Education bosses assure Flintshire councillors of school safety measures after Argoed lockdown

Education bosses have assured Flintshire councillors that critical incident processes to protect the authority’s schools are working following this week’s lockdown at the Argoed School.

During a meeting of Flintshire County Council’s Education and Youth Overview and Scrutiny Committee Flintshire People’s Voice Cllr Carolyn Preece called for a review of safeguarding procedures to be brought forward.

The call came just 24 hours after the new Argoed School in Bryn-y-Baal, near Mold was put on lockdown and a 15-year-old boy arrested for what was described as a ‘public order incident’ by North Wales Police.

Cllr Preece asked whether the annual safeguarding review – scheduled for July 2027 – could be brought forward in light of the incident.

“We’ve got safeguarding on the agenda,” she said. “However, in light of what took place at the Argoed High School, I think that needs bringing forward as soon as possible.

“We do need an update on any safeguarding issues that are taking place, especially in the new school. We need to know what is actually going on and what actions have been taken.”

Chief Officer for Education and Youth Claire Homard assured Cllr Preece that the existing procedures in place to manage incidents like this and keep pupils and staff safe  had been shown to be working well.

Bringing the report forward would not in itself improve anything.

“Respectfully, Councillor Preece, we present that report on an annual basis to the Joint Committee of Education and Health. That’s why it is scheduled when it is.

“You will appreciate there will be incidents regularly in schools that need to be managed. And I think what you need to be assured about in this committee is that the appropriate emergency procedures worked successfully at the school.

“The situation was managed appropriately. It’s not really for open discussion, but I can give you the assurance that the schools lockdown procedures worked as we expected them to do.

“The incident was very well managed, the appropriate services were engaged and the matter was successfully concluded in a relatively short space of time.

“It proved that our emergency critical incident policy worked.”

By Alec Doyle – Local Democracy Reporter