Home and family
A family security plan: where to start
Agree how to contact each other, who may collect a child and what to do during a disruption. Everyone should understand the plan.
Start with an ordinary day.
Write down who leaves first, collects children and visits while you are out. Look for handovers where one person assumes someone else has already acted.
- Check current school or nursery collection authorisations.
- List keys, remotes and home access codes. Mark access that is no longer needed.
Agree contacts and cover.
Important arrangements should not exist only on one phone. Prepare a short contact list and confirm who can help when the main person is unavailable.
- Ask the nominated person whether they agree to help and when they are available.
- Verify changed child-collection arrangements or requests for money through a previously known contact.
Match the response to the danger.
A failed phone, lost key and suspected break-in need different responses. The plan should distinguish them rather than impose one fixed sequence.
- If you notice signs of a break-in, stay outside and do not send someone to search the rooms. Contact the police.
- For an immediate threat to life or health, call 112. Do not wait for the person named in the family plan.
Check the plan without frightening anyone.
Choose one situation during a calm conversation, such as a parent’s flat phone battery. Everyone explains what they would do and where they would find the number.
- Do not stage an abduction, break-in or disappearance. Children should know it is a conversation or practice.
- Correct anything impractical. Review arrangements when carers, phones or family routines change.