Emergency School closures

School leaders will have contingency plans in place, striving to maintain school operations for as many pupils as possible even amid unforeseen circumstances.  It is acknowledged that there may be rare occasions where the health and safety of staff and pupils cannot be maintained with fewer staff resources and therefore full or partial closures will need to be considered.

This overview and  Risk assessment will provide guidance to schools when keeping the school fully open becomes challenging. It aims to support schools to plan and mitigate against risks including:

• Severe weather
• Sustained staffing shortages as a result widespread infectious disease
• Utilities and local service disruption
• Building issues
• Transport issues such as driver shortages, fuel disruption
• Widespread absence due to infectious diseases and the potential requirement for deep cleaning

Schools have developed systems for online learning provision, partial opening for different groups of children and young people and opening for limited hours during the day as part of their Business Continuity arrangements (sometimes called Emergency plans) to avoid whole school closure wherever possible. Schools will have access to provision such as:

• Switching to remote learning at short notice (regular simulated exercise/tests should be carried out to ensure this can be put in place at short notice)
• Some flexibility in terms of staff duties and activities
• Larger groupings where appropriate, not compromising the school's risk assessment
• Consideration of partial opening for groups of children
• Consideration of opening for limited hours

Any decision regarding closure should be supported by the school's Business Continuity plan (sometimes called Emergency Plans) and reported on the NCC Emergency Schools Closure system. Ensure you have read the guidance and instruction on how to close your school(s). This is the prime source for many organisations in Norfolk, therefore, even if you have other ways of notifying parents, please register your school closure through Emergency school closures.

For details of managing incidents and for support and services provided by NCC's Resilience team see Managing emergencies and business continuity.

Severe Weather

• For guidance on what to do before severe weather, during and afterwards, see  Cold weather advice for schools.
• For advice on attendance, please contact your Attendance and Entitlement Officer, or ring the Duty line on 01603 223681 or email csattendance@norfolk.gov.uk.

Further advice and information

The GOV.UK website provides further advice regarding emergency school closure at Guidance: Emergency planning and response - How schools and other educational settings should plan for and deal with emergencies, including severe weather and floods.

Severe weather

Probability

High

Impact

High

Outcome

• Whole or partial school closure.
• Disruption to children's learning.
• Attendance implications.
• Widespread and prolonged disruption

Mitigation

Overview and RA shared with schools to ensure they:

• Make every effort to keep schools open even if for limited numbers to attend
• Have up to date Business Continuity Plans
• Have an Incident Management Team for severe weather: procedures and processes and communication for staff, parents and relevant services. RA, planning, training, clearly defined responsibility for personal and review process
• Communicate plans in advance to families/wider community
• Risk assess situation, plan and implement remote learning procedures as soon as possible
• Ensure schools are aware of attendance coding
• Ensure schools are aware of HR flexible staffing requirements around duties and activities: Job holders will be expected to be flexible in their duties and carry out any other duties commensurate with the grade and falling within the general scope of the job, as requested by management.
• Consider partial closure for groups of students according to need.
• Consider partial closure, opening for limited hours
• Communicate through NCC Emergency School Closures System

Further information

• Cold weather
• Managing emergencies and business continuity

Shortage of staff

High propotion of staff off through illness over a sustained period of time. COVID-19 as well as widespread infectious diseases including pandemic flu and staff that have travelled internationally

Probability

High

Impact

High

Outcome

• Whole or partial school closure.
• Disruption to children's learning.
• Attendance implications.
• Widespread and prolonged disruption.

Mitigation

Overview and RA shared with schools to ensure they:

• Make every effort to keep schools open even if for limited numbers to attend
• Implement remote learning where possible
• Ensure schools are aware of attendance coding
• Ensure schools are aware of HR flexible staffing requirements around duties and activities - as above
• Consider partial closure for groups of students according to need.
• Plans for some flexibility of staff duties and activities
• Larger grouping of CYP where appropriate
• Consider partial closure, opening for limited hours

Further information

• Infection Control
• Infection control - Infospace

Utilities and local services disruption

Boiler breakdown, oil delays, boiler servicing. Catering supply disruption

Probability

Medium

Impact

High

Outcome

• Whole or partial school closure.
• Disruption to children's learning.
• Attendance implications.
• Widespread and prolonged disruption.

Mitigation

Overview and RA shared with schools to ensure they:

• Make every effort to keep schools open even if for limited numbers to attend
• Have up to date Business Continuity Plans
• Implement remote learning where possible
• Consider partial closure for groups of students according to need.
• Consider partial closure, opening for limited hours
• Ensure boilers and heating systems are maintained regularly, ensure pipes are appropriately lagged
• Inspect windows and exterior doors for draughts; draught-proof as needed
• Ensure any particular concerns regarding a likely failure of any element of your building (mechanicial, electrical or building fabric) have been resolved

Further information

• Cold weather
• Managing emergencies and business continuity

High proportion of children absent

Possibly due to infectious diseases; potential need for deep cleaning

Probability

Medium

Impact

High

Outcome

• Whole school closure.
• Disruption to children's learning.
• Attendance implications.

Mitigation

Overview and RA shared with schools to ensure they:

• Implement remote learning where possible
• Have plans for some flexibility of staff duties and activities
• Ensure schools are aware of attendance coding

Further information

• Health safety and wellbeing services

Transport issues

Such as driver shortages, fuel disruption

Probability

Medium

Impact

Medium

Outcome

• Whole or partial school closure.
• Disruption to children's learning.
• Attendance implications.
• Widespread and prolonged disruption.

Mitigation

Overview and RA shared with schools to ensure they:

• Make every effort to keep schools open even if for limited numbers to attend
• Have up to date Business Continuity Plans
• Implement remote learning where possible
• Consider partial closure for groups of students according to need.
• Have plans for some flexibility of staff duties and activities
• Larger groupings of CYP where appropriate
• Consider partial closure, opening for limited hours

Further information

• Managing emergencies and business continuity

The emergency school closure system allows all Norfolk Schools to report a school closure. Once entered it appears on a public website that is used by parents, school transport providers and other businesses that provide services to schools and the media. The Department for Education links to our school closure page from their page on 'School closures'.

• Visit the My School website (opens new window) to enter password protected area for instruction on how to close your school, and to close your school.
• To see a list of schools currently closed visit : http://www.schoolclosures.norfolk.gov.uk/ (opens new window)