Emergency Relief

This Playbook details how to use Crisisworks to provide emergency relief services, including operating an ERC (Emergency Relief Centre).

QUICK Checklist

• Create Activation Briefing: Use the Activation Briefing schema in the Information record. Tick ‘Share this record…’ to email or SMS key people.

• Relief Registration: Use Relief Registrations to record details of attendees at your ERCs

• Public Relief Form: Make the Relief Registration Form available to the public by putting the Public User/Relief Public User at Council user On Duty and share the link to this form on your website and socials.

• Manage Needs & Tasks: use Needs & Tasks on the Relief Registration to record and assign tasks.

• Use the Crisisworks app: ensure your ERC Team uses the Crisisworks app on their mobile device to track Information, Requests and add their own Log entries.

Manage your workforce

• Have your team advise their availability using the Rostering Availability feature.

• Use Rostering to manage shifts for your CEOCC, EMLOs and ERCs.

• Get your team to use Work Summaries to track their hours and expenses accurately.

• Tag Library items with the relevant role (eg EMLO, ERC, MRM, MEMO). Users can then easily find documents, procedures and templates to help them carry out their role.

Use this Playbook to:

• Organise the ERC Teams

• Register impacted community members

• Coordinate provision of immediate needs

• Access resources, guides and templates needed

• Liaise with EOC & external agencies

• Record staff time and expenses

Positions for emergency relief

The following Positions can access the Recovery module:

• ERC Support Officer

• Relief & Recovery Officer and Relief & Recovery Coordinator

• MRM and MRM Deputy

• MEMO and MEMO Deputy

• SIA - EHO, and SIA - Building Surveyor

Organise your ERC team

Brief the team

At the start of each shift, conduct a team briefing. Create an Information record and select the Briefing/Handover template from the Type dropdown. This record can then be promoted on the Crisisworks dashboard and sent as an email or SMS to all users on duty.

In the briefing, cover:

• Immediate needs being offered at ERC

• Agencies attending or expected at the ERC, including any online arrangements

• Standing arrangements for services, if applicable

• Services that require approval from the ERC Manager or MRM

• Communication arrangements for liaising with the EOC

• Details of other staff on duty for the shift, their roles, responsibilities and contact details

• Any other key items

Roster Availability

All staff with a Crisisworks User Profile can utilise the Roster Availability function within Crisisworks to indicate their availability.

A new Rostering module will be available in Crisisworks in later 2025

Record Staff time and Expenses

The Work Summary module functions similarly to a timesheet and an expense claim system.

To assist payroll and any future NDRFA claims, ensure all staff track expenses and any hours they work on the emergency using the Work Summary module. Entries can be categorised by the location, type and shift, such as ERC 6pm-11pm, CEOCC 8am-6pm. Tags can be used to indicate any external staff deployed from other councils. Work summaries can be entered daily, with multiple entries, or as a summary at the end of the week with the total number of hours, where people may convert their paper tracking to a digital record to help with processing and reporting.

Work Summary Reports can be generated to assist with funding claims.

More on Work Summaries

Set up Crisisworks at ERC

1. Identify Crisisworks Champions or experienced users within your ERC Team.

2. All ERC staff should be assigned the position ERC Support Officer in Crisisworks to grant access to the Relief Registration and the Operations module. Other Recovery roles also give access this.

3. Ensure staff sign in and go on duty for the correct event using either a laptop or the Crisisworks app on any mobile device.

4. ERC staff should accurately record their hours of work using the Work Summary module.

Tip! Crisisworks should compliment face to face and telephone conversations. Before sending Requests and Information, ensure the receiving team is prepared and that everyone agrees on the workflow arrangements. Good communication is essential.

More on Work Summaries

Using the Crisisworks App in an ERC

Access all of Crisisworks’ features on the go by using the Crisisworks App in an ERC. Compatible with iOS and Android mobile devices and web browsers on iPads, tablets and laptops , enabling you to quickly record information, logs, request and relief registrations from any mobile device.

Crisisworks can function completely offline with the mobile apps. To enable this feature, simply tap 'Go offline' in the App, your asset data will be available while you're offline. This will speed up data collection and entry and your records will automatically sync when your device reconnects to the internet.

Note: When the internet is VERY weak, it is better to force offline mode, so it doesn’t try to use a weak internet connection

Watch a short video on using the Crisisworks App

Relief Registration

The Relief Registration module allows you to:

• Record the details of displaced community members and their urgent needs.

• Address immediate needs (e.g. accommodation, dietary requirements).

• Monitor ERC capacity by tracking numbers in and out.

• Support follow-up in Recovery, where registrations can transition into Recovery Cases.

Registration is encouraged for all ERC attendees, but not compulsory.

Methods of Registration

At the ERC

• ERC staff complete a Relief Registration using a laptop or mobile device.

• Choose a Registration type: ERC (attendees) or Leave Early (non-attendees).

• Enter households/families in a single record, starting with the primary contact.

• Capture urgent needs in the Needs Assessment section; flag urgent cases for follow-up.

• Medium/long-term needs and recovery assessments can be added to the record as Needs & Tasks.

• Use counters in the side menu to monitor outstanding tasks and urgent cases.

Public Form (DIY)

• Councils can activate a public relief registration form for people who prefer to enter their own details or who are not attending an ERC.

• Submissions enter the Relief Registrations directly with the status Public Registration.

• The form mirrors the staff version but omits Workflow and Classification sections.

• Help text for users can be customised via the System Text record in the Library.

• Share access via council website, social media, and printed QR codes.

Data Management

• Relief Registrations live under the Recovery menu.

