Bursar’s Review Summer 2020.

10 Finance Author Chris Gallant Co-founder and director of Pharos Response Ltd www.pharos-response.co.uk There are many ways to structure a critical incident plan (CIP) but the following is how we would suggest tackling it, from a position of making it genuinely useful in the event of a major incident. Although the CIP document may be lengthy and the team should be familiar with it all, it should be written as a series of sections so that just those relevant to the situation or individual are given out in the heat of the moment, keeping things focused. No lengthy prose or policy but a series of short instructions, tables, guides, flow charts. Contents of your plan 1. Initial actions checklist 2. Critical incident team notification process 3. Critical incident team roles with definitions 4. Critical incident team – primary and secondary contacts 5. Scenario-specific response considerations 6. Secondary generic considerations 7. Appendices 1. Initial actions checklist A short and punchy checklist for the senior person who receives the initial incident notification. Guidance on information to collate, advice to give, establish communications thus far and for the immediate future, who to inform, how to assess incident severity, list resources available, prompt priority actions. 2. Critical incident team notification process A simple process flow of the notification process from initial incident report through to the full critical incident team being briefed. Remember to consider out of hours and school holidays. 3. Critical incident team roles with definitions Define the roles in your critical incident team (not the people) including an outline of responsibilities. Might include critical incident team leader, operations lead, communications lead, spokesperson, welfare lead, parent liaison, team administrator and other co-opted members such as IT and facilities. of the plan, its structure and where it is saved (secure but accessible remotely). Once ready, conduct a desktop simulation exercise working through a realistic scenario with the critical incident team to see how you would respond, identify gaps, training needs and weaknesses in the plan to adapt accordingly. If you’re feeling brave, you can carry out a full simulation exercise responding to the situation as it unfolds, a real test of your plan and your team. Highly recommended when you’re ready as the learning is invaluable. You can organise these simulation exercises yourselves internally or this is something that specialists can assist with. A global pandemic with national school closures may not have been a scenario identified in many school critical incident plans. Your response will have met many challenges and demanded new solutions and the learning from this will have been significant. It would be a great shame if your critical incident plans weren’t updated to capture this learning. No doubt we have all been shaken by the effects of COVID-19 but let’s use this experience to ensure we’re stronger and ready for the next critical incident. It might just be you under the spotlight next time. 4. Critical incident team – primary and secondary contacts Two named people allocated to each role. Remember to deconflict any holidays so one of the two contacts is always available. 5. Scenario-specific response considerations The most likely significant incidents that your school might face, such as fatality, building fire, serious overseas incident, coach/minibus crash, safeguarding failure. For each, list different considerations that you would need to think about in the initial response phase. 6. Secondary generic considerations A generic list of considerations for managing the next day, the next week, and beyond. 7. Appendices Useful resources including: contact details for key people and external agencies, incident log details, guides and passwords for tasks such as updating the website, social media and conference call access. The crisis communications plan should include separate process flows, and media and social media statement templates. Put it to the test If the first time your critical incident team reads your plan is during a serious incident, it is more likely to fail. The speed of response is critical, especially with social media and 24-hour news channels hungry for a scoop. Ensure your critical incident team is properly briefed on the contents Summer 2020 www.theisba.org.uk