As many as a quarter of FE colleges do not have a lockdown procedure in place to help them deal with a potential terror attack, Tes can reveal.

Terrorism experts acknowledge that further education colleges are among the sites that could be under threat, because, as community hubs, they are classified as “crowded places” by anti-terror police. 

A Tes Freedom of Information request, responded to by more than a third of all FE colleges, showed that as of May, a quarter of institutions did not have a lockdown procedure, although most were in the process of establishing one.

Plans ‘still in development’

Around one in five did not check the identities of visitors coming to the college campus and almost one in 10 did not have an emergency response plan in case of a terror attack. However, all colleges in the survey did have CCTV and evacuation procedures in place.

One college, which Tes has not named to protect its security, said its anti-terrorism plans were “still in development, as it is a very complex area”. In the meantime, it said, it had an evacuation procedure in place, used CCTV and checked the identity of all visitors, which, a spokesperson said, “we feel are adequate as interim measures”.

In May, Stafford College had to apply the lockdown procedure it has in place, when a man, reportedly carrying a knife, entered the campus without permission through the reception area.

‘Security is everyone’s business’

Police declared the incident over two hours later, with no staff or students coming to any harm. “We locked all entrances and [kept] all the students in one area,” said Lesley Morrey, director of student engagement and partnerships at Newcastle and Stafford Colleges Group.

The lockdown procedure was drawn up after the college merged with Newcastle-under-Lyme College in 2016. Ms Morrey’s advice to other colleges is clear: “Make sure you have got a secure campus, make sure you have a good management of visitors, and make sure that everyone is wearing their ID prominently.

“Make sure CCTV is in working order and that you have a lockdown alarm. And make sure security is everyone’s business - and staff know what their roles and responsibilities are.”

This is an edited version of an article in the 5 October edition of Tes. Subscribers can read the full article here. To subscribe, click here. To download the digital edition, Android users can click here and iOS users can click here. Tes magazine is available at all good newsagents