With the emergence of new UK legislation like Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) and Martyn’s Law, security has become a growing focus for those working in education. Many schools already have safeguarding procedures in place, but often question whether their current systems meet best practice. Legacy on-premise systems tend to make investigations slow and manual, struggle to scale across multiple buildings or sites, and leave CCTV, access control, and guest management running as disconnected systems, with staff piecing together footage or events by hand.
Verkada works with educational institutions ranging from primary schools to universities, replacing this patchwork of legacy hardware with a single cloud-managed platform. Cameras, access control, guest management, and air quality sensors all operate together, giving schools a complete picture of their site through one system rather than several disconnected ones.
Faster investigations are one of the clearest gains. Rather than manually rewinding footage across disconnected cameras, staff can search using everyday descriptive language and locate incidents in minutes instead of days. Access events and video footage sit within the same platform, so staff can connect who entered where and when without cross-referencing separate systems.
This also supports stronger, more proactive safeguarding. Access control keeps unauthorised people out of school buildings, while real-time alerts flag anomalous or concerning activity, such as fight detection or a person of interest on site. In a critical incident, staff can trigger a campus-wide lockdown instantly from a desktop, mobile app, or mounted panic button, and share footage immediately via email or text.
Additionally, retiring NVR/DVR hardware reduces ongoing maintenance, and a 10-year warranty supports long-term investment. Continuous coverage and centralised records also make it easier for schools to maintain insurance and safeguarding compliance without relying on manual checks.
Taken together, these outcomes reflect a broader shift from reactive to proactive safeguarding. With Verkada, schools gain stronger day-to-day protection, while also freeing staff to spend less time on administrative work and more time providing an excellent educational experience to students.
For more information about how Verkada can help your school, please visit: https://www.verkada.com/uk/solutions/education/
