Property related emergencies

The County Council does not provide an emergency response service and therefore all schools are expected to retain the services of a property consultant to support them in the event of a critical incident.  

The County Council’s Property Consultancy framework can be used to engage with an appropriately qualified consultant.

It is the individual school’s responsibility to make the necessary contractual arrangements to undertake repairs and put in place temporary solutions as required. During normal office hours the County Council’s Design and Capital Delivery Team are available to provide advice and support to help you to manage the incident.

For schools taking out the HCC insurance further advice can be sought from the Insurance team.

The following steps should apply in the event of a property related emergency

• contact the relevant emergency service
• contact your retained property consultant
• notify the relevant insurer(s)
• If the incident is critical, please notify the Local Authority using the contact below:

  Phone: 01992 555703 / 01992 556438 during business hours
  07919 391934 out of hours
  Email: resilience.team@hertfordshire.gov.uk / schoolscns@hertfordshire.gov.uk

• for VA schools, notify the Diocesan representative.
• register the closure information on the County Council's Closure Notification System (Snowline)
• For VA schools, notify the Diocesan representative.

Procedures to follow in specific emergencies

Gas leak

• call the Transco Emergency Number: 0800 111999
• an engineer will visit the site. If there is a gas leak they may fix it or are more likely to make it safe in the short term (i.e. shut off the supply).
• the engineer should provide a job report which will include an assessment of the cause of the problem, recommended corrective action and a job reference.
• if the engineer has not fixed the problem, a follow up visit must be booked:
• a follow up visit by the energy provider should be arranged via HCC’s Energy Management team: 01992 556513 (Comnet 26513).

The SLA for follow up visits is 4 hours (schools do get some level of priority). A follow up can only be requested during office hours. If the problem is reported late in the day it is likely that the visit will not be until the following day.

Power cut

• before taking any action, check the fuses to eliminate this common cause of power cuts.
• if fuses are ok, contact UK Power Networks (UKPN): 0800 783 8838 or 01243 508838. They can advise if this is a network problem or site specific.
• if the problem is site specific, call out your electrical engineer/contractor (eg. Oakray). If it is post meter the engineer should be able to fix it. If it is identified as being an issue with the meter or the phases, contact HCC’s Energy Management team: 01992 556513 (Comnet 26513) to discuss further action.