spectacular plume over the plant but because the community is alerted to both timing and what to expect, community panic and concern is limited.
While independent action may sometimes be required, the person is expected to liaise, cooperate and consult with other members of the incident management team as necessary.
No licensing, legislative or certification requirements apply to this unit at the time of publication.
Elements and Performance Criteria
Elements describe the essential outcomes. | Performance criteria describe the performance needed to demonstrate achievement of the element. | ||
1 | Identify information that needs to be disseminated to the community | 1.1 | Access and examine incident response plans |
1.2 | Conduct consultations with appropriate personnel as necessary | ||
2 | Establish networks within the community | 2.1 | Identify stakeholders within the community |
2.2 | Initiate contact with key community stakeholders | ||
2.3 | Establish and maintain rapport | ||
2.4 | Enlist cooperation and support in organising and conducting public safety awareness activities | ||
3 | Design and conduct public awareness activities | 3.1 | Develop a plan in consultation with stakeholders and appropriate personnel |
3.2 | Design activities to support the plan in consultation with stakeholders and appropriate personnel | ||
3.3 | Clearly identify measures for assessing the outcome of activities | ||
3.4 | Develop and distribute marketing materials and educational materials/resources appropriate to the context, issue and audience | ||
3.5 | Identify and secure other resources required | ||
3.6 | Develop and implement strategies for delivery of the project to ensure maximum effectiveness | ||
3.7 | Make adjustments as required to meet the needs of specific groups | ||
4 | Evaluate activities | 4.1 | Assess activity outcome against the planned goals/objectives and measures |
4.2 | Complete reports detailing activities, results and recommendations according to procedures | ||
Evidence of Performance
Evidence required to demonstrate competence in this unit must be relevant to and satisfy the requirements of the elements and performance criteria, and include the ability to:
identify and communicate and consult effectively with diverse stakeholders
identify and plan for information to be communicated
facilitate activities with diverse stakeholders
write materials that convey desired messages in appropriate format and style for range of stakeholders
identify measures and apply them to evaluation of activities.
Evidence of Knowledge
Evidence must be provided that demonstrates knowledge of:
organisation social and ecological objectives
organisational procedures, including those covering:
incident, fire and accident
communication systems
emergency response plans
reporting and information storage
approvals and release of information
community members and organisations who are likely to be stakeholders
incident response plans and management systems
promotional techniques and methods
negotiation techniques
group facilitation techniques
group dynamics
a range of presentation strategies and techniques.
Assessment Conditions
The unit should be assessed holistically and the judgement of competence based on a holistic assessment of the evidence.
The collection of performance evidence is best done from a report and/or folio of evidence drawn from:
a single project which provides sufficient evidence of the requirements of all the elements and performance criteria
multiple smaller projects which together provide sufficient evidence of the requirements of all the elements and performance criteria.
A third-party report, or similar, may be needed to testify to the work done by the individual, particularly when the project has been done as part of a project team.
Assessment should use a real project in an operational workplace. Where this is not possible or practical, assessment must occur using a sufficiently rigorous simulated environment reflecting realistic operational workplace conditions. This must cover all aspects of workplace performance, including environment, task skills, task management skills, contingency management skills and job role environment skills.
Knowledge evidence may be collected concurrently with performance evidence (provided a record is kept) or through an independent process, such as workbooks, written assessments or interviews (provided a record is kept).
Assessment processes and techniques must be appropriate to the language, literacy and numeracy requirements of the work being performed and the needs of the candidate.
Conditions for assessment must include access to all tools, equipment, materials and documentation required, including relevant workplace procedures, product and manufacturing specifications associated with this unit.
Foundation skills are integral to competent performance of the unit and should not be assessed separately.
Assessors must satisfy the assessor competency requirements that are in place at the time of the assessment as set by the VET regulator.
In addition, the assessor or anyone acting in subject matter expert role in assessment must demonstrate both technical competency and currency. If the assessor cannot demonstrate technical competency and currency they must assess with a subject matter expert who does meet these requirements.
