Coping with a school emergency in Nottinghamshire

The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 placed new duties on local authorities in their role within emergency planning. As a result of this, Department for Education and Skills (now Department for Education) strongly recommended that schools produce their own individual emergency plan.

In 2005 Nottinghamshire County Council examined how schools could become more involved in emergency planning and how the local authority could support them. 'Coping with a School Emergency' was issued to schools in 2006; it includes a template school emergency plan and supporting guidance.

The document was revised and reissued to schools in September 2008 and followed up with both introductory and refresher training events for headteachers and chairs of governors.

Nottinghamshire County Council has since then achieved beacon status for emergency planning. The Coping with a School Emergency document [PDF 1.6MB] and the support given to schools to help them to write their own plan was a major contributory factor in achieving this status. The document received recognition from the Department for Education and has a high profile nationally.

The Developing Community Resilience Through Schools project

Nottinghamshire County Council’s emergency planning team is now working in partnership with the Department for Education, Cabinet Office and other emergency planning teams with the aim of promoting community resilience through schools.

The objectives of this project are to produce:

• National emergency planning guidance for schools
• Guidance and supporting resources on training and exercising school plans
• National emergency planning guidance for Children’s Services departments
• Curriculum based teaching materials incorporating emergency planning principles.

To download these resources (and to find out more about the project) please visit: www.schoolemergencies.co.uk

Queries about the project can be directed to: info@schoolemergencies.co.uk