Schools at risk beef up security

The Federal Government has announced the first round of schools to benefit from funding for security measures as part of its Schools Security Programme (Programme). The Programme is designed to assist schools that are at risk of attack, harassment or violence caused by racial or religious intolerance

In a press release the Minister for Justice, the Hon Michael Keenan MP, revealed that more than 50 at-risk schools will share in $18 million as part of funding under the Programme. The press release states that the injection of funding to the schools recognises the 'unique security circumstances that some schools unfortunately face'.

Schools that will benefit

Out of 98 applications received by the Department of Justice, 54 schools were selected to receive funding based on merit following an assessment of their applications against the criteria set for the Programme.

The types of schools, and the amount of funding allocated to them, are broken-down as follows:

• 11 Government schools—$1,931,500;
• 17 Jewish schools—$7,569,100;
• 15 Islamic schools—$4,439,800, and
• 11 Independent schools—$2,706,200.

Funding under the Programme is non-recurrent and the Programme Guidelines state that the notional grant limit per school is $250,000, although further funding may be given if required to implement a project successfully.

All projects using the funding are to be implemented over the 2014-15 and 2016-17 financial years and must be completed by 30 June 2017.

What was involved in the application process?

As part of their application for funding schools had to detail the existence of security risks which they are faced with and identify how a security project, using Government funding, would address those identified risks.

A school's application had to:

• establish that they are at risk of attack, harassment or violence stemming from racial or religious intolerance;
• demonstrate how the proposed project would address the identified risks and security needs;
• demonstrate that the project is cost effective and represents value for money;
• demonstrate capacity to deliver the project and administer grant funds;
• demonstrate the ability to manage any risks associated with the project, and
• demonstrate that they possess the capacity to cover any ongoing costs associated with the project, as funding under this programme is non-recurrent.

The Department also assessed a school's application against other criteria including its capacity to deliver the project and administer the funds.

How the funding will be used

The Guidelines state that the funding is to be used for:

• security installations such as lighting, fencing and closed-circuit television cameras (CCTV); and
• security guards.

The Guidelines emphasise that the money is not to be used for funding for security measures to address issues surrounding:

• student bullying;
• student violence;
• child protection; or
• opportunistic acts of vandalism or other property crime,

which are 'more appropriately handled by education authorities or the police'.

How can your school plan for a security incident?

It's important to remember that the provision of funding under the Programme, and the timing of the press release by the Department, does not mean that schools across Australia are currently at risk of terror attacks.   As reported by the Brisbane Times, Minister Keenan reiterated this point on the radio this week in relation to reports that two Queensland schools were the successful recipients of funding under the Programme.

Without doubt, the additional funding will go some way towards mitigating security risks at schools. However, for schools that don't qualifty for the Programme, certain measures can still be taken to help them to identify and plan for any pereceived security or terror risk and ensure that their school and its students are protected and can continue to operate in the event that they occur.

See our articles:

• Critical incidents in schools: plan ahead in 2015; and
• What does Australia's high terror alert mean for your school?,

for information about the importance of having Risk Management and Business Continuity Management programs, as well as Critical Incident Response plans in place to help manage any unpredicted incident which may threaten to disrupt security and operations at your school.