The PHAROS 24/7 incident response service is now included as part of the Evolve Advice Premium package, offering customers peace of mind that expert advice is on call to both help prevent incidents on trips and visits but also to support the management of any incidents.

PHAROS, risk and reputation management experts, will provide access to immediate support to help your senior leadership team respond to incidents, emergencies or serious issues, whether school trip, school site or school community related (see examples of school incidents below).

Schools who subscribe to this 24/7 service will be better able to respond swiftly and effectively to serious incidents with the following support accessible immediately:

• – Expert incident and crisis management mentoring
• – PR and communications support
• – Social media monitoring
• – Health & safety advice
• – Specialist second opinions
• – Trauma after care

For academies and independent schools, this experienced guidance is particularly valuable since the Board can be held directly responsible for the consequence of incidents, especially if poorly managed.

You can provide the PHAROS 24/7 emergency number to your SLT and also visit leaders.  Remember, this can be any incident involving the school, not just trip or visit related. 

In the event of an incident, your team can call on PHAROS for support, either from the scene of the incident or via your SLT. Calls are answered by highly experienced incident managers, typically senior former uniformed services (Army, Police etc) who also have experience of working with young people. Your call will be answered any time of day, any day of the year, always by a human and never a voicemail. 

Incident managers will provide immediate practical advice to the caller, such as a teacher at the scene of a coach crash or a Headteacher who has just sent a pupil to hospital with anaphylaxis. All details of the incident will be logged and escalated as required, they will also recommend immediate priority actions focused on safety first and containing the situation. They will also initiate any specialist services that might assist, such as strategic incident management mentoring with a Pharos Director, crisis PR/media support, social media monitoring, health & safety advice, trauma after care and investigations.

Click here to find out more about other PHAROS services for schools, such as critical incident training and site security audits. 

  

Over many years, the PHAROS team have supported schools in responding to a wide range of critical incidents and crises, such as:

• – Student suicides
• – Anaphylaxis on visits and school site
• – Staff arrests and convictions for offences involving children
• – Coach crashes (UK and overseas)
• – Sudden staff death
• – Pupil death on school trips
• – Serious sexual assaults
• – Staff arrest for fraud
• – Headteacher blackmail
• – Armed robbery on a school trip
• – Full school lockdowns due to armed intruders
• – School minibus crashes
• – Historical safeguarding incidents in the press
• – ‘Paedophile hunters’ catch staff member and stream live to Facebook
• – Teachers in a serious taxi crash overseas leaving group unsupervised
• – Missing pupils on school visits

Of course school staff are highly experienced at responding to incidents – they happen in school all the time – but typically when the incident is more serious, additional help is necessary. In particular, schools usually need assistance where a member of staff or a school procedure may be at fault or where it involves the press or social media bringing the school’s reputation into question, school staff understandably need specialist support.  By having PHAROS on call for a small annual retainer as part of your Evolve Advice Premium package, you will know this help is always available, whatever happens.