Case study 1 - Lockdown Response, Proportionality & Leadership Accountability
The Challenge
During a crisis-management training session with a school leadership team, we revisited a recent lockdown incident to explore how structured decision-making could have influenced the response.
The school had received information that a pupil was on site and potentially carrying a knife, reportedly directed towards a member of staff. In response, a full lockdown procedure was initiated, with pupils instructed to shelter in classrooms, store rooms and under desks.
Understandably, some pupils became frightened and contacted their parents. Concerned parents subsequently began arriving at the school, followed by members of the press. This increased the complexity of an already challenging situation and created additional reputational and communication pressures.
At the same time, a member of the grounds team had been sent outside to search for the pupil while the remainder of the school remained in full lockdown.
The situation was ultimately resolved without violence. The pupil was located and the suspected weapon was found to be a piece of wood. However, the incident had caused significant disruption and anxiety, with a particularly difficult impact on some pupils with additional needs.
Our Approach
During the training, the leadership team used the CLEAR Decision-Making Model TM to work retrospectively through the incident.
Rather than judging decisions with the benefit of hindsight, the exercise examined the information available at each stage, the perceived threat, available options, proportionality of the response, communication, risk and leadership accountability.
The structured process demonstrated that alternative options could have been considered which continued to manage the potential risk while reducing some of the wider impact on pupils, parents, staff and organisational reputation.
The Outcome
A particularly important learning point concerned leadership and accountability.
Key leaders recognised that ultimate responsibility for ensuring effective crisis arrangements rested with them. The session highlighted the importance of appointing an appropriately senior incident leader, establishing clear roles and ensuring staff understand both their responsibilities and their authority during an incident.
The leadership team left the session intending to embed this learning within its procedures and future crisis planning.
The team also identified the wider value of the decision-making model for complex safeguarding decisions, where leaders may be required to balance competing risks and subsequently demonstrate why a particular course of action was considered reasonable and proportionate.
Key Learning
A crisis plan tells people what should happen. Effective crisis leadership helps them decide what to do when circumstances don’t fit neatly within the plan.
