Disaster planning: procedures

How should a school effectively manage a crisis? By Robert Bell

All schools, from time to time, will have an emergency. This could range from a small incident affecting only the school itself, for example a minor gas leak or the death of a pupil, which could become a major media event that grabs national and international headlines.

Even though the scale, duration and impact of an emergency can be different, a school emergency can still be defined as an unexpected event which is distressing to the school community and is on a scale that is beyond the normal coping capacity of the school. Preparation and training will help the school to be better prepared to manage events as and when they happen.

After the shooting at Dunblane Primary School on the 13 March 1996, Sterling Council produced a report called Dunblane, a place of learning. One of the recommendations of this report was that “all schools should have emergency plans in place supported by training.”  

The process
The first part of the planning process is to involve as many people as possible, including teaching, non-teaching staff and governors. A group consisting of these people could be established to the develop plans. It is important that nothing is done in isolation. The school environment needs to be studied to identify the major threats. For example, is the school in a flood plain, is it near any industrial sites, and are there major roads or rail links that run near to the school? In addition, student groups could also be involved in the process, either by forming part of the group or treating the exercise as a school project.

The emergency planning unit of your local council will be able to tell you what risks there are in your immediate area. Establishing links with the local emergency services will be invaluable in the long run. Talking to these services will help in understanding what resources they will send to a school for an incident and what would be expected of you. For example, can a fire engine or ambulance fit easily though your school gates?

Throughout the planning, it is important to understand the role of the media. If your school was the victim of a major incident, the local and national press would descend on the school. Considering in advance how the media can be managed would be very useful. For example, by deciding who would speak to the media, release press statements and so on. The local authority will be able to help. In addition, there are also a number of companies that can offer advice on media management.

An emergency can be considered to have a number of phases, the two main ones being “response” and “recovery”. The incident itself could be over quickly. Once a school fire has been put out, there is no longer any significant danger, but the recovery process has just begun. Making sure school operations are able to respond and recover from disruptions is often referred to as business continuity planning.

The heavy rain and flooding in the summer that affected large areas of the UK have caused long-term disruption to schools. The table below shows some of the many consequences of flooding and also illustrates how there can be many unforeseen consequences following a disruption or emergency.

The effect a flood could have on a school (hypothetical, but are based on real examples)
Damage	Issues arising
Carpets in all rooms destroyed	Replacements necessary
Damage to electrical system	Full re-wiring
Loss of school office computers	Does the school have its data backed up?
Loss of paper records in school office	Anything not backed up will be totally lost
Loss of course work in class rooms	Following the Carslie floods, the exam board gave pupils no leniency even though work had been lost in flood water
Loss of books and teaching resources	All need to be replaced
All floorboards need to be lifted and floors dried	Not until the buildings are properly dry can repairs begin
Staff of sick due to stress	Members of staff are unable to cope
Rooms all have to be stripped and re-painted, all rotten timbers replaced	Redecorating could take weeks or months. Loss of use of classrooms

Nationally, London suffered less damage from the periods of heavy rain. However, 118 schools reported significant damage, of whom 38 may not have been repaired by the start of the school year. The estimated cost is approximately £3.7 million; imagine the impact on class organisation from the loss of four classrooms.

Protection
Business continuity such as emergency planning cannot cover all eventualities, but it will help protect the school. If the school uses outside caterers, are there arrangements with other companies if they cannot provide food for any reason? If a local bus company is used for pupil transport, are there back-up arrangements?

As with emergency planning, the process is to identify the resources needed for the school to function and then put measures in place to protect them. Local emergency planning departments can provide advice on business continuity planning.

The recovery process is more than just the recovery of physical assets. It should also be focused on people. Traumatic events can have a lasting effect on all involved, including staff. Your staff needs to have an understanding of how stress can affect children as well as colleagues. How this is managed will have an effect on how well the school community proceeds from a traumatic event.

Considering the issues in advance will allow for better preparations to be made. The amount of stress caused by lost buildings and more can be traumatic. Even if no one has been harmed, the pressure caused by these events can entail staff absences due to stress.

Get trained
Once a plan has been developed, the next phase is training. A plan that sits on the shelf without involving staff is next to useless. During an incident, staff will not turn to a written plan, but they will remember the training and procedures that have been implemented. During the London bomb attacks, a primary school in the City of London evacuated its staff and pupils to a pre-designated point 500 metres away from the school. This point became compromised and they were forced to move again.

Since those involved had discussed and practised moving the whole school, the staff was calm as each knew the action that should be taken. This helped to reassure the pupils that they were safe.

It may take some time to develop effective plans and procedures. However, once they are in place they will become part of the school standard and will become an extension of existing health and safety requirements. Following a school shooting in the US ,the headmaster was interviewed by national media. He said that had the staff not followed their emergency plans, the situation would have been much worse.

If you want to know more about emergency planning and business continuity, you can contact your local authority emergency planning department. There is also advice available from the Department for Children, Schools and Families. In addition, the Cabinet Office Emergency Planning College runs courses on the issues of school emergencies.

Robert Bell manages Hounslow’s Contingency Planning Unit, which is part of a group developing national guidance to help schools train for emergencies. Other members of the group include the National Union of Teachers, the Metropolitan Police, Durham Fire and Rescue Service, Nottingham County Council, Essex County Council, Northumbria University and the Department of Children Schools and Families. 

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