As the SBM for Northaw C of E Primary School in Hertfordshire, Hayley Hood realised that the problems the school was facing, like duplicated work, confusing responsibilities and missed records, needed sorting once and for all.
After a demo of the iAM Compliant system, Hayley knew that iAM was the solution to all those problems, and more. We spoke to her about the impact our system has made at the school.
How were you managing compliance before using iAM Compliant? Were you facing any particular challenges?
Prior to implementing iAM we used a variety of basic methods of managing compliance, primarily Excel spreadsheets and paper-based records kept in a variety of folders in the school office.
There was a lot of duplication (e.g. a planned maintenance record being saved on a spreadsheet, printed off and put in one or more folders such as the Fire Logbook & H&S file).
There were also challenges faced with not everyone knowing what needs doing, what is being done, when or by whom. The School Business Manager is the Lead for most compliance tasks, however, is part-time, so often it may be the School Office Manager or the Head Teacher that is in school when contractors are on site, therefore they would also need to know who is attending, why and what they are expected to be doing. Again, our School Site Manager is on a casual contract, meaning he is only on site when there are jobs that need doing. A book was used by staff to record things that needed to be done, but a call to him would need to be made to make him aware that jobs had been written in the book.
There were also challenges faced when a planned maintenance visit resulted in remedial work or action to be taken. There was not a reliable means of recording this action, delegating it to the appropriate person, or recording when it had been completed.
In addition, compliance management worked on either using calendar notifications to remind us of when tasks were due, or colour coding an Excel spreadsheet, neither of which were reliable solutions.
How did you first hear about iAM Compliant, and what made you choose our system?
The Education Showroom offered a live demo with iAM Compliant.
I was impressed from the outset and then followed this up with iAM Compliant’s offer of a free trial. The free trial further secured my confidence in the solution working for our setting and our needs.
I had already completed a competitor exercise to weigh up cost/benefit compared to other compliance solutions already used by other schools. However, iAM Compliant was by far the most viable financially and appeared to have all the functionality we required at a cost we could afford.
What outcomes and benefits have you seen with iAM Compliant?
The benefits of iAM Compliant have been extensive.
We now have everything in one place, accessible anytime, from anywhere. The alerts mean nothing can be missed, and everyone knows what tasks are owned by whom, when they have been completed and any further action that needs to be taken.
It provides a full audit trail of all areas of compliance, even bespoke compliance tasks that we have chosen to create as a school. For example, a tree survey was not one of the asset management/planned maintenance tasks, however we as a school wanted this to be included in the system. So, I was easily able to create a new asset ‘trees’ and schedule planned maintenance ‘surveys’ on a periodic cycle of our choice.
The contractors and contracts area of iAM Compliant means that ‘notice period’ windows do not get missed and provides an early warning to enable the review of contracts before any automatic renewal or cease dates.
Are there any features you’ve found particularly impactful and valuable in ensuring compliance?
All of it. There isn’t any aspect that I will not use or would change.
We are now incorporating policies and risk assessments into iAM Compliant to use it as a portal to enable all staff access to the documents they need, most of which are updated on an annual basis and require evidencing that staff have read and understood them. Again, another very simple process within iAM Compliant.
How have you found the access to support from iAM Compliant?
As the solution is very intuitive and straightforward to use, this has meant I have had very little need to contact the iAM Complaint support team, however on the odd occasion I have, they have been extremely helpful and have resolved any queries or questions immediately.
How would you describe iAM Compliant to other schools?
An affordable, fully functioning, straightforward, intuitive, clear and transparent method to record all compliance tasks, no matter how unique or bespoke they need to be. A one-stop shop for all elements of compliance including compliance checks and tasks, document recording, policy and risk assessment sharing and record keeping and hosts a wide variety of training courses.
Hayley and the team at Northaw C of E Primary School have really started to make the most of the intuitive iAM Compliant system, and, as you’ve read, are feeling the multiple benefits. As we upgrade the system with new features, it’ll only get better.
If you’re looking to simplify compliance or resolve the problems you’re having with incumbent systems, look no further: try iAM Compliant for FREE today.