SES fit for task

This research was commissioned by AFAC. It was completed initially through the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC and then Natural Hazards Research Australia, and has allowed the SES to measure the minimum physical fitness that SES members are required to have to be able to safely and effectively undertake tasks during operational responses and training.

The SES Fitness for Role program, launched in August 2023, used this research to develop its evidence-based program. It is the first time that state- and territory-based emergency services across Australia have collectively developed and implemented a single national approach to safe physical fitness of first responders. This program will have safety, health and wellbeing benefits for SES members across Australia and will reduce the risk of injury while performing required tasks, and contribute to building a culture of wellbeing. It will also ensure that when SES members are deployed interstate, they will have an appropriate level of physical fitness to safely undertake all of the roles for which they are deployed.

To develop the evidence, job task analysis was used to determine the most common and physically demanding tasks that are required for the most common SES operational activities. More than 3,000 SES staff and volunteers from every state and territory participated in the job task analysis.

This evidence-based research was used to develop activities that mimic operational activities, and which can be used to demonstrate that SES members have the physical fitness to meet these minimum requirements and undertake their roles safely.

There are nine activities that have been developed that assess physical fitness for land-based and water-based operations and training. These activities were subject to verification and validation, confirming that the activities were considered to closely replicate the relevant operational tasks, and that the level of effort required to meet these minimum physical fitness levels was appropriate for the work that SES members undertake and the environments in which SES members operate.