Critical Incident Policy

School: Carlow Educate Together NS

What is a critical incident?

A critical incident is ”any incident which overwhelms the normal coping mechanisms of the school” (Elizabeth Charles, NEPS).

 

What is a critical incident management team?

”It is a group of individuals from the staff of a school who know the community, the children and each other well enough to make the necessary decisions called for when an incident occurs” (School Crisis Response Teams: Lessening the Aftermath – Mary Schoenfeldt).

 

Role of the Team

The team is divided into separate roles. 

Overall team leader:  Simon Lewis

Team Leaders: Emer Byrden, Siobhan Moore, Gary O’Keefe

Staff liaison: Teresa Farrell, Lisa Ryan, Sinéad O’Toole 

Student liaison: Clare Keohane, Sinead Milton, Sharon Chatten

Parent liaison: Róisín Murphy, Susanne Keating, BOM Chair Sarah Reid & Parent Representative from BOM tbd 

Media liaison: Simon Lewis, Vicky Cahill, Gillian O’Sullivan

Social media:  John Moynihan, Gary O’Keeffe

Administrator and Garda Liaison: Siobhan Moore, Erin Savage, Aisling Quinn, Alaisia Kelly

 

Description of the Roles

Team Leaders: Emer Byrden,  Siobhan Moore and Gary O’Keeffe.

• Overall decision makers.
• Alerts teams members and staff of a crisis (see contact tree)
• Organises the initial meeting and briefs school community on ten point plan or routine for the day.
• Will have the outline routine for the day and make this available to staff.
• Coordinates the tasks for the team

• Keeps in touch with all team members and staff throughout the reaction period
• Communicates with the Board of Management, the Department of Education and NEPS.
• Liaises with affected families.

 

Staff Liaison: Teresa Farrell, Lisa Ryan/Sinead O’Toole 

• Coordinates subsequent meetings for staff if necessary.
• Advises staff on procedures for identifying vulnerable children (see page _____)
• Provides information and materials for staff (To ensure everyone gets a Ready to Go Pack).
• Keeps staff updated on new information.
• Is alert to vulnerable teachers and makes contact with them individually.

 

Student Liaison: Clare Keohane,  Sinead Milton & Sharon Chatten

• Alerts staff of potentially vulnerable children.
• Coordinates information from staff or parents about children that they are concerned about.
• Support and monitor the children throughout the reaction period and beyond.
• Be sensitive of significant days e.g. birthdays, Mother’s Day, Christmas, etc and remind the child(ren)’s teachers and/or staff liaison of such.
• Provide materials and see Ready to Go Pack for children.
• Facilitate the withdrawal of affected children to quiet room (Multi-Sensory Room) and ensures that they are supervised appropriately.

 

Parent Liaison: Chairperson BOM (Sarah Reid), BOM Parent Representatives (tbd), Roisin Murphy & Susanne Keating

 

• Liaises with the parents of the affected children along with the team leaders.
• Provides a support for parents by organising a parent’s meeting and distributing Ready to Go packs for parents after the staff meeting has been held.
• Sets up a room and meets with individual parents and records who has been seen.
• Manages consent issues e.g. in having a counsellor or psychologist in the school.

 

Media Liaison: Principal (Simon Lewis), Gillian Murphy and Vicky Cahill

• Advises parents, children and the staff that only the designated person will communicate with the media.
• Allow limited and controlled access of the media.
• Prepare a press statement which is accurate, brief and carefully considered. Contact can be made with NEPS Psychologists to support the construction of such a statement or to re-draft the statement if necessary. Regard everything as recorded and quotable. Nothing is ”off the record”.
• Protect and respect the privacy of the people most affected.
• In major incidences, seek advice from the Department of Education press office, Teacher Unions and NEPS.

 

Administrator and Garda Liaison: Siobhan Moore, Erin Savage, Aisling Mulally & Alaisia Kelly

• Maintaining an up to date list of contact telephone numbers.
• Compiling emergency information for school trips.
• Prepare templates, letters and press releases.
• Preparing packs of key documents (Ready to Go Packs for children, parents and staff).
• Administration in the course of an incident e.g. phone line, specific rooms, place and person who will log calls and events, arrangement for dealing with normal school business, ensure that the plan is accessible and available.

