Strengthening School Safety: A Comprehensive Guide to Emergency Response Strategies

In an era of increasing uncertainty, schools and colleges must develop robust emergency response plans to navigate potential threats effectively. This article delves into the critical aspects of emergency preparedness, focusing on the three key strategies: evacuation, invacuation, and lockdown. By understanding and implementing these measures, schools and colleges can proactively safeguard the well-being of students, staff, and visitors.

The Imperative Need for Guidance

Ensuring safety in crowded places, especially in schools and colleges, demands meticulous planning. This article highlights the significance of establishing comprehensive emergency response plans encompassing evacuation, invacuation, and lockdown procedures. Moreover, it emphasises the need to identify and designate safe spaces, considering a spectrum of potential threats, from individual incidents to more severe situations.

Response Planning

A fundamental component of school security policies should be an Emergency Response Plan. This plan must cover various potential incidents, including serious injuries, property damage, criminal activities, severe weather events, public health crises, and disasters affecting the local community. The planning process should follow the three-phased approach: pre-incident preparation, incident response, and post-incident recovery.

Pre-Incident: Proactive Preparation

Effective response planning requires a coordinated approach led by designated personnel.

Anticipating potential threats and assessing risks are imperative, and response plans should be tailored to the specific location and building structure.

The comprehensive training of all staff and students is of utmost importance, fostering a strong security culture through regular exercises that familiarise everyone with various threat scenarios. Staff members must be well-prepared to protect themselves and students, safeguard the premises, and know when to contact the police and other emergency services.

Adequate training is vital to ensure preparedness for potential risks, especially for the person responsible for health, safety, and security.

Incident: Navigating Options and Taking Decisive Action

The National Counter Terrorism Security Office emphasises ten key actions for protecting individuals during an incident in schools. These actions include:

• Developing and maintaining an incident response plan
• Establishing effective communication systems within the school
• Monitoring suspicious individuals through security measures
• Assessing and deciding on appropriate responses
• Providing clear instructions to students and staff
• Enhancing security measures
• Offering first aid and medical attention
• Documenting actions
• Addressing diverse reactions
• Preparing for media awareness and communication

Similarly, the Department for Education (DfE) guidance in 2023 provides valuable insights for education, childcare, and children's social care settings to plan for and respond to emergencies:

• DfE School and college security
• Emergency planning and response for education childcare and children's social care settings

Post-Incident: Critical Recovery Measures

The aftermath of an incident necessitates crucial post-incident activities. Accounting for personnel, notifying affected individuals and families, offering psychological support, and documenting actions are critical components of the recovery phase.

Post-incident evaluation is essential, bringing together key players to review and assess the effectiveness of the security plans in place. Debriefing and obtaining feedback from all those affected, including staff, students, and parents, is integral to identifying lessons learned and enhancing future security and business continuity plans.

Types of Emergency Response

Evacuation: Ensuring Orderly Removal

Evacuation is the orderly removal of pupils, staff members and visitors from the school building; this can result from a fire or other incident within the building. Every school and college should have a clear evacuation procedure.

A full site evacuation would also be appropriate when directed by police, and/or it is reasonable to assume an attack or threat is credible and when evacuation will move people towards a ‘place of relative safety’. This may be through the nearest exit or a specific exit, depending on the location of the threat. The circumstances warranting full site evacuation can change, so it is important to consider changing safety conditions during an attack.

Schools and colleges should conduct evacuation drills at least once a term to ensure pupils and staff members fully understand what is involved in the procedure and that it is implemented effectively.

In an emergency, such as a fire, the school's evacuation procedure will be implemented to get everyone out of the school safely and call the emergency services.

All staff must have a copy of the evacuation procedure with clear instructions for the fire evacuation procedure displayed in every classroom. New staff members must be advised of evacuation procedures during their induction training. The headteacher must ensure that all staff members know the designated evacuation points.

Invacuation: Moving to Safer Spaces

Invacuation refers to making staff members aware of an emergency and moving pupils, staff members and visitors to the most sheltered areas within the building. This procedure is employed if moving outside would increase the risk of harm to people, e.g. toxic fumes in the air.

The concept of invacuation, moving people to safer areas within a venue, requires careful pre-planning with detailed considerations for selecting protected spaces and ensuring their suitability are detailed.

The invacuation procedure protects lives by keeping people inside away from perceived danger. This procedure will be used during armed intrusion, chemical spillages and air pollution.

Lockdown: Securing Against Security Threats

Lockdown refers to the procedure of locking external doors and windows before taking immediate shelter in a secure location. This procedure is typically invoked as a response to a security threat.

This procedure will be implemented as a sensible and proportionate response to any external or internal incident which threatens the safety and well-being of pupils, staff members and visitors.

The headteacher must ensure all staff members understand when and how this procedure will be implemented.

A partial lockdown or full lockdown procedure will be implemented depending on the circumstances.

The headteacher will consider all factors when deciding whether to lock down the school partially or fully. Where possible, advice will be sought from the emergency services.

The partial lockdown procedure is a precautionary measure but puts the school in a state of readiness should the situation escalate. It will be used in the event of, but not limited to, the following:

• A local risk of air pollution
• A civil disturbance in the local community with the potential to pose a risk to the school

The full lockdown procedure will be used in the event of, but not limited to, the following:

• An intruder on the school site
• A major fire in the vicinity of the school
• The close proximity of a dangerous dog or other animal roaming loose

The signal for staff members to implement the lockdown procedure should be known and different to the warning signal for invacuation and evacuation.

Conclusion

Effective emergency response strategies are paramount for ensuring the safety of students, staff, and visitors within educational institutions. Schools and colleges can create a secure environment through comprehensive planning, training initiatives, and coordinated efforts. It is crucial to prioritise the well-being of everyone involved and adhere to statutory safeguarding guidance.

In the face of uncertainty, remember the adage: Fail to plan, plan to fail!

Sara Spinks

SSS Author & Former Headteacher