The schools’ out of hours key holder list was fully updated in the autumn term 2023. If there have been any changes to your out of hours key holder information since then, please can you inform us of these by Friday 26 January. Please e-mail details of any changes and completed consent forms for any new key holders to helen.zwart@derby.gov.uk using secure e-mail such as Egress. A copy of the blank consent form is attached.
GDPR Emergency Key-Holder Consent Form
If you make any changes, please can you confirm your key holder call out order. Please also inform your alarm monitoring company and your security company of the changes.
The list is important in providing the Council’s Emergency Planning Team with out of hours contact details for opening schools should they be needed for use as overnight rest centres for people evacuated from their homes in a major local emergency. The Council’s Emergency Planning Team will always try to avoid using schools as rest centres because of the disruption it may cause, but in some cases they may have no other option. The Emergency Planning Team are well aware of school safeguarding issues and, in the unlikely event of them needing to use a school as a rest centre, every step will be taken to comply with all school safeguarding requirements. A police officer will be present to assist emergency planning staff with communications when a building is used as an emergency rest centre. The out of hours key holder list is also used by the Council to alert schools to other out of hours emergencies, such as fires and water leaks.
As Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service no longer automatically attend school sites following an automated fire alarm trigger going through to a school alarm handling company, it is extremely important that schools continue to maintain their out of hours alarm activation call monitoring services to have the best chance of a prompt response. We recommend that schools have at least one key holder on the emergency key holder list with quick and easy access to the school site, and that schools manage their call out arrangements appropriately so that there is always someone available to attend site as quickly as possible in any emergency event, including if a fire needs to be confirmed.
If you need any further information or clarification, please contact Helen Zwart on helen.zwart@derby.gov.uk / 01332 642723.