ALERT WAS SNOW SLOW
Council admits text delay
South Lanarkshire Council has admitted there was a “delay” in the messaging service used to alert parents of school closures due to the snow last week.
Every school was closed at lunchtime on Friday, with the authority releasing the update via social media around 10.30am.
Parents should also have received a message through a text service, however, some have reported that they did not receive the notification.
The local authority responded after being criticised by Central Scotland MSP Monica Lennon, of Hamilton, who says she failed to receive a text informing her that her own child’s school was to close.
Ms Lennon said: “Many parents, myself included, faced chaos and confusion on Friday morning after failing to receive a text alert that schools would be closing early due to the adverse weather.
“Everyone understands that the decision to close schools is not an easy one, and that pupil safety has to be paramount — but it’s not acceptable that some parents will only have had a few minutes’ notice before a school closure that their children would need picked up.
“There must be clear contingency plans in place for when situations like this arise and I’ll be seeking answers from the council about what went wrong on this occasion and what lessons will be learned for the future.”
The council say that the “vast majority” of parents received the information “promptly”, but that it had experienced a delay with the messaging service.
Education resources operations manager Des Dickson said: “The decision to close schools at lunchtime on Friday was based on the amber weather warning for snow right across the South Lanarkshire area and on the advice from Police Scotland with regards to road safety.
“All schools were advised at 10.30am to let parents and families know they would be closing early and this information was simultaneously issued through updates on the council’s website and social media channels.
“The vast majority of parents received the information promptly through at least one of these channels. However, unfortunately due to the large volume of text messages there was a delay with some being delivered through the national messaging service. This was raised immediately with the service provider to help find a solution.
“I can confirm that in terms of St Blane’s Primary School that they tried to send the group call text message on several occasions before the technical issue was resolved.
“During this period the council’s website and Facebook and Twitter accounts continued to share the information on the early closure.
“Our procedures make it clear that staff stay with pupils until they are collected, as we understand the significance of a full closure during a school day for parents. Many staff did stay on at school on Friday until all children were collected.”
Both Lanarkshire councils made the decision to close all schools early on Friday following advice from the Met Office.