Bursar’s Review Summer 2020.

Summer 2020 www.theisba.org.uk 8 Finance Effective critical incident plans Performing well during a critical incident requires preparation and practice Re-name your ‘crisis plan’ to a ‘critical incident plan’ Ensure your critical incident team is properly briefed on the contents of the plan Preparing for the next crisis – how good is your crisis plan really? Chris Gallant, co-founder and director of Pharos Response Ltd, suggests that schools should update their critical incident plans by including the measures and new systems they put in place to tackle COVID-19. Given all you’ve had to contend with recently, it would be fair to assume that all school leaders have become crisis management experts! Schools have adapted (very successfully in the main) by implementing new systems, procedures and measures on a scale far greater and faster than ever to combat the challenges thrown at us by COVID-19. A huge achievement. The impact COVID-19 is having on schools could be defined as a ‘crisis’; it will certainly have felt like it. In reality however, defining and adapting to the ‘new normal’ has been quite different to the traditional crises schools face. As the challenges have been industry-wide, a plethora of guidance and support has been provided by government and other professional and membership bodies, such as ISBA. After the initial closures, the media have primarily focused on the national or global issue, rather than school specific. Consequently, parents will have been more accommodating than usual (although it may not have felt like it). The simple fact that the situation has not been of your making and that ‘everyone is in a similar boat’ means the spotlight has not fallen on one school or on one head teacher. Under the spotlight Ultimately, this spotlight, whether directed by the media, social media, the authorities or parents (or all four!), is what can damage your hard won reputation making the position harder to respond to and recover from. This jeopardy is a characteristic of a ‘traditional crisis’: the coach crash, the safeguarding breach, the fatality or the scandal. Situations that most think ‘could never happen here’. There are countless schools which have experienced serious incidents that they hoped would never happen to them. Those who perform ‘well’ under the spotlight should see a reduced negative impact on their organisation and this article will seek to explain how you can prepare to achieve this. To be clear, time under the spotlight is lonely and incredibly busy. Speed is paramount. There is no government guidance or support. And no helpful webinars. No one else is in the same boat. Everyone expects you to have the answers. Quite simply, performing well requires preparation and practice. The plan In our experience, most schools do have a crisis plan. Tick. We’ve seen excellent examples and also those downloaded from the internet without personalisation. Generalising across independent schools, many tend to be very operational but fail to sufficiently consider the complexity of stakeholder communications or social media. Any crisis plan that doesn’t cover communications or social media risks falling at the first hurdle. Note: a follow-up article will cover crisis communication plans, including social media, in the next issue of The Bursar’s Review. Assuming you have all this covered, ask yourself whether the crisis team can access the plan. Do they know their specific roles in the crisis team and are they properly defined? Does it contain guidance on your most likely significant incidents and corresponding template media statements? What do you call it? Most default to ‘crisis plan’ but we recommend ‘critical incident plan’ as a critical incident is more likely than a ‘crisis’ in a school setting and feels more in control. You shouldn’t talk about ‘crisis’ with your stakeholders but if that’s what your plan says, it will be cemented in your lexicon. And most importantly, when was it last updated and properly put to the test? Any crisis plan that doesn’t cover communications or social media risks falling at the first hurdle