• Councils not using Crisisworks onsite should collect information in a spreadsheet, then import into Crisisworks ASAP. Note: importing creates extra work and potential errors, especially with address matching. Direct entry is strongly recommended.

Immediate Needs

During registration, the Community Support Team identifies urgent needs. Some can be met directly at the ERC (e.g. food, toiletries, information). Others require referral to a Service Provider or other council teams, in which case a Needs & Tasks record should be created.

Relief Registration Workflow

Coordinate provision of immediate needs

Needs & Tasks

Add a Need/Task to the Relief Registration to help you follow up any services and supports required.

• Needs & Tasks are used to record and manage needs such as financial assistance and accommodation according to your Council’s Services and business rules (see below).

• If the resident needs further assistance when they leave the ERC, their Relief Registration should be transitioned to a Recovery Case.

• External relief agencies, such as DFFH can use Crisisworks to view Relief Registrations and to receive and edit Needs & Tasks assigned to them.

Approval process for Needs & Tasks

To provide some oversight to the Needs & Tasks, you may choose to follow a process that allows the MRM or similar to approve the request. To do this, the MRM or similar does the following:

1. View the list of Needs & Tasks in the status of Requested

2. To approve a task:

   1. Change the Status to IN PROGRESS

   2. Enter the approved cost, and a relevant reference number

   3. Select the service provider in the Assignment field

Declining a task

To decline a task, change the Status to NOT REQUIRED and enter a reason in the notes field. When declining a task, you may wish to contact the case applicant to explain the reasons and agree an alternative approach.

See also, Playbook - Needs & Tasks

More on Relief Registration

More on Modifying Lookup Lists

Access documents, guides and templates

Securely store all the documents you need to share with your team, either for this event or as part of the Global Library to access in any event.

Store your ERC Standard Operating Procedures and templates in the Global Workspace in your Library and tag them all ‘ERC’ to make them easy to find.

Assign tags to each key emergency role (MEMO, MRM, EMLO, SIA, ERC) and apply them to relevant templates, and documents they will need. These tags act as virtual folders for easy access. Simply click on the tag name to quickly locate all records related to that role (eg. ‘ERC’).

Geospatial features detailing map-based information can also be created in the Library.

More on the Library

Liaise with MECC/CEOCC

Requests

Requests are used to manage action items that need to be tracked until they are completed.

Requests live under the Operations menu and can be created by any user, however only users with MEMO permissions can assign and resolve a Request. Examples of Requests that may be made by the Relief team include cleaning services and waste removal at the ERC, traffic management signage needed at ERC.

Requests to or from the EOC should be done in a coordinated way to prevent duplication. Your workflow should consider approval lines, eg. that Requests to the EOC be approved by the ERC Manager before referring to the MRM.

More on Requests

Information

Information entries provide a way to store and publish a variety of information including messaging, reports, updates and briefings.

Information entries can be promoted to the dashboard to draw the team’s attention and they can be sent by email and SMS to select users. They can also be assigned to a role with a review date and time added.

To maintain consistency and make it easier to find items using the counters on the left side menu, the Information module has a number of templates available under the Type dropdown, they include:

• Activation/Handover Briefings

• Situation Report

• Incident Action Plans

• Meetings

Your workflow should consider approval lines for release of information, so the only verified information is shared with the public. This could be done either by Assigning the Information entry to ERC Support or by adding a note in the Details section.

More on Information

Email alerts

Assignees can receive email alerts when records are assigned to them when they are on duty in the event. Notification preferences can be controlled from the user’s profile.

Logs

Logs serve as a record of a person’s observations, intentions, actions and decisions, typically a position log in an emergency context. Logs are accessible by other users with the same position, as well as coordinators.

Throughout the operation of the ERC, there will be key decisions and moments you may want to track. These may not require immediate action or followup, but could be important decisions or moments that occurred. For example, “Red Cross arrived at 11:00 to provide RFR services”, “ERC shift changeover was completed at 16:20”, a note of a conversation that may become important later on. If the item requires action or if it should be more widely known, it may be better to use a Request or an Information entry.

Log entries can be captured in a number of ways:

• Selecting New Log from the blue drop down box.

• Logs in the mobile app allow you to add voice memos and videos.

• From the quick Log Entry box at the centre of the Dashboard

Offers

An Offer is a record of a person or organisation offering material or in-kind assistance, eg spontaneous volunteers, or donations of stock feed and accommodation.

The ERC is likely to receive many offers of assistance and donations from the public. Your council will have guidelines to deal with these offers, which may involve diverting them to other agencies. However, if you need to record a valuable offer this can be done in Crisisworks.

Offers are now captured as Resources in Crisisworks 5. This enables them to be assigned to either Requests Tasks or Recovery Need/Tasks.

New Resource record, select Offer as the Resource Type

Note that there is a public form that can be enabled to allow the public to enter their offers directly. This function is enabled on the Event page.

More on Offers

See also, Playbook - Relief - Offers

Useful links

• Crisisworks mobile app

• Importing Data into Crisisworks

Business rules for your council

Use this section to plan and document specific arrangements tailored to your council’s needs.

Players

Write the names of the people in these roles to personalise before distributing this playbook.

Role	Description	People
Municipal Recovery Manager (MRM)	The Municipal Recovery Manager provides overall management of the recovery, and will be a point of leadership in the event.
ERC Support	ERC Manager and ERC team managed the operation of ERC, including: Providing SitReps Shift Handovers Relief Registration Operation of facility Provide current and relevant information to attendees Assist with management of pets Manage access and egress to the ERC site
External Agencies	Provide relief services to attendees of ERC Receive referrals for relief services from Council

Jobs to be done

Training scenarios