The Health Check distilled better practice criteria into five areas: complying, engaging, assessing, responding and monitoring. These are explained below:

Complying

Complying considers the extent to which a council is meeting its current relevant legislative requirements. This includes obligations under the Emergency Management Act 1986, Country Fire Authority Act 1958, Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008, Water Act 1989, Water Industry Act 1994 and the Electricity Safety Act 1998.

Engaging

Engaging considers a council’s governance framework and participatory processes in relation to extreme weather events and their impact. This includes the documentation and communication of a chain of command, the integration of climate change considerations throughout the organisation (e.g. planning instruments) and the extent of climate change related roles and responsibilities. In relation to participatory processes, it considers the engagement and empowering of key stakeholders and their awareness of climate change risks and emergency management protocols.

Assessing

Assessing considers the identification and assessment of risks related to future extreme weather events. This includes whether the council currently has a climate change adaptation plan or strategy and whether council has undertaken any risk exercises (e.g. vulnerability assessment mapping, risk mapping, or climate exposure analysis). Assessing also looks at the identification of interdependencies and cumulative impacts.

Responding

Responding considers action planning and implementation of responses to extreme weather events. It looks at how well a council has previously responded and whether any changes were made to its response strategy to incorporate lessons learnt. Additionally, it considers how often climate change impacts are considered in the review of any strategic and operational documents (e.g. emergency management plans, fire management plans or risk registers). At a higher level, how well does a council demonstrate balance across initiatives i.e. how prepared is the council for any disruptions due to extreme weather events.

Monitoring

Monitoring is the measuring, monitoring and review of initiatives. This demonstrates to what extent a council remains relevant, up-to-date and reflective of current initiatives and considers the comprehensiveness of Councils’ activities in terms of procedures, activities and responsiveness.