Critical Incident Policy
1. Statement
2. Aims
3. Related policies, legislation and guidance
4. Roles and responsibilities
5. Critical incidents
6. Procedure
7. Communication with the media
8. Reporting and record keeping
9. Internal investigations
10. Follow-up and review and monitoring
Appendix A: Security staff
Appendix B: Assembly points
Appendix C: Critical incident action plan
1. Statement
1.1 Ashbourne is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all students and staff. All staff are expected to be aware of and comply with this policy and the procedures herein.
1.2 This policy applies to critical incidents that occur on or surrounding the College premises as well as during off-site activities including educational visits, residential trips and examinations. It also applies during and outside of College hours where applicable.
1.3 Nothing in this policy should affect the ability of any person to contact the emergency services in the event of a critical incident requiring immediate assistance. If you are in any doubt you should dial 999 before contacting the Security Lead or another appropriate member of the Senior Leadership Team (SLT).
2. Aims
2.1 The aim of this policy is to provide an open framework to manage and recover from a critical incident (examples of which are described below in Section 5) affecting the College community and to minimise the risks to the health, safety and welfare of those affected and the damage to property or reputation. This will include identifying:
2.1.1 Those who may be affected by a critical incident;
2.1.2 The types of incident and the threat that they may present to the College;
2.1.3 Key activities and assets that may be threatened by a critical incident; and
2.1.4 Measures and procedures to manage, investigate (where appropriate), and recover from a Critical Incident and its aftermath.
2.2 Ongoing security preparedness will involve risk assessments, planning, training, exercises and reviewing of the policy and plans, as well as consultation with members of the Ashbourne community to gain their involvement and support.
3. Related policies, legislation and guidance
3.1 Related policies
Child Protection and Safeguarding (student welfare)
Fire Safety
First Aid
Health & Safety (premises security)
Prevent Duty
SEND
Disruption to external examinations
3.2 Legislation and guidance
This policy has been developed with reference to relevant government legislation and guidance, including protective security and preparedness for education settings adapted from the National Counter-Terrorism Security Office.
Full list of legislation and guidance
4. Roles and responsibilities
4.1 Critical incidents are managed by designated members of the senior leadership team (SLT) and other key staff, as set out in Appendix A.
4.2 The Security Lead is responsible for overseeing the management and procedural operations of critical incident responses, in conjunction with other members of the SLT.
4.3 The Security Communications Officer is responsible for liaising with and briefing key personnel, the media and monitoring media response. In addition, they are also charged with relevant communications with students, parents, relatives and anyone else affected by a critical incident.
4.4 Personal Tutors are responsible for providing support, assistance and information to students affected by a critical incident and will liaise with other members of the critical incident team and external agencies where appropriate.
4.5 The Designated Safeguarding Lead is responsible for matters relating to child protection, safeguarding and welfare and will provide support assistance information to staff and liaise with medical staff where appropriate.
4.6 The Facilities Manager will play a key role in dealing with security and is responsible for managing issues relating to the College site, premises and property and liaising with regulatory bodies such as the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), the local authority and the Environment Agency. The Facilities Manager assists other members of the critical incident team and records and prepares communication where required.
5. Critical incidents
5.1 A critical incident is a sudden or unexpected single incident or a sequence of incidents or events which may cause or have the potential to cause:
5.1.1 Injury, harm, illness and/or threat to safety of students, staff, or anyone else affected by the College’s activities;
5.1.2 Damage to College property or reputation;
5.1.3 Serious disruption to the running of the College or College’s activities;
5.1.4 Intervention by the police or regulatory authorities; and
5.1.5 Adverse media attention.
5.2 It is not possible to predict the exact nature or type of disaster or incident that may occur. Examples include, but are not restricted to:
5.2.1 An accident, injury, illness or death of a student, staff member or anyone else affected by the College’s activities;
5.2.2 An outbreak of illness or contagious disease on the College premises or affecting students or staff;
5.2.3 Missing or abducted student(s) and hostage situations;
5.2.4 Security breaches, intruder access or vandalism;
5.2.5 Criminal or terrorist acts;
5.2.6 Assaults on or acts of violence towards students or staff members or anyone else affected by the College’s activities;
5.2.7 A fire, arson attack, explosion, bomb scare, chemical leak or the discovery of a hazardous substances on the College site;
5.2.8 Natural disasters e.g. flooding or storm damage;
5.2.9 Damage to College property or infrastructure including failure of services (gas, electricity, water etc) or computer systems;
5.2.10 Loss of key personnel or strike action; and
5.2.11 Adverse media attention.
Note: child protection incidents
For the avoidance of doubt every complaint of or suspicion of abuse (whether by an adult or another student) will be taken seriously and will be dealt with under the terms of the College’s Child Protection and Safeguarding Policy and not under the terms of this policy
6. Procedures
In the event of a critical incident the following emergency procedure should be followed.
