Legionnaires’ disease can be fatal. In fact, 10% of those who contract it unfortunately succumb to the illness.
Legionella pneumophilia (the bacteria that cause the disease) thrive in stagnant water – the kind that may exist in your school’s water system right now!
You have a duty of care for your students, staff and visitors, but what exactly can you do to protect the people in your school?
The first step is to conduct comprehensive legionella testing (or get a professional to help!).
For any organisation in education, we highly recommend that you carry out a legionella risk assessment every two years.
There’s quite a lot you should know about legionella risk assessments. In order to make this information more easily digestible, we’ve created our Complete Guide to Legionella Risk Assessments in Schools.
As a school, you have your own unique needs that absolutely must be met.
The right water hygiene company will understand these needs, and will already have experience working with similar organisations.
You should ask:
Do you offer out-of-hours support?
Many water hygiene remedial works cannot be completed while students are in school. Your water hygiene company should be flexible enough to work around your busiest times, either completing work in the early morning, in the evenings, or on the weekends, if necessary.
Have you worked in schools before? (If so, ask for examples)
It’s important that your water hygiene company understands your unique needs. Organisations in education have many unique needs when compared to other businesses, in particular, your duty of care over students, which leads us to our next point…
Are your engineers enhanced DBS checked?
Risk assessors and engineers may come into contact with students, be that while work is carried out in school hours, or if tests/remedial work needs to be carried out in student accommodation. It’s essential that everyone involved is enhanced DBS checked to protect your students.
Will we get our own account manager?
There’s nothing worse than struggling to contact your water hygiene company in the event of an emergency, or if you have any concerns. You should make sure that you’ll have your own dedicated account manager. This should mean that there’s always someone there ready to answer your calls.
Do you have an electronic portal where we can see our results?
An E-portal is the most convenient way to manage your account, see results and book appointments. Always ask a prospective water hygiene company if they have one!
For over a decade, our team at H2O Hygiene have worked closely with schools from across the country, delivering bespoke water hygiene solutions that ensure their students, staff and visitors remain safe from the dangers of legionellosis.
Get in touch with our friendly team today for bespoke, impartial advice on your water system. We’re available to conduct a comprehensive legionella risk assessment, identifying key areas of concern in your system.