 

Social media:  John Moynihan, Gary O’Keeffe

 

• Monitor social media activity after the incident
• Notify domains if comments and or pictures are to be removed
• Advise on appropriate social media use

 

Contact Tree:

This is the order of school individuals who are to be contacted if a critical incident were to arise. However, if one of the team members is directly involved or affected by the incident, move onto the next team member or the relevant substitutes if necessary.

 

1. Principal and Chairperson of BOM
2. Team Leaders
3. Team Leaders to contact all staff
4. Staff Liaison
5. Student Liaison
6. Parents (if applicable)

 

Colour Code Key of Incidents

 

Green: Moderate (does not involve death but could be but not restricted to a school fire, large scale damage to the school building, large scale community alert/ could involved death of a person associated with the school but not directly involved with the school on a daily basis)

 

Red: Severe (involves death or severe damage to the school building which would enable school not to take place i.e fire)

 

Action Plan

 

Short Term Plan Day One Actions Plan Checklist:

 

Gather accurate information about the incident.
Decide on what type of response is needed.
Assess whether a NEPS Psychologist should be involved from the beginning.
Decide on what action is required: define the incident as Code Red or Code Green.
Convene a meeting for the Critical Incident Team and key staff- clearly specify time and place.
Critical Incident Team Meeting/Staff
Decide which phone line will be kept open and who will man the phone.
Decide the procedures for the day.
Agree on the rooms to be used for the different requirements: quiet room, parents room, 4
grouping and supervision of children, room for staff to meet, room for the psychologist, location for media liaison.
Decide on how to break the news the relatives and close friends and who will do this (team leader, principal and parent representative).
Decide how to break the news to children: in class groups as opposed as whole school.
Identify potentially vulnerable members of staff.
Reiterate our procedure for identifying vulnerable children.
Decide which issues may need parental consent.
Distribute task checklist for each team member.
Contact external agencies e.g. NEPS
Arrange supervision for students.
Hold staff meeting.
Compile a list of vulnerable children.
Inform students if appropriate. Vulnerable children to be informed separately.
Contact/visit the affected family.
Prepare and agree media statement and deal with media.
Inform parents.
Hold end of day staff briefing.
Decide on possible school closures e.g. for funeral. Update staff on developments or any new information. Decide on a plan going forwards.

 

Medium Term Plan (up to 72 hours after the incident).

 

• Critical Incident Team to meet daily until normal routine resumes.

• Meet external agencies and staff again.
• Arrange support for students, staff, parents.
• Visit the affected families.
• Liaise with bereaved family regarding funeral arrangements if necessary.
• Agree on attendance and participation at funeral service.
• Highlight what needs to be organised or followed up on.
• Schedule for the days following the incident.
• Review vulnerable children and staff and decide on how they will be monitored long term.
• Prepare for the return of the children directly involved.

 

Long Term Plan

•  Monitor children
• memorials and returning belongings to family
• uphold anniversaries, significant dates related to the incident
• evaluate the response and amend the plan
• inform new staff members

 

Dealing with the media

 

Simon, Vicky & Gillian will be responsible for dealing with the media. This could include a written statement, interview or verbal statement. No comments will be made until the school community has been alerted and immediate needs dealt with. This includes comments made through social media, email, text and telephone mediums. 

 

Communication

 

Draft Letter – please refer to the Critical Incident guidelines as per NEPS.

 

Draft Text Message

A code _____ critical incident has occurred. <Some detail of  incident>. All staff to meet in ________ at ________. Please contact Simon or Siobhan for more information. 

 

 

Procedures for identifying Vulnerable Children and Adults

 

Which children could be vulnerable? (student liaison is responsible for gathering this information)

• Close friends or relatives of those involved.
• Children and adults who have been through this incident or similar before.
• Children and adults who may have experienced a recent traumatic event or significant change in their lives.
• Children and adults experiencing serious difficulties within their homes.
• Children and adults with a history of mental health difficulties.
• Children and adults with a history of substance abuse.
• Non-communicative children and adults who have trouble talking about their feelings e.g. children with ASD, ESL, etc.
• Less able children.