6.1 First response to a critical incident by staff
6.1.1 Assess the nature and extent of the critical incident, where possible;
6.1.2 Take immediate action to safeguard themselves and anyone else affected;
6.1.3 Summon emergency assistance and / or medical assistance (if required); and
6.1.4 Contact the Security Lead or another member of the SLT as quickly as possible.
6.2 Managing the incident
6.2.1 The Security Lead and team will communicate with the SLT to determine what immediate is called for..
6.2.1 The Security Lead will obtain accurate information about the incident as soon as possible and will seek to establish:
6.2.1.1 The nature of the incident;
6.2.1.2 When, where and how the incident occurred or is occurring;
6.2.1.3 Who has been affected and who might be affected;
6.2.1.4 The extent of potential or actual casualties or damage caused;
6.2.1.5 The involvement of third parties including emergency services, regulators and agencies; and
6.3 Incident response
6.3.1 The Security Lead and SLT will determine what immediate security action is required and initiate the relevant procedures. This may involve evacuation, invacuation and/or lockdown, the procedures for which are set out in the appendices.
6.3.2 Safeguard the health, safety and welfare of students, staff or anyone else affected by the incident;
6.3.3 Liaise with the emergency services, regulators, investigators and outside agencies, as required;
6.3.4 Provide information to and arrange support for and welfare assistance to students, staff, or anyone affected by the incident, to include follow-up support as appropriate;
6.3.5 Make adequate arrangements to liaise with parents, relatives or anyone else affected by the incident;
6.3.6 Ensure that the College acts in a lawful manner and take steps to protect and preserve its legal position and where necessary seek legal advice from the College’s solicitors;
6.3.7 Contact the College’s insurers where necessary, obtain confirmation of cover and obtain their approval / agreement to proposed actions;
6.3.8 Ensure that adverse publicity is minimised and that all external enquiries are handled by the Communications Officer or other nominated personnel;
6.3.9 Make adequate arrangements to communicate with and where necessary provide a controlled response to the press and media;
6.3.10 Ensure that all appropriate site-evacuation and health and safety procedures have been followed;
6.3.11 Ensure that the College premises and property are secure following the incident; and
6.3.12 Activate contingency plans and / or interim measures in order to safeguard continuity of educational provision, where possible.
7. Communication with the media
7.1 Under no circumstances should staff (other than the SLT) make any comment to the media.
7.2 All requests for information from the media should be referred to the Communications Officer or other nominated personnel.
7.3 The Communications Officer or other nominated personnel will liaise with the College’s solicitors and prepare a suitable press statement, if so advised.
8. Reporting and record keeping
8.1 Reporting
The Security Lead will be responsible for ensuring that the College complies with its reporting and record keeping obligations in relation to the incident. The
8.1.1 Statutory reporting obligations:
The statutory reporting obligations are set out in the Health & Safety Policy.
8.2 Record keeping
Just as the college has responsibility for reporting and recording all serious accidents it has the same responsibility for critical incidents. Please refer to the Health & Safety Policy.
8.2.1 Following a critical incident, the College will take all reasonable steps to collect and preserve relevant evidence and documentation, this will be stored on the College’s secure database.
8.2.2 The College will not keep evidence and documentation containing personal information, which has been collated as a result of an incident for any longer than is reasonably necessary in compliance with data protection regulations.
8.2.4 Litigation may require unusual time periods for retaining critical incident records about which the college will consult with its solicitors to ensure proper compliance.
9. Internal investigations
9.1 A member of the SLT will investigate the incident if it is considered necessary.
9.2 Such investigations may be required in order to discover the immediate and / or root causes of an incident to prevent a recurrence, to discipline employees or students, to brief lawyers for the purpose of obtaining legal advice or to aid litigation.
9.3 Where appropriate, the Security Lead will seek legal advice from the College’s solicitors before commencing an internal investigation.
9.4 The scope of an internal investigation may be restricted to fact-finding and may not make any finding of fault or allocation of blame.
9.5 The SLT will not sanction any internal investigation which may prejudice the investigations of outside agencies.
9.6 No admission of liability on the College’s behalf should be made without legal advice and / or prior agreement from insurers.
10. Follow-up and review and monitoring
10.1 Where possible, the College will make all necessary arrangements to ensure the continuing provision of education for students.
10.2 The College will also consider arrangements for support and follow-up for staff and students who have been affected by the incident, such as counselling.
10.3 Following an incident, this policy and any initiated procedures, associated policies and / or relevant risk assessments will be reviewed.
10.4 In any event, this policy will be regularly reviewed and records of relevant risk assessments and accidents will be regularly monitored by the Security Lead and SLT, and updated as necessary.
Appendix A: Security staff
Security Lead: Mike Kirby
Senior Leader: Lee Kirby
Facilities Manager: Fabio Carpene
Communications Officer: Hien Nguyen
Marshalls:
Old Court Place
1. Zilan Zhou
2. Hien Nguyen
3. Fabio Carpene
Young Street
1. Sharan Kandola-Singh
2. Margaret Rennie
3. Jerome Carasco
Appendix B: (Fire Safety) Assembly points
Staff and students’ assembly points are located:
Old Court Place – new flats opposite main entrance
Young Street – outside the Greyhound pub.
Appendix C: Critical incident action plan
Initial action (staff)
Follow up action (Security/SLT team)
Establish an immediate response strategy
Information dissemination
Inform pupils
Contact the remaining parents / guardians
Other matters