1. PURPOSE
1.1 This policy outlines the School of Theology (“SOT”) framework in preparing for, responding to and recovering from a critical incident.
2. SCOPE
2.1 All SOT staff and students.
3. POLICY
3.1 This Critical Incident Management policy is part of the church’s risk management framework, which provides guidance for the risk management process to identify, assess, regularly monitor, and review organisational key risks, including financial, operational, compliance and information technology risks. In SOT, a critical incident is defined as an event which may have a major or severe impact, causing reputation damage, regulatory, legal or financial implications, operational disruptions or impacting the health and safety of SOT staff or students.
3.2 Please refer to Section 6.6.2 of CHCPH-212 Risk Management Policy to determine risk impact. There are five levels to the risk impact, and for the purposes of this policy, only the top two levels (Major & Severe) will be considered as a critical incident.
4. CRITICAL INCIDENT MANAGEMENT PROCEDURES
4.1 Reporting of incidents
4.1.1 All incidents should be recorded in the Incident Reporting Form, and reported to the Dean of Students.
4.1.2 In the event of minor or moderate incidents, the relevant SOT staff will handle the incident according to their usual operating procedures.
4.1.3 In the event of major or severe incidents involving death, serious injury or threat to life, an immediate report should be made to the relevant government agencies as needed (such as police, ambulance, fire station).
4.1.4 The Incident Reporting form should include details such as the time, location, details of incident, and the names and roles of all persons involved (including staff, students).
4.2 Responding to critical incidents
4.2.1 In the event of a critical incident, the Dean of Students should ensure that all relevant Heads of Departments are informed and are coordinated in their response to the incident.
4.2.2 The key considerations in managing a critical incident are the following:
(1) Preservation of life and avoiding any further injury;
(2) Preservation of SOT and church assets and operations;
(3) Minimisation of the impact on the local community and environment;
(4) Supporting, where possible, emergency services response; and
(5) Resumption of normal business operations as soon as is practicable.
4.3 Confidentiality
4.3.1 Staff and student confidential and personal information will only be released with the consent of the person involved, next of kin or where it may be necessary to protect the health and wellbeing of others.
4.4 Critical Incident Communication
4.4.1 As soon as possible, the Dean of Students will:
(1) Work closely with the Communications department and relevant staff to prepare a communication plan;
(2) Liaise with medical, government agencies and other relevant professionals;
(3) Liaise with lawyers;
(4) Contact next-of-kin and ensure support is provided to family and friends, including staff and students;
(5) Provide counselling support and arranging for a psychological debrief if necessary;
(6) Complete an incident report to the senior management and/or management board.
4.4.2 For critical incidents which happen during the semester, SOT will ensure that the relevant staff and faculty make appropriate arrangements for the affected students, including release from classes, rescheduling of assessments, withdrawals and refunds where appropriate. All relevant staff will be notified.
4.4.3 An off-campus critical incident involving staff or students should be reported by the person with the information as soon as possible to the Dean of Students.
4.5 Additional procedures for onshore, international students
4.5.1 SOT will notify the relevant government agencies (e.g. ICA, police) as soon as practicable after the incident. In the case of death or severe injury of an onshore international student, SOT will assist with the following as required:
(1) Interpretation matters with local government agencies;
(2) Arrangements for hospital, funeral or memorial services, including repatriation;
(3) Other personal affairs such as obtaining of the death certificate, insurance or visa issues.
4.5.2 All relevant costs incurred by the staff member, student, next-of-kin or family as a result of a critical incident will be met by the staff member, student and/or family, unless approval to provide financial support has been granted by the Principal and/or CHC Board.
5. RESPONSIBILITIES
5.1 The Dean of Students is responsible for implementing this policy.
6. FORMS & RECORDS
6.1 All forms and records should be retained for archival purposes, or for a minimum of five years, whichever is longer. This is consistent with CHC’s document retention policy.
Name of record: Incident Reporting Form
Retention: 2 years after graduation