Physical Security

School gate standards

by Mark Rowe

School SafetyMARK – a national safety certification and support scheme designed to encourage safety in schools, is the latest health and safety standard to lend its support to Gate Safe, the charity which seeks improved standards in automated gate safety.

SafetyMARK has ten practitioners, who make audits of UK primary and secondary schools, to assess site safety for staff, pupils, visitors and contractors. Gate Safe Founder Richard Jackson, pictured, says: “given the number of schools which feature automated gates in an effort to improve the physical security of the school site, we are delighted to have SafetyMARK on board to ensure these gates represent not only a secure, but also a safe installation. Recent survey activity has identified a number of school / college automated gates, which fail to adhere to the required safety protocol to deliver a safe and compliant installation. All schools need to improve their understanding of what constitutes a safe automated gate and with the support of SafetyMARK, we are now in a position to convey our message to the wider school community.”

Stuart Letley, MD SafetyMARK says: “Our job is to guide schools on all factors which will influence the overall safety of the environment they offer. We were very impressed with the Gate Safe campaign and the associated IOSH accredited Gate Safe Aware training course which provides clear and concise guidance to help appreciate the critical factors which can result in an unsafe and therefore high risk installation. We regularly check automated gates as part of our standard audit service and we will now be actively recommending our clients seek professional guidance from a Gate Safe Aware installer if there are any concerns regarding the safety of any automated gates we review.”

For further information on Gate Safe visit www.gate-safe.org. For more details on School SafetyMARK visit www.safety-mark.co.uk.

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