Visitor management: keeping everyone safe in school

Nigel Milligan, IT manager to schools and businesses, shares his advice on upgrading your visitor management systems 

I would like to start off with this thought. The DfE Keeping children safe in education 2022 document, part one, item seven states ‘All staff have responsibility to provide a safe environment in which children can learn.’ Does your school have a suitable visitor management system that holds all visitor information securely in the cloud, giving you real time visibility and ensuring compliance with GDPR and safeguarding policies? Or, as still seen in many schools today, is there a very old visitor book, with visitor lanyards issued, which doesn’t comply with GDPR and safeguarding policies?

There are many issues with a visitor book – such as visitors being able to view the details of previous entries which breaches GDPR rules straight away. For example, if I sign in with my full name, company name, vehicle registration and mobile ‘phone number, these details are easily accessible to visitors who follow. If I come across a book still in use at any sites, I will not enter any details that I do not want to share with anyone else – such as my ‘phone number or email address. With a digital system, no other visitors can access your information. 

If you’re one of the many schools which still have to upgrade your visitor management system, there are so many different solutions available it’s imperative that you research as many as you can before committing to one. 

There are several of the established common brands that offer an integrated system that synchronises with your MIS. They also work with door access cards and fobs to allow staff to easily sign in and out. The range of systems can have an upfront cost anywhere from just over £1,000 up to over £4,000 and there are also ongoing maintenance and MIS Licence costs to consider too. There is one system that, if you have a spare iPad, offers a very effective solution on a simple annual subscription, so the upfront cost is much lower. 

One other factor with the more expensive solutions that use an all-in-one touch screen computer is they are more expensive to maintain due to the ongoing maintenance and support required for the hardware and software. 

Always check that they can work with your MIS provider; it’s only recently that they have started to synchronise with cloud MIS providers. Take a look around at the overall list of features and benefits the solutions have. The cloud-hosted options also have companion apps included with many advanced features that go above and beyond that of some of the established, more expensive, hardware options.

I have purposely not named any one product in this article as it would be unfair to leave anyone out. The best place to start is with a simple Google search for ‘school sign-in system’ or ‘cloud sign-in system for schools’; the first page of results is a great place to start your research.

As always, please feel free to contact me at [email protected] if you have any questions.