PAT Testing Schools & Colleges
Health and Safety has been at the forefront in education for many years now, and the regular checking of the electrical appliances in a school or college should be a fundamental part of any school or college safety policy.
Regular inspection and testing
Training courses in Portable Appliance Testing
Supply and maintenance of Pat Testing equipment
Most schools already carry out Pat Testing, either through an independent contractor, or by delegating the task to qualified members of staff. We are able to provide a range of services which are particularly relevant to education.
- Regular inspection and testing
- Consultancy
- Training courses in Portable Appliance Testing
- Supply and maintenance of Pat Testing equipment
- Short training sessions for all staff in 'user checks'
Most schools and colleges have a large number of electrical appliances, and keeping on top of the PAT Testing can be a headache. Some schools have decided to employ the services of a contractor to do the testing - in fact some have this imposed on them by the LEA. If you want to go down this route, then please ask us to provide you with a quotation. We'll do our best to beat what you are paying now. Of course, if you've recently become an Academy, then it's almost certain that you could save time and money by adopting sensible timescales for your PAT Testing, now you are not obliged to follow the LEA's rules.
You might also decide to send some of your staff (perhaps a technician or a caretaker) on a training course, so they can do the testing and save money. We have been training school technicians & caretakers for over 20 years, so please look at the pat testing courses section of the site if this is the way forward for you.
However, simply paying someone to do the testing is not always the best option, from the point of safety as well as cost. Some appliances in a school do not need to be tested every year, and you could be wasting lots of money if you are paying someone to do this. On the other hand, there may be some appliances that need testing very frequently, and you might not be achieving a satisfactory degree of safety if you are only having them looked at once per year.
The best approach is to aim for a system where:
- Appliances which need regular checking are tested by someone who has been trained - these might be one of your staff who has received training, or our engineers under contract.
- Appliances which need less frequent attention are checked at an more appropriate interval - perhaps every 2-4 years, (or maybe not at all)
- All staff are encouraged to look for obvious faults when using appliances (this is known as a 'user check') - and this could be extended to pupils as part of teaching about safety.
We have advised many schools and colleges, as well as provided training for staff, both in basic electrical safety, and portable appliance testing to national standards. We could bring our expertise and knowledge to your school or college - we will almost certainly save you money as well as raising your overall standard of safety.
What now?
Contact us! We'll be very happy to discuss your situation, and we'll suggest further action only if we feel that our services can help you by saving money and raising safety standards.
Call us today on 01482 827744 for more information!
