Pakuranga Intermediate School

Working as a school principal for a number of years, Stephen has often been responsible for managing security at the schools where he has worked. Schools often use different firms for alarms, security monitoring and security patrols/ These businesses need to be really good to ensure that schools are able to ensure the security of their buildings and their people. Ultimately the school is responsible for who they choose and how they manage security.

Communication about incidents has never been much of an issue with other providers, but our client has always struggled with more general communication between the school and the service provider, especially around the overall relationship, clarity of service and general updating. Stephen says that in his years in the education sector it’s common to feel that “we don’t really get what we pay for”.

The last security firm to look after the school property kept changing their name and company structure. This meant that there was no consistency about who to speak to, or even who the account manager was. That made it really difficult to change things or to find out information, which was even more difficult when the firm’s own processes, practices and systems kept changing! In addition, they also didn’t talk to the alarm monitoring firm.

From the school’s perspective, Stephen is very clear. It is essential that the school receives regular updates and to be made aware of any issues that need to be addressed. “We need to be confident that patrols are being carried out properly – there was just no communication about this activity and no evidence that patrols were physically checking the premises with our previous contractor”. Some really important issues were being missed, such as teachers leaving a window open. If the security patrol doesn’t see this and report back to the school then nothing can be done to improve things.