 

Team Leaders 10 Point List of what to do

 

		Complete
Contact Team , staff  and NEPS  (see contact tree page ).
Gather the information and assess the situation based on the information that we have including the people that are directly affected by the incident.
Critical incident team meeting (brief) and review roles and responsibilities for the day.
Meet with all available staff at school, allocate jobs(if applicable) and decide on possible school closures (early closure today and possible future closures).
Decide what information is going to be released to parents and students.(media information may be slightly different as appropriate)
Set up an area for parent/students directly involved
Have a staff member present enforcing the closed door policy (with the exception of the people directly involved).
Classes remain in their classes with their class teacher as appropriate until decided otherwise. Classes may continue as normal or resource packs for each class can be utilised.
Set up an area for children/ adults who may need to leave class
Monitor all individuals within the school, meet every half an hour  – every hour as applicable

 

General information

 

1. Plan for parents coming into school; closed door policy – how we are going to do this?

 

Staff member at the school door reassuring people but not admitting people unless they are directly involved in the incident. If a parent wants to bring a child home then that child is brought to the door by a member of staff.

 

Parents/relatives who are directly involved/ closely affected will gather in the support/resource room. Parents / relatives who are not considered the above will have to refrain from entering until further notice is given. These parents/ on lookers / media representatives will be briefed by a staff member at the door. 

 

Parents who are collecting children from school throughout the day must bring the children home immediately . These children will be brought to the door to the parents in this eventuality . These parents and children will be asked to leave the school grounds.

 

1. Plan for supervision of classes for Critical Incident Team  and staff members affected

 

Classes may need to be pooled together. Class directly affected will not be mixed with another class and will be given priority. Classes may also be supervised by additional free staff and BOM members.

 

1. Centres: 

CIT team and Staff will meet in meeting room.

Centres for Class groups will be decided on day depending on incident.

Parents will meet in Afterschool room – a representative from Parent Council will be on hand to relay information etc. (Kathy Geoghan Chairperson Parents Council)

 

Team Members Duties / Roles Checklist

 

Staff Liaison Teresa Farrell, Lisa Ryan/Sinead O’Toole and Principal(Simon Lewis)

 

Coordinates subsequent meetings for staff if necessary. Advises staff on procedures for identifying vulnerable children. Provides information and materials for staff (To ensure everyone gets a Ready    to Go Pack). Keeps staff updated on new information. Is alert to vulnerable teachers and makes contact with them individually

Complete

 

Student Liaison Clare Keohane and Sinead Milton

 

Alerts staff of potentially vulnerable children. Coordinates information from staff or parents about children that they are concerned about. Support and monitor the children throughout the reaction period and beyond. Be sensitive of significant days e.g. birthdays, Mother’s Day, Christmas, etc and remind the child(ren)’s teachers and/or staff liaison of such. Provide materials and see Ready to Go Pack for children. Facilitate the withdrawal of affected children to quiet room (Multi-Sensory Room) and ensures that they are supervised appropriately.

Complete

 

Parent Liaison Chairperson BOM (Tomas Farrell), BOM Parent Representatives (Brendan Duke) and Roisin Murphy

 

Liaises with the parents of the affected children along with the team leaders. 3 Provides a support for parents by organising a parent’s meeting and distributing Ready to Go packs for parents after the staff meeting has been held. Sets up a room and meets with individual parents and records who has been seen. Manages consent issues e.g. in having a counsellor or psychologist in the school.

Complete

 

Media Liaison: Simon Lewis and Vicky Cahill

 

Advises parents, children and the staff that only the designated person will communicate with the media. Allow limited and controlled access of the media. Prepare a press statement which is accurate, brief and carefully considered. Contact can be made with NEPS Psychologists to support the construction of such a statement or to re-draft the statement if necessary. Regard everything as recorded and quotable. Nothing is ”off the record”. Protect and respect the privacy of the people most affected. In major incidences, seek advice from the Department of Education press office, Teacher Unions and NEPS.

Complete

 

Administrator / Garda Liaison: Siobhan Moore and Erin Savage

 

Maintaining an up to date list of contact telephone numbers. Compiling emergency information for school trips. Prepare templates, letters and press releases. Preparing packs of key documents (Ready to Go Packs for children, parents and staff). Administration in the course of an incident e.g. phone line, specific rooms, place and person who will log calls and events, arrangement for dealing with normal school business, ensure that the plan is accessible and available.

Complete

 

Social Media: John Moynihan & Gary O’Keeffe

 

Monitor all platforms Advise on any appropriate social media use Notify any inappropriate use

Complete

 

Additional Areas to develop in the future:

 

Chairperson Role

 

Emergency folders in office: staff, children and parents

 

Prototype timetable

 

Gather information about support and service available to school.

 

Resources for the packs: classroom resources, phone numbers, back-up plan

 

Digitalise packs and hard copy to be given to each critical incident team member.