Security (Invacuation, Lockdown and Evacuation) Policy

Team Domenica Security (Invacuation, Lockdown and Evacuation) Policy

Author: Sara Fletcher (Education & Quality Lead)

Consulted: Tim Drew, Lisa Campbell Squires, Bekki Lindores, Phoebe Smith, Joel Goss, Georgia Stedman Pink, Allie Sutton, Deborah Rayner Grey, Andrea Babicova

Date last reviewed: March 2025

Renewal due: August 2025

Legal Framework

This policy has due regard to all relevant legislation and statutory guidance including, but not limited to, the following:

Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005
DfE (2014) ‘Fire safety in new and existing school buildings’
DfE (2023) ‘School and college security’
DfE (2022) ‘Health and safety: responsibilities and duties for schools’
DfE (2023) ‘Emergency planning and response for education, childcare, and children’s social care settings’
DfE (2024) ‘Protective security and preparedness for education settings’

Associated Documents

Safeguarding
Candidate Risk Management
Mental Capacity
Policy for the promotion of positive relationships and behaviour
Fire Evacuation Policy (Staff Portal)
Health and Safety Policy (Staff Portal)

Who this policy applies to:

All those directly employed by Team Domenica and interact with, work alongside or in proximity to the candidates.
All those indirectly engaged by Team Domenica by virtue of being sub-contracted or commissioned and paid by Team Domenica to carry out work on behalf of Team Domenica and where such work causes them to interact with, work alongside or in proximity to our candidates. This also means those working in volunteer or student placement activities.

All employees in Team Domenica have a responsibility to:

Take reasonable care of their own and others’ health and safety.
Co-operate with their employer as far as is necessary to enable compliance with the above duties.
Carry out activities in accordance with training and instruction, including recording and reporting, accurately and in a timely manner.
Inform the employer of any serious risk evident in any setting at Team Domenica or emergent from individual circumstances.
Proactively participating in a positive and empowering culture, sharing a flexible, creative approach that exposes candidates to the managed risk necessary for their growth and development and be open to reflection and learning from experience.
All managers are responsible for ensuring staff are made aware of this policy and guidance, and for monitoring their safe and proper conduct whilst interacting with or in proximity to candidates, and for taking such action as necessary to prevent any risk of harm due to failure to follow this policy.

Introduction

All those working at Team Domenica are committed to a robust culture of safeguarding and risk management. We place the wellbeing and security of candidates, staff, visitors and partners at the centre of our planning and thinking. A balanced, appropriate and evidenced-based approach to risk supports our primary task of moves our candidates to greater autonomy, independence and participation in work and in the community, and upholds the rights of all adults to live a life free from harm.

The main purpose of the Security (Invacuation, Lockdown and Evacuation) Policy is to outline Team Domenica’s agreed responses to a security threat made to our premises and provision. In an emergency, staff members will endeavour to take all reasonable actions to ensure the safety of candidates and visitors (including the customers in our cafes) while maintaining their right to keep themselves safe.

This policy cannot outline all scenarios and provide detailed responses each as the physical and human variables are too wide in scope. Instead, this policy is designed to set out a set of responsibilities, procedures, resources and support within which staff should work proportionally and dynamically. Dynamic risk assessment is discussed in the Team Domenica Candidate Risk Assessment Policy.

It is not the scope of this policy to outline Team Domenica’s approach to General Health and Safety, Building Risk Assessments, Fire Safety and Evacuation or Business Contingency. These vital areas of work all have separate policies managed by our operations team.

This policy should be read alongside our wider suite of policies on relationships, wellbeing and safeguarding for a comprehensive picture of how we facilitate safe learning and development for our candidates while empowering them to make choices in all that impacts on them. The purpose of this document is to provide a guide to the procedures appertaining to personal and building security risks.

Definitions

The term ‘evacuation’ refers to the orderly removal of everyone from the building; this can be as a result of a fire or other incident within the building.

The term ‘invacuation’ refers to keeping everyone inside the building to ensure their safety from an internal or external incident which has the potential to pose a threat to their safety and wellbeing, e.g. toxic fumes in the air.

The term ‘lockdown’ refers to the procedure of locking external doors and windows before taking immediate shelter in a secure location. This procedure is typically invoked as a response to a security threat.

Specific Threats

This policy is written to respond to the following types of threats; however, it is essential to note that such threats are inherently unpredictable with many variables, so it is not intended that this list is exhaustive.

