The school security buck stops with the Responsible Person in schools across Essex and the entire country.
The pressures of dwindling budgets and a lack of support/understanding can result in unsuspecting schools taking the wrong advice. By buying cheap, you often end up buying twice.
But there's one sure fire way of ensuring you're getting the best security system possible for your School, installed to the highest standards and fully compliant with legislation. Choose security companies with the right accreditations.
The precise accreditation required depends on the specific security upgrade you're considering. Here are some accreditations you should look for.
For intruder alarm systems and access control the two main accreditations to check are NSI and SSAIB. Click on the links below to find out how to verify these approvals using each organisation's website. :
Look to see that your installer is a member of:
They'll be approved to install automatic gates to Quality Assured standards.
For fire safety systems, look for these two marks of approval:
One of the most important and trusted health & safety accreditations is:
Well, I'd want to...
If the company that installed your system wasn't accredited then your school might not be appropriately covered.
It's like letting an unqualified teacher loose in your classrooms - you'd want to vet them first to ensure they're capable and suitable to teach.
You're obliged to ensure the quality of education and safety of your children isn't compromised. So why is the physical safety of your pupils, staff and visitors from intruders and fire any different?
Imagine a fire has broken out in your school...
Smoke has filled the corridors and your emergency lighting can't be seen to guide people to the fire exits.
The lights are on, but the electrician who installed them wasn't properly accredited. Honest and trustworthy to install lighting, but Emergency Lighting is different.
In this case he didn't know the required luminescence for the corridors and how to achieve it. Within seconds it's pitch black in the corridor and any hope of escape for people left inside is slim.
Through sheer luck, nobody was hurt, but it was discovered you hadn't met British Standards.
Ultimately, the Responsible Person is held responsible and the school faces unlimited fines for not complying with the law.
A very real threat...
A professional fire and security company specialising in Emergency Lighting and properly accredited would have designed and installed a system that met those standards...
The aim of this post is to make schools realise the danger they're putting their Responsible Person in by prioritising budgets over safety and not doing their research properly - accreditations matter!
To help, we created a guide to help you get your School's security right, which you can download for free by clicking the image below.
