Haphazard to Capable – how to improve managing critical incidents in schools

After 4 years of delivering critical incident training to schools, we have found that most people, when they stop and think, have the basic understanding of how to manage a critical incident. The support invariably needed is how to make their approach less haphazard.

This involves focusing on five key principles:

1. Get every member of the school’s senior leadership to think along similar lines.

2. Make sure there is only one person who owns the problem and who decides what to do.

3. Appoint individuals to be responsible for delivering a specific part of the plan.

4. Communicate proactively, initially using generic holding statements.

5. Keep a firm track on who is doing what, but never lose sight of what the big picture looks like.

In our critical incident training, we use the concept of “a critical incident pathway” to help schools identify what absolutely needs to happen. Invariably, we find that most of this is buried deep within existing policies and procedures but hidden from view.

So, if your school, like all our existing clients, aspires to being capable of managing a critical incident, why not invest in a two-hour professional development twilight session, where we empower your senior leaders to stop and think?