Emergency or critical incident plan: guidance and examples

Last reviewed on 5 April 2022
School types: All · School phases: All
Ref: 41658

Prepare for emergencies by making sure your school has an emergency plan detailing how you'll respond to various significant incidents, including an outbreak of acute respiratory disease.

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Contents

  1. All schools should have an emergency plan
  2. You can include your COVID-19 outbreak plans in your emergency plan 
  3. What to include in your emergency plan
  4. What a good plan looks like
  5. Planning for significant public health incidents
  6. See a template and guidance
  7. See school examples

All schools should have an emergency plan

Your focus in creating this plan (also called a critical incident plan) should be on:

  • Minimising disruption to pupils’ education
  • Maximising the number of pupils receiving face-to-face provision
  • Helping staff respond effectively to an emergency on site or during an educational visit

This is explained on page 5 of the DfE’s non-statutory emergency planning and response guidance.

You must also comply with legal requirements, including health and safety law, and statutory requirements.

You can include your COVID-19 outbreak plans in your emergency plan 

The DfE’s emergency planning and response guidance was updated and replaced the COVID-19 contingency framework for schools on 1 April.  

Instead, you can include your planned response to a severe outbreak of COVID-19 in your emergency plan, which should include your plans for responding to any serious public health incidents. However, you are free to keep this separate if you'd

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