Changes to critical incident support

From 1 April 2017 there will be some important changes to Warwickshire’s Critical Incident support. This is the support provided to schools, colleges and other settings in the event of a sudden or unexpected incident that has a serious impact on the emotional wellbeing of an educational community such as the death of a child/young person, member of staff or parent/carer. 

Thankfully such incidents are relatively rare. The Educational Psychology Service provides direct support to somewhere between 20 and 30 events each year and telephone or email advice in a handful of other incidents. However, as those of you who have suffered a critical incident will know, by their very nature these events usually take you by surprise.

Sudden and unexpected traumatic events can cause significant stress at both an individual and an organisational level for educational staff, children and young people and their impact can be long lasting.  Bereaved children and young people are more likely than their non-bereaved peers to have a serious illness, a diagnosable mental disorder or to be excluded from school at some point in their lives.  Appropriate support delivered in a timely manner can go a long way to mitigating the impact of these incidents.

Please read the attached letter, flyer and SLA that will be included in your packs at the coming Head Teacher Briefings and will go out to all schools and colleges over the next weeks.

You are encouraged to discuss this issue with your senior team and governors.

Dr Helen J Kendall

Principal Educational Psychologist and SENDAR Manager