What happens when your child's school can't reach you

What schools are asked to do

The Department for Education's safeguarding guidance for schools in England, Keeping children safe in education 2026, says that where reasonably possible, schools and colleges should hold more than one emergency contact number for each pupil. It describes this as going beyond the legal minimum, so that the school has more ways to reach a responsible adult if it's worried about a child.

So the "emergency contact" section of the admission form matters. It's the list the school will use on a day when something has happened and it can't reach you.

What happens on the day

Every school and nursery has its own procedure, so ask yours for a copy. Two published examples show the pattern:

• When a child is absent and nobody has called in. The first-day calling procedure recommended to primary schools by the Calderdale Safeguarding Children Partnership has the school text the first contact within half an hour of the start of the day, start ringing within 45 minutes, and "ring down" the contact list until someone replies. If nobody has been reached within an hour, the head teacher or safeguarding lead is told, and a home visit can follow.
• When a child isn't collected. North Somerset Council's example procedure for nurseries has staff ring the parent's numbers, then the emergency contacts, wait a few minutes and try them all again. If there's still no answer 60 minutes after collection time (30 minutes at closing time), the setting rings children's services or the police on 101, or 999 if a child is in immediate danger.

The common thread is that contacts are rung one after another. Each unanswered call costs minutes, and the person who rings is usually also teaching, looking after other children or running an office.

Why the list is the weak spot

Most of us give the school our own mobile first. But the times a school rings are often the times we can't answer: in a meeting, driving, on a shift, in a lesson ourselves, or with the phone on silent. If the second and third contacts are in the same position, the school can work through the whole list without speaking to anyone.

How to make sure someone answers

1. Give at least two contacts, and if you can, one who doesn't live with you. Calderdale's example form asks for exactly that.
2. Choose people who can answer during the school day and could collect your child if they needed to. Ask them first, and tell them what the school might ring about.
3. Put first the person most likely to answer, not the person who feels most official.
4. Keep the numbers up to date. A changed number nobody told the school about is one of the easiest ways for a call to go nowhere.
5. Let the school's number through silent mode. On an iPhone, save the school as a contact and turn on Emergency Bypass for it, so it rings even when your phone is silenced or a Focus is on. Android phones have a similar setting for starred contacts in Do Not Disturb.
6. Tell the school if you'll be hard to reach for a while, for example abroad or in hospital, and who to try instead.

Where MyCirCall fits

MyCirCall gives you one UK mobile number to put first on the school form. When the school rings it, your phone and the phones of up to five people you trust ring at the same time, and the first to answer and press 5 takes the call, so the school isn't waiting while it works down a list. Keep your other contacts on the form as well: MyCirCall rings the phones, but it can't make anyone answer.

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 (October 2024)
• North Somerset Council, Uncollected Child Procedure (reviewed August 2025)
• 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.