A threat to the structural integrity of a building regardless of cause
Bomb threats
Chemical Spillages
Toxic gases
Civil Disturbances
Intruders

Basic Procedures

The member of staff who is first aware of any of the above threats, or a related threat of the same type is the “first alerter”. The responsibilities of the first alerter are to:

Take immediate action to safeguard those in the vicinity, including themselves. This includes the sounding of alarms, communicating with colleagues, and dynamically assessing the need to communicate or intervene with candidates, the public and any other partners/stakeholders immediately affected
Call the emergency services if necessary
Inform the senior leadership team/ safeguarding team of the incident

The receiving any such report must assume the role of Event Manager or quickly, clearly and justifiably delegate this role to another person, and record their reasons for doing so. In some cases, such in the workplaces or our satellite centres the first alerted may need to undertake the role of Event Manager.

The Event Manager

1. Consider the need to inform the joint CEOs. In the event of the involvement of the security or emergency services, or an immediate or present threat of serious harm to staff or candidates this must happen without delay.

2. Ensure the following roles are covered, more than one role can be undertaken by a single person and in the case of our satellite centres some roles may be undertaken by staff from that site, with Team Domenica staff focusing on the welfare of and communication with candidates.

Liaison with emergency services
Liaison within the site of the incident
Liaison with families and care /residential settings.
Liaison with other stakeholders
Actions relating to the safety and wellbeing of our customers
Direct supervision and oversite of candidates
An accurate timeline and record of events is kept

3. Make a reasonable and proportionate decision on the suspension of other provision within Team Domenica to ensure the correct resource is available to manage any incident

The management of any critical or serious emergency or security threat must not be assumed to be purely the responsibility of the safeguarding team.

Once the emergency services have responded to an incident all managers must follow their guidance until such time the threat has been removed.

While specific scenarios cannot be outlined in this policy there are certain fundamental procedures that should be the basis of responses to specific scenarios:

A threat to the structural integrity of a building regardless of cause: Unless it is unsafe to do so, or emergency services instruct otherwise, Evacuation Procedures must be followed

Bomb threats: If the threat is of a bomb is inside the building Evacuation Procedures must be followed. If the threat is outside of the building, then staff and candidates should follow the guidance of the emergency services

Chemical Spillages: If the threat is inside the building Evacuation Procedures must be followed UNLESS the hazard is present on the normal evacuation route. In which case the alarm must not be sounded, and alternate egress must be considered. If the threat is outside of the building, then staff and candidates should follow the guidance of the emergency services

Toxic gases: If the threat is inside the building Evacuation Procedures must be followed UNLESS the hazard is present on the normal evacuation route. In which case the alarm must not be sounded, and alternate egress must be considered. If the threat is outside of the building, then staff and candidates should follow the guidance of the emergency services

Civil Disturbances:Staff should consider Invacuation procedures and advise candidates and the public to stay within the building

Intruders: Staff should consider invacuation and lock down procedures as a first response. At some sites (especially the coffee roastery) evacuation might be the more appropriate response.

Support for Individuals

Team Domenica works with candidates who have Education, Health and Care Plans outlining their additional needs. Often these additional needs include those related to sensory perception, emotional dysregulation and anxiety. These create an additional level of risk in an unpredicted, emergency or security incident both for the individual involved, and for those around them. Steps to mitigate such risks for individuals are included in our Individual Risk assessments, Risk Assessment Policy, Policy for Positive Behaviour and Relationships and our Individual Emergency Evacuation plans. As all these plans are evidence-based they cannot hypotheses the response of any individual, candidate, staff, or member of the public to an extreme event.

Team Domenica has a robust Relationships, Health and Sex Education programme and within this personal safety is a key theme. From September 2025 Run Hide and Tell resources will be discussed at the whole staff safeguarding update and included within the candidate induction week and as part of our Relationship, Sex and Health Education provision.

No member of staff is ever asked to put themselves at risk to protect another person.

Site Specific Circumstances

This section of the policy is under review as we carry out dynamic risk management training with our staff and listen to how our candidates feel about this issue. An update will be available from May 2025.

Post Incident Actions

All incidents will be recorded within our safeguarding portal, My Concern.

Team Domenica will conduct post-incident evaluations and hold a full debrief where feedback is obtained from all the key people involved. Team Domenica will use these post-incident actions to inform what measures need to be taken to support victims and learn from anything that could have been improved should such an incident occur again.

Team Domenica’s plans will be amended appropriately to consider the emotional and mental impact on candidates, parents and staff members following an incident. Appropriate types of support for the wellbeing of all will be sourced and made available.

Following an occurrence necessitating the implementation of an emergency procedure, the following actions will be taken:

A follow-up talk with staff members and candidates will be delivered by the principal or the pastoral lead
Support will be sought where necessary, for example, from counselling services
Families and other stakeholders will be informed via letter if this is deemed appropriate by the SLT
The response to the crisis will be evaluated and procedures amended where necessary
Team Domenica’s Business Continuity Plan will be activated to help restore normality following an incident

A full update of this policy is due for publication in May 2025.