Insurance is one of those strange things we buy hoping we never have to use it. So maybe we don’t pay it too much attention until the worse does happen; and then it’s too late.
The education sector has its own specialist insurance requirements – arson is the largest cause of school fires and a well-appointed IT department is a tempting target for burglars. We interviewed Mark Rowland, Business Manager for St Joseph’s RC School in Newport, a man with first-hand experience of a school fire; he shared with us the lessons learnt.
“Having an accurate, up-to date asset register might seem like a “nice to have” rather than a “must have”. But having experienced the pain of picking up the pieces after a school fire whilst working in a previous role at the Local Authority, I know it’s absolutely critical.
From finding new premises to pupil transportation, ordering new classroom desks, office desks, computer equipment, the list of things that need to be organised following a fire is endless. In addition to this, imagine dealing with the insurance claim for the loss of school assets without a comprehensive and up to date inventory! Do you know what was in a particular classroom or office, what was the value of the item, do you have evidence of the item(s) such as a photograph and what date was it purchased?
Dealing and negotiating with loss adjusters and insurance companies where records are not up to date, don’t contain financial values or are incomplete or worse, are missing, would be a nightmare. Why wouldn’t those responsible e.g. the Headteacher, Governing Body, Site Team, want to have the peace of mind that in the event of a fire or a theft, there is total confidence in the accuracy of the school’s records.”
His current school, St. Josephs RC High School, have been using AudIT asset management software since 2014.
“A robust solution, with a complete set of asset data, easy to use software with off-site data storage (so that a copy is easily recoverable if required). We procured as a group of secondary schools in Newport to obtain best value and chose this software solution following a competitive tendering process which also looked at other asset software solutions in the market place. We felt that both investing in the system and investing time to populate the key information, was worth it, in terms of saving time in future years and having an electronic record that we had confidence was accurate and would stand up to scrutiny in the event of a fire or theft”.
AudIT is a quick, user-friendly online software solution specially designed for schools to keep track of the physical and digital assets. Its unique visual interface allows users to see the location of all of their assets on-screen and also track software licence usage over the network. In the event of a fire or theft :
• You have an accurate list of assets and their values
• Your records show proof of purchase and photographic evidence
• You know that your premium correctly reflects your asset status
• Your data is safely hosted offsite
As the old saying goes – expect the best but prepare for the worst.