Parents Left In The Cold By Local Authorities

It is common knowledge that at the first hint of snow the UK grinds to a halt. Roads, trains and most things that we rely upon just stop. 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.

Often, Local Authorities do not involve themselves in notifying parents of school snow closures. As a result parents can find that each school their children attend communicates in a completeley different way. A parent may have two children at different schools and receive a text message from one that has chosen to invest in a system and be sat listening to the radio to find out about the other child's school. As a parent, it is frustrating and quite frankly ridiculous.

The simple fact is that the cost of texting or email system comes out of the individual school budget and so some heads will choose to invest, others won'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). Crucially, the Head Teach still has control over the communication process and parent contact information is not shared outside the 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. The technology to deliver a better service is available, it is reliable and cheap. There really is no excuse not to take advantage, and stop leaving parents in the cold.

Copyright (c) 2010 C Tyler

About the Author:
Robert Warner specialises in improving communiations with and for parents.
For FREE expert guidance on school closure communications visit => http://www.txtround.co.uk/LocalAuthorities/Schoolclosureinterviews/tabid/124/Default.aspx

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