Maintenance For Schools

• Maintenance For Schools
• Maintenance For Business

Why Maintain School Fences?

Schools are responsible for the safety and welfare of hundreds of vulnerable young people, who require a higher level of consideration and protection (in particular with recent mainstream integration of children with Special Educational Needs). There are in fact nearly 400 Acts of Parliament and/or Statutory Instruments relating to school security matters.

• Pupils are energetic, wilfull and numerous, and as dangerous as they are vulnerable. Regardless of the location of fencing and gates, like water, pupils will find the shortest route between school buildings and sports facilities on the premises, and between the school and their homes and nearby shops externally. Such uncontrolled and unauthorised behaviour causes damage to school and adjacent property and makes the pupils themselves the subject of potential injury.
• School perimeters, surrounding playing fields and sports areas, are necessarily large and often obscured from view.
• There are many thousands of such establishments nationwide, each with similar characteristics, concerns and needs.
• The majority of these organisations are currently suffering from past under-funding, particularly elements of their premises such as their perimeters that are difficult to inspect/see and thus often simply left in a poor state ‘out of sight, out of mind’.
• Education is a current politically sensitive area that is attracting additional funding, particularly for security and related systems within this sector.
• More of the education budget is being delegated directly to schools. This will mean that Head teachers will have greater autonomy in choosing their service and maintenance providers, i.e. not bound to the local authority.
• School Premises, like all Local Authority Assets, are now the subjects of the new Asset Management Planning process, during which their condition must be annually inspected. This inspection informs the Authorities Capital Program of building, repair and maintenance. This inspection service, which necessarily must include the fencing, is currently contracted out to external ‘third parties’, i.e. professional firms of Building Surveyors. Thus there is also an opportunity to gain Local Authority support and integration, as our concept mirrors many cultural and commercial aspects of this new planning process (and will likely be more competitively priced).
• Education also benefits from significant additional funding, under the governments “fitter society” initiative, whereby schools and the neighbouring community benefit from new/improved sports facilities.
• A school caretaker or handyman can no longer be considered competent to effectively ‘assess and address’ sensitive issues affecting personal safety.

Client Benefits:

Pupils remain the responsibility of the school despite their neglect of themselves and their environment, hence their movement needs to be controlled and observed at all times if possible. Effective fencing and gates directing them away from danger are the principle means by which this is achieved. Consequently schools rarely have the time, resource or expertise to effectively monitor their perimeters (despite these being a safety-critical element of their facility). AlphaFence’s unique FENECcare service assists the school by shouldering this important responsibility as it:

•  Enables the School to meet its statutory duty of care in respect of the health, safety and welfare of its staff and pupils; buying valuable peace of mind in eliminating a significant area of worry and risk; and in so doing increase important parental (and other stakeholder) confidence.
• Mitigates the consequences of any future incident or accident resulting from a failure of a particular element of the perimeter, i.e. a comprehensive ongoing programme of maintenance, repair and replacement is a pro-active demonstration of having taken “all reasonable” steps required of health & safety legislation.
• Makes a public and positive statement to pupils, parents and other stakeholders of the school’s commitment to the care and welfare of their sons and daughters.
• Reduces intentional theft, damage, and vandalism from external sources.
• Reduces opportunist theft, damage through trespass, i.e. unauthorised public use of school grounds and facilities outside school hours or terms.
• Reduces the likelihood of personal-injury claims as a result of unhygienic detritus on school premises, e.g. syringes, condoms, animal excrement; and/or reduce claims for damaged clothing and/or injury arising from poorly maintained, i.e. sharp, fencing components.
• Controls pupils’ access/egress to/from premises through single authorised points that can be observed and monitored, reducing external risks such as external passing traffic, and also reducing the likelihood of unobserved absenteeism.
• Controls and monitors visitor movements ensuring the schools and other stakeholders’ peace of mind in respect of the security of the children, e.g. reduce the likelihood of assault/abduction.
• Identifies and segregates public rights of way on/adjacent to the premises, reducing the likelihood of opportunist theft and/or trespass.
• Includes an annual inspection and report which provides a valuable mechanism for assessing the future funding requirement associated with this element of the external/buildings maintenance and/or renewal.
• Increases the effective life of existing perimeter arrangements.
• Provides a trusted, professional and quality ‘one-stop shop’ for all perimeter issues including emergency call-out, bespoke repairs (between annual inspections) and complete fence renewal.
• Can spread the ultimate long-term cost of complete fence replacement into phased and smaller ‘needs-must’ chunks over a period of years.
• Potentially helps to reduce insurance premiums following improved security and facility management.

 View technical Data Sheet (PDF 660K)

FENCEcare means that AlphaFence's professional team will take on this ongoing responsibility on your behalf.