News And Articles Gates

When it snows, the UK grinds to a halt. From roads to trains, to schools, things stop working - and very quickly. When this happens good communication is essential. We all need to know what is working, and what isn’t, what is open and what isn’t.

And few people depend on this information more than parents with children in school or nursery. Unfortunately, across the UK many parents, particularly those most vulnerable get let down by their Local Authority. Parents with children at school or nursery are dependent on one piece of information before they can make any other decision about the rest of their day. It’s not the weather forecast, it’s not the driving conditions, it’s simply - is my child’s school open today.

So here’s the problem. There is no national policy available specifying how school closures are to be communicated to parents. The approach, as far as it goes is that each school is responsible for communicating with parents when it closes. Local Authorities give varying levels of support and guidance to their schools.

Some Local Authorities take a positive approach to the support that they provide to schools. In Norfolk for example, schools all have access to a web page that lets them update their school closure status for distribution to the Local Authority website and the local BBC radio website.

But the Norfolk approach is uncommon. There are other examples like it, but when we contacted over 130 Local Authorities in 2009 over 85% did not have a plan that went beyond local radio announcements.

In 2010, with the web, email, text messaging etc we many parents will be trying desperately to find the radio frequency for their local BBC radio station (that unless they are over age 50 they have probably never listened to before) and waiting for up to an hour before the list of school closures is read out.

Many Authorities though duck the issue altogether, pushing the responsibility for closure reporting on to the schools and so parents find themselves in the ridiculous position of having different communication systems being used for each school their children attend. A parent can be sat waiting for information from one child’s school to come through the radio whilst an hour earlier having been notified that their other child’s school was closed by text message. As a parent, it is frustrating and quite frankly ridiculous.

Schools are responsible for the cost of their own texting and email systems and it is not compulsory for them to have one. As a result, some Heads choose to invest, others don’t.

The Central Government view is that text message is the current preferred method, being advocated in a speech as recently as 7 December 2009 by the Prime Minister himself.

Lincolnshire County Council have implemented an excellent approach where schools log in to an online service that automatically updates parents by text message, whilst simultaneously notifying the Local Authority and media. This appears to meet the needs of all groups (including the LA themsleves). A key factor in this approach is that the control over school closures still lies with the headteacher, and the parent contact details remain in school. There is no need for parents to sign-up for additional services.

The result, in many areas of the country is that parents are left wondering what is happening at their child’s school for the day. For parents who need to go to work to get paid, or have other essential roles to perform, it simply isn’t good enough. Technology is readily available and cost effective in delivering a better service to parents. There really is no excuse not to take advantage, and stop leaving parents in the cold.

admin Business