break into building

[AnonyMouse_19920]

just a bit of advice needed please- we operate from a church / community building and over the last few weeks or so there have been a series of break ins. they haven't as yet been able to access our room as we have a key pad system but i feel uneasy about leaving the childrens learning stories, safeguarding file and send file and any other stuff that is confidential etc., so want to hold these off site until the church sort out some better security.

how do i advise ofsted - will they be ok about this?

[AnonyMouse_12960]

can you not invest in a lockable filing cabinet, and place within the locked room?

[AnonyMouse_19920]

they have broken open filing cabinets in other rooms in the building so dont think that would stop them. also at weekends the key pad in the preschool room is de-activated as it is a fire exit so needs to be accessible - the trouble is the people who de-activate it usually forget to re-activate it so the room is accessible all weekend.

[AnonyMouse_12960]

hmmm, sounds like you might need to speak to Ofsted. Have you also informed your insurance company? You may ind you are not covered of you don't report these security breaches. What is the Church's attitude to security?

[AnonyMouse_3735]

That is what we did, locked cabinet within a locked room.. ours was a Bisley metal cabinet with a 2 point locking system , was not cheap but when someone did try to break into it failed miserably...

 

We regularly had small break ins.. so had to be careful.. was because of the other groups that used the setting evenings and weekends.. most of the time they were only interested in if we had any money or items they could sell. so those were never left there.

 

Ofsted do like it all on site when open..they could also ask about how secure it will be off site.. . hence we invested on a good quality locking metal cabinet.

 

edit to say some filing cabinets have extra security bars.. a normal one is not very good at keeping things really secure..

Edited May 15, 2015 by Inge

[AnonyMouse_19920]

THANK YOU -WILL LOOK INTO A BETTER TYPE OF FILING CABINET ON MONDAY.

AS FOR THE CHURCH THEY JUST LET SOME CHURCH GOERS SIT OUTSIDE IN THEIR CARS WAITING IN CASE OF A BREAK IN THEY WOULD THEN CONTACT THE POLICE !!!

[AnonyMouse_3735]

If you could get permission another option could be to add CCTV in the room you have. They are not that costly now and quite easy to set up. Could be switched on when you leave and put up notices in the room. Depending on sizeof room as to how many cameras needed.. We went to Maplin and asked for help.. 4 cameras and a recorder was about £280.00 .

 

We set one up at home in a few hours. It was easy.. in our case it was to see what was destroying our gate.. turns out there is a badger that uses our garden as a route through.. so we decided to leave it open and the CCTV now monitors it .