Crisis communications for school trusts

How to plan for, manage and mitigate reputational threats

As your trust builds and protects its reputation, it is critical that any potentially negative issues and stories are carefully managed to ensure that they do not threaten the credibility and even viability of your organisation, and by association those who learn and work in it.

This course will explore the importance of both internal and external stakeholder management and getting your messaging and communication channels right. Drawing upon practical examples, it will equip you with the knowledge and confidence to identify key reputational risks for your trust and develop appropriate strategies to respond.

Who is it for?

Communications leads
Executive leaders
Chairs of trustees

What you will gain

By the end of the masterclass, you will:

Know the key reputational risks facing trusts of any size
Understand what the process of developing a crisis communication strategy involves, including how to engage the right people and channels
Be aware of what not to do in a crisis
Have the confidence and guidance to manage internal and external stakeholders in a crisis and get your messaging right

Meet your seminar leader

Tiffany Beck OBE, Head of Education, PLMR

Course overview

This three-part course aims to give you the confidence and knowledge to meet a crisis head on. From safeguarding and tricky parental complaints to negative inspection outcomes and challenging change management situations, it will help you to identify key reputational risks and develop appropriate communication strategies that will enable you to shape the right messages for the right channels under pressure.

Whilst this course will take you through the principles and practice of crisis management through case studies and group working, it does not provide templates or model plans. This is because we believe that a significant part of the value lies in the process that you go through to create your crisis strategy - working together to identify risks, challenges and appropriate responses unique to your trust. We hope this masterclass will inspire and support you in this journey.

Seminar content

Seminar one: Understanding the landscape