Guidance for education settings responding to a sudden unexpected death being treated as a suspected suicide (schools and colleges) – new publication from Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care System (ICS).

Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care System (ICS) has published a new guidance document to support heads, principals and safeguarding leads of schools, colleges and education settings across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent around the immediate processes involved in a child death by suspected suicide, and to provide advice about ongoing support and communications.

Chris Stanley, Commissioning Manager, Public Health and Prevention, Staffordshire County Council, said: “When a suspected suicide occurs, the effect on those touched by it is immediate and traumatic. When it happens in an education setting the impact can be especially huge. Both students and the adults may struggle to cope, and evidence tells us that they may become at higher risk of suicide themselves. As such it can be difficult for the leads of the education setting to know how it should best respond to manage the situation and minimise further harm.

“Our aim is that the document provides a single point of access for information, advice and signposting for education settings.”

Ben Richards, Senior Responsible Officer for Mental Health, Learning Disability and Autism across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care System (ICS), said:

“This important guidance has been developed through system-wide collaboration, and we thank partners for their hard work and input into this project. Its guidance that most of us would hope that we never need to use, but I would encourage those across education to read it to ensure they are able to help themselves, their students and their colleagues if they do in the future.”

The documents are available on the following links: