Who should be your child's emergency contact at school?

What the "emergency contact" on a school form is for

It's the person the school rings when it can't reach you: your child is unwell and needs collecting, hasn't been collected, or is absent and nobody has called in. It has nothing to do with the emergency services. If anyone is in danger, the school calls 999 itself.

Government guidance for schools in England asks them, where reasonably possible, to hold more than one emergency contact number for each pupil. Many schools and nurseries ask for two or three.

A good emergency contact

• Can usually answer during the school day. A grandparent at home may be a better first choice than a partner whose phone sits in a locker all day.
• Could get to the school in a reasonable time, and is allowed to collect your child.
• Is someone your child knows, so being collected by them isn't frightening.
• Has agreed, knows what the school might ring about, and has the school's number saved so they recognise it.
• Doesn't all live under one roof. Calderdale's example contact form asks for at least one contact who doesn't live at the child's address, so that one emergency at home doesn't take out every contact at once.

The same example form also asks, for each contact, whether they have parental responsibility, whether they can collect, and whether the child could stay overnight with them. It's worth thinking those through even if your school's form doesn't ask.

If you have no family nearby

Plenty of parents don't. Other options people use:

• a friend or neighbour your child knows well;
• another parent from the class, and you act as theirs in return;
• your childminder or after-school club, if they agree;
• a colleague or manager who can always get a message to you at work.

Whoever it is, ask them properly, and tell the school if anything changes.

If you can't have your phone with you at work

Tell the school, give them the best way to reach you (a work landline, a manager, a reception desk), and put first on the list someone who can always answer. On an iPhone you can let the school's number ring through silent mode with Emergency Bypass; Android has a similar setting for starred contacts.

Where MyCirCall fits

Instead of choosing which one person the school tries first, you can give it one MyCirCall Number that rings you and up to five people you trust at the same time. The first to answer and press 5 takes the call. Keep your other contacts on the form too.

MyCirCall is not an emergency service. In an emergency, always call 999 or 112.

Sources

• Department for Education, Keeping children safe in education 2026, paragraph 126
• Calderdale Safeguarding Children Partnership, Emergency Contact and First Day Calling Procedures, example form (October 2024)
• Apple, Allow or silence notifications for a Focus on iPhone (Emergency Bypass)

Sources checked on 16 October 2026. Each organisation's own guidance can change, so check with your school, care home or hospital for how they work.