Technical competence can be demonstrated through one or more of:
relevant VET or other qualification/Statement of Attainment
appropriate workplace experience undertaking the type of work being assessed under routine and non-routine conditions
appropriate workplace experience supervising/evaluating the type of work being assessed under routine and non-routine conditions
Currency can be demonstrated through one or more of:
being currently employed undertaking the type of work being assessed
being employed by the organisation undertaking the type of work being assessed and having maintained currency in accordance with that organisation’s policies and procedures
having consulted/had contact with an organisation undertaking the type of work being assessed within the last twelve months, the consultation/contact being related to assessment
conducting on-the-job training/assessments of the type of work being assessed
being an active member of a relevant professional body and participating in activities relevant to the assessment of this type of work
Foundation Skills
This section describes those language, literacy, numeracy and employment skills that are essential to performance.
Foundation skills essential to performance are explicit in the performance criteria of this unit of competency.
Range Statement
This field allows for different work environments and conditions that may affect performance. Essential operating conditions that may be present (depending on the work situation, needs of the candidate, accessibility of the item, and local industry and regional contexts) are included. | |
Regulatory framework | The latest version of all legislation, regulations, industry codes of practice and Australian/international standards, or the version specified by the local regulatory authority, must be used, and include one or more of the following: legislative requirements, including work health and safety (WHS) industry codes of practice and guidelines environmental regulations and guidelines Australian and other standards licence and certification requirements All operations to which this unit applies are subject to stringent health, safety and environment (HSE) requirements, which may be imposed through state/territory or federal legislation, and these must not be compromised at any time. Where there is an apparent conflict between performance criteria and HSE requirements, the HSE requirements take precedence. |
Public awareness | Public awareness activities include one or more of the following: distribution of educational materials/resources use of media to disseminate information public educational presentations conduct of, or attendance in, community meetings/forums incident exercises Information to support public awareness will be selected as relevant from: incident response plan and management systems in place to prevent an incident warning signals in the event of an incident procedures to be followed in the event of an incident relating to evacuation and welfare operations appropriate people to contact and contact details post-incident management systems social objectives and contributions ecological issues and controls |
Incident | An incident is an event which causes, or could have caused, injury or illness; damage to plant, material or the environment; disruption to production or public alarm. An incident is an unintended event, or an unintended consequence of an intended event. This includes: fire and explosion loss of containment excursions above/below acceptable limits for emissions or plant conditions excursions above occupational hygiene or biological exposure limits non-compliance with regulatory requirements security breaches failure to follow procedures complaints vehicle incidents on/off-site incidents |
Incident response | Incident response includes one or more of the following: deployment of site incident response personnel containing/controlling the incident at source and or its spread search and rescue operations engagement of external emergency services (such as fire, ambulance, rescue and military) liaison with other agencies (such as environmental, clean-up and specialised troubleshooters) evacuation hazard control Incident response actions must: be in accordance with and relevant organisation procedures use appropriate response equipment where required prioritise the safety and/or successful recovery of personnel and others affected by the incident response not inhibit effectiveness of the incident response or further contribute to the incident |
Procedures | All operations must be performed in accordance with relevant procedures. Procedures are written, verbal, visual, computer-based or in some other form, and include one or more of the following: emergency procedures work instructions standard operating procedures (SOPs) safe work method statements (SWMS) formulas/recipes batch sheets temporary instructions any similar instructions provided for the smooth running of the plant |
Cooperation and support | Establishing cooperation and support from the surrounding community can alleviate potential problems, including one or more of the following: expressions of community concern about a lack of communication with the organisation an atmosphere of mistrust existing between the community and the organisation constant referrals of organisational activities to local, state/territory or Commonwealth authorities the volume of requests for information received from community groups or individuals protest meetings or rallies by concerned residents |
Sectors
Competency Field
Incident readiness and response