Schools crisis management when reputational challenges
There is no area that is more complex than supporting a school with its communications when things turn sour. With schools there is always more scrutiny and forensic analysis will often follow.
Parents trust schools with their children’s development for the best part of a decade and a half. Pupils are at a crucial stage of their development and experiences at school shape their lives. This is when they are at their most vulnerable and for this reason there is an innate trust between parents and teachers; and when this is broken the potential for damage is immense.
Perhaps the area with the largest potential damage both to the child and the school are issues surrounding safeguarding. We have all seen the headlines, such as: "Ex-teacher admits boarding school sex abuse", "Boy charged over school knife incident" and "School in turmoil from staffing crisis".
Actually, those three headlines are all from separate situations which occurred within two weeks of writing this article. All are prominent with a simple Google search and the impact for the school is huge whist the long term repercussions are far reaching. If this wasn’t bad enough, it doesn’t take into account the fact that schools, through their ordinary and well intentioned day to day work, arguably expose themselves to a higher level of risk.
Even the most mundane and well intentioned day to day business of operating a school can be fraught with risks. A visit to a museum, a residential camping trip, an appearance at the school by a special guest visitor: all are ordinary and mostly successful activities undertaken by schools up and down the country that, while generally trouble-free, carry plenty of potential for mishap and mischief.
Schools are also uniquely positioned at the heart of their community. When a school is affected local politicians and community leaders can come out and support you – or come out against you. In short, staying on top of the potential risks, planning for all circumstances and ensuring you are communicating with the people who matter is no easy job.
How to approach a crisis
How can a school manage when confronted with these challenges – when its reputation and relations with the community, carefully nurtured and sustained over a number of years, are at risk?
To some extent, the easy answer is that there is no easy answer! Crises come in all shapes and sizes. The correct response will depend on many variables – the history, the rarity (or otherwise) of the occurrence, the school’s relationship with the community and so on.
Often there is no substitute for expert advice, tailored to the requirements of the difficult task at hand. Nevertheless, although there is no one size fits all approach, there are some general principles.
After a major incident, shutting down the story is often beyond the reach of even the most talented PR professional. The focus must be on doing things in the right way, even if that means media scrutiny on the school increases in the short term.
Firstly, the importance of dealing with a negative scenario proactively, rather than waiting until negative comment has built to an intolerable level, is crucial. Don’t underestimate the speed with which a crisis situation can build. It is a PR adage that "news travels fast" and this is particularly true for schools. Incidents are often witnessed or talked about by pupils so any response must be timely. This is only amplified by the speed with which news can travel on social media.
Crisis aware mentality
Schools need to develop a crisis-aware mentality. Staff should be encouraged to be the "eyes and ears" on the ground who can alert senior management to a problem, however small it may seem at the time, before it becomes a major issue. A communications plan should be in place as a structured approach can be the difference between looking like a well-run school and a shambles.
There are three key aspects that a communication plan should include, and depending on the scale of the incident one or all of the following aspects will be necessary:
- A communication to parents giving them information of an incident before it becomes general knowledge and how that letter will be distributed.
- A media contact on behalf of the school who can take pressure off decision makers and buy time with the media.
- A holding statement for mainstream and social media.
A school’s primary focus is its pupils, followed closely by its parents and teachers. Once safety is ensured, the small things will make a big difference as to whether the school emerges from an incident with its reputation intact, or mortally diminished.
Parents need to be informed quickly and effectively without causing alarm. There is nothing worse than parents finding out about an incident at their children’s school through local or social media. But we should also be clear that once parents have been informed, we can assume that the local media is also aware. Therefore all communications need to be crafted in a way that will not be misinterpreted.
Many schools have well developed systems to text all parents. Whilst this may be efficient, it is not always appropriate. Sometimes more details are necessary and letters or website posts are more effective and sensitive.
Informing through a holding statement
The next stage is often to inform the media through a holding statement. This needs to be carefully worded and should address key issues whilst not committing the school to a course of action that they will later regret or change. Strict policies need to be in place for social media. Either the school is responding to all posts or only issuing official statements. Consistency is key to looking credible to those who are paying attention to the school’s every move.
In addition, creating an informal dialogue with key media - perhaps by providing off the record updates and letting them know when they are expecting official statements - will ensure the school is given that bit of leeway which can make a real difference to perceptions.
Making up lost ground
There is no quick fix, but it is important to keep incidents in context and rebuild trust. The school must take decisive steps and ensure that these steps are well communicated. There is little point turning round to parents or media six months after the event and saying a new policy has been written if there have been serious safeguarding breaches. It will never be enough.
Even if a new policy is all that is required, parents (and inevitably the media) should be informed every step of the way. Conducting reviews, publicising conclusions and being transparent in talking to parents, teachers and the public can create the basis for a recovery.
One of the most effective tactics is to get out on the front foot and publish and publicise internal reports – setting out the story before the media has a chance to create an alternative narrative.
By being proactive and ensuring that your audiences, including journalists, receive information from you rather than from other sources, you can shape the narrative and frame the terms of the story. This can be particularly effective if there are rumours of financial irregularities. Where pupils have injured themselves, precautions need to be taken for the future.
PR alone is not the answer
Although this might sound counter-intuitive coming from a PR consultant, schools would do well to remember that PR alone is not the answer. Good comms needs to start with policy and action – not empty words. The school in question instituted a series of programmes aimed at its pupils to encourage tolerance. That’s all well and good but where the problem is with staff, targeting pupils was seen as a PR stunt and did not win any friends.
Playing the long game is a school’s best hope. There is no quick fix when one is dealing with reputation management and recovery. Following a crisis, there should always be review of what went well, what could have gone better, and what can be changed to minimise the chances of anything similar occurring.
The focus should then shift to restoring and repairing a damaged reputation. A mixture of a drip feed of positive stories can leave a lasting impression and reputations repaired. The ultimate aim is to have the community talking about positives rather than the crisis and allowing teachers to focus once again on what they do best – giving young people the best possible start in life and brightest possible future.
