Introduction to Birmingham City Council’s Schools Lockdown Guidance Steve Cullen Information Governance Manager Governance and Policy Team Directorate for People Birmingham City Council PO Box Woodcock Street Birmingham B7 4BL Tel:

Why has it been produced? Critical Incident Management guidance recently reviewed and lockdown was identified as a gap Discussions with Safeguarding and Resilience staff Requests from schools Consultation with other local authorities

What prompted concerns? There is a generally increased threat to security from terrorist organisations The Paris atrocity has raised general public’s awareness Ever increasing incidents in US schools has prompted British schools to question their own procedures

What does it include? Guidance on creating procedures Stresses the need for this to be an individual document for each school, rather than a generic procedure Full and partial lockdown, and incidents away from school Tips for documenting the plan

Who was involved? The plan was formulated following consultation with: Safeguarding staff Resilience staff West Midlands Police Other local authorities Schools staff

Conclusions Whilst the threat is small it is real It is better to be prepared for any eventuality Where lockdown has happened schools who had no plan felt they would have coped better if there had been a plan in place Where lockdown has happened schools who had a plan felt it enabled them to deal with the situation as calmly as possible