School premises shared use policy

It has been an insurance condition for several years that: "Any loss arising as a direct result of a premises being left unsecured by a person entrusted to secure those premises, other than an employee of Norfolk County Council acting on the Council's business, or governor of the Insured (the school), or a professional security firm, will be uninsured."

This will cover such incidents as a theft from or vandalism inside the premises where the perpetrator did not have to break in, because doors or windows had not been secured.

It would also cover an incident where the hirer failed to set the intruder alarm, meaning that a break in would not be detected. 

Advice

• The decision to hire on a "without caretaker" basis will be down to each individual school after assessing the potential risks they might be exposed to, and understanding the insurance condition above.
• Schools who hire on a "without caretaker" basis need to make an assessment of whether the person they are giving the key to is sufficiently competent, reliable and trustworthy that the premises will always be secured after the hire, meaning there is effectively no additional risk.
• Where possible, the hirer's access needs to be restricted to just the part of the premises that they will need to use. Other parts of the school premises should remain secured and alarmed. An example could be sports changing rooms, where the rooms have their own accessible external doors so the rest of the school can remain locked and protected.
• Hirers must not be given intruder alarm codes or key fobs to set and unset alarm systems. It may be that the school intruder alarm can be zoned so that most of the school can remain alarmed while an unalarmed route through an area of low value contents is available for the hirer to access the relevant part of the building. In this instance, internal doors off the unalarmed route need to be locked although consideration must always be given for emergency evacuation routes.
• Consideration also needs to be given to which room or part of the building is used to allow as much as possible of the building to remain alarmed and locked.
• In the event that the only way that the hire can go ahead is if the hirer is given access to the intruder alarm system, then a decision should be made to not allow the hire.

Any school that has an issue with a "without caretaker" let can obtain further advice from the Risk and Insurance section at County Hall on 01603 224375 or email insurance@norfolk.gov.uk.