Schools, nurseries and childcare providers already take safeguarding and emergency preparedness extremely seriously. With the introduction of Martyn’s Law, formally known as the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, organisations are also being encouraged to consider how effectively they can respond and communicate during a serious security incident.
Technology alone cannot make a school or nursery compliant with Martyn’s Law. However, the right communications infrastructure can play an important role in supporting the procedures, people and processes that form part of an organisation’s wider emergency preparedness.
For education and childcare settings in particular, a modern cloud-based phone system can provide practical tools for communicating quickly across a building, alerting staff and maintaining communications when normal routines are disrupted.
Martyn’s Law was introduced following campaigning by Figen Murray OBE, whose son Martyn Hett was one of the 22 people killed in the Manchester Arena attack in 2017.
The legislation is intended to improve preparedness and protective security at certain premises and events across the UK.
Under the legislation, qualifying premises must consider appropriate public protection procedures. These include:
For childcare settings, primary schools, secondary schools and further education establishments, premises that can reasonably expect 200 or more people, including staff, to be present at the same time fall within the standard tier.
Importantly, these types of education and childcare premises remain within the standard tier even where more than 800 people may be present.
Smaller establishments with fewer than 200 people may fall outside the scope of the legislation, but that does not mean emergency communication and lockdown planning should be ignored.
During a serious incident, seconds matter.
Staff need to understand:
The government’s statutory guidance on Martyn’s Law highlights the importance of having a procedure for providing information quickly to people at a premises and giving appropriate instructions.
This is where communications technology can become an important part of the wider emergency response plan.
A traditional telephone sitting on a reception desk may be sufficient for ordinary incoming and outgoing calls, but modern VoIP phone systems can offer considerably more functionality.
One of the most useful features for schools and nurseries is paging.
Instead of individually calling classrooms, nursery rooms or offices, an authorised member of staff can make an announcement across multiple compatible phones simultaneously.
For example, a school could have a dedicated paging group covering:
Depending on the phone system and equipment being used, staff could activate a predefined paging group and deliver an immediate announcement.
This could help support an organisation’s existing procedures by rapidly communicating instructions to staff throughout the premises.
chools and nurseries can also configure specific communication groups around their emergency procedures.
For example, a phone system could contain a dedicated Lockdown Group consisting only of designated extensions throughout the building.
Rather than searching for individual numbers during an emergency, authorised members of staff can have a predefined method of communicating with the relevant areas.
The important point is that this should form part of an established and tested procedure.
Technology is most effective when staff already know:
Depending on the telephone platform and deployment, organisations may also be able to use pre-recorded announcements as part of their emergency communication arrangements.
Instead of relying on somebody to compose a message during a stressful situation, predefined announcements can provide consistent instructions.
For example, an organisation might have different messages associated with:
Lockdown
Staff follow the organisation’s established lockdown procedure.
Invacuation
Children and staff outside or in exposed areas are directed towards predetermined safer areas within the building.
Evacuation
Staff follow the appropriate evacuation procedure using the designated safe route.
The wording, circumstances and activation of any such announcements should form part of the organisation’s wider security and safeguarding procedures rather than being determined solely by the telephone system.
Nurseries and schools are often spread across several rooms, floors or even separate buildings.
Reception may have no direct line of sight to:
A centrally managed VoIP system can connect these locations under a single communications platform.
Extensions can be organised into groups, making it significantly easier to communicate across the premises than relying on staff physically moving between rooms.
For organisations operating multiple sites, systems can also be centrally administered while maintaining separate calling and paging arrangements for each location.
During an incident, reception may not always be accessible.
Having phone extensions distributed throughout a premises can provide staff with additional locations from which calls can be made.
With the appropriate configuration, staff may be able to contact emergency services from an office, classroom, manager’s room or another suitable location without returning to reception.
Schools should also ensure that their VoIP provider maintains accurate emergency-service address information for their telephone numbers and locations.
Cloud-based VoIP systems are not necessarily restricted to physical desk phones.
Authorised users can potentially access their extension through:
This can provide additional resilience where staff are unable to reach their normal telephone.
For example, a manager operating from another part of the premises may still be able to make and receive calls through their business telephone system using an authorised device.
Appropriate security controls, user permissions and organisational policies should always be applied.
Many smaller nurseries and childcare businesses still rely heavily on personal mobile phones or informal WhatsApp groups when communicating between staff.
These tools have their place, but they should not necessarily be the only means of communicating during an emergency.
A centrally managed business communications platform allows organisations to establish defined extensions, groups and communication routes rather than relying entirely on individual employees’ personal devices.
It can also allow access to be centrally managed when employees join or leave the organisation.
Emergency planning should also consider what happens when individual systems fail.
Cloud-hosted telephone platforms can provide additional options if a local handset becomes unavailable.
Depending on the solution, incoming calls can potentially be redirected to:
Internet connectivity should also form part of the resilience discussion.
Where communications are considered critical, organisations may wish to consider secondary broadband or 4G/5G connectivity so that a failure of the main internet connection does not automatically remove access to cloud communications.
An important element of emergency communication is avoiding ambiguity.
A fire alarm traditionally tells staff to evacuate. A security incident, however, might require precisely the opposite response.
Depending on the circumstances, staff may need to:
A communications system can therefore complement other alerting systems by allowing more specific information to be communicated.
This is particularly important because Martyn’s Law guidance recognises that instructions for an evacuation may need to be different from those used during a lockdown.
The most sophisticated phone system in the world is of little benefit if nobody knows how to use it.
Communication procedures should therefore be incorporated into staff training and exercises.
Schools and nurseries could periodically test questions such as:
Technology should support the procedure, rather than becoming the procedure itself.
Martyn’s Law should not be approached as a technology purchasing exercise.
Physical security, access control, staff awareness, safeguarding policies, emergency procedures, training and communication all need to work together.
However, communications infrastructure deserves to be part of that conversation.
For schools, nurseries and childcare providers still operating ageing telephone systems, isolated analogue lines or systems that cannot quickly communicate across different areas of the premises, reviewing the phone system can be a practical step as part of wider emergency preparedness.
At Fidelis Plus, we provide cloud-based phone systems specifically configured around the operational requirements of schools, nurseries and other education settings.
Solutions can include features such as:
We can also review how an organisation currently communicates between reception, classrooms, nursery rooms, offices and other areas of its premises and identify where its existing telephone infrastructure could be improved.
Martyn’s Law is about preparedness.
For education and childcare providers, one useful question to ask is:
If we needed to communicate an urgent instruction to staff throughout our premises right now, how quickly and reliably could we do it?
If the answer depends on somebody running between rooms, calling extensions individually or hoping everybody sees a mobile message, it may be worth reviewing your communications infrastructure.
Fidelis Plus can help schools and nurseries assess their existing telephone setup and explore how modern cloud communications can support their wider safeguarding, lockdown and emergency communication procedures.
Speak to Fidelis Plus about communications for your school, nursery or childcare setting.
Important: A telephone or VoIP system does not itself provide compliance with the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025. Organisations should refer to current government guidance and undertake an appropriate assessment of their own premises, responsibilities and procedures.
