Administration

Digital sign in and the benefits for schools

Discover how digital management systems can streamline emergency procedures, ensure contractor compliance & assist in first aid responses.

<p>Schools are responsible for the safeguarding of their students&comma; staff and visitors&period; Knowing who is on site and where at any given time is&comma; therefore&comma; essential&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Digital visitor sign in platforms offer a reliable alternative to paper based records&comma; helping schools to streamline and automate the check-in process&comma; with technology to monitor&comma; track and record visitor information&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Read the latest issue of <em>School News<&sol;em> <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;school-news&period;com&period;au&sol;latest-print-issue&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">HERE<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Covid-19 regulations and requirements saw a rise in digital sign-in platforms&period; Many state governments required schools to digitally sign-in all guests&comma; ensuring they could be contacted easily in case of a localised Covid outbreak&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Even in the absence of a pandemic&comma; it is important for schools to know who is on their site&comma; at all times&period; In the event of an emergency evacuation&comma; such as for a fire&comma; the school needs to account for the whereabouts of all persons&period; This includes staff and students&comma; as well as contractors&comma; parents and other members of the public who may be visiting the school&period; A digital visitor management system can simplify this process&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>More long term&comma; digital storage of records makes them easier to search&comma; so you can see who was on your site at any given day and time&period; Auditing this information is made easy&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Ensuring visitors to the school are easily identifiable is also important for keeping the school community safe&period; Commonly&comma; schools require visitors such as contractors to wear a name tag or other identifier&comma; so staff and students are confident the visitor is allowed on school grounds&period; Some visitor management systems can print name tags when a person signs in&comma; reducing the workload for school staff&period; In most cases&comma; information can be stored digitally&comma; meaning repeat visitors can retrieve their details&comma; rather than entering them again every time&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;23604" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-23604" style&equals;"width&colon; 252px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-23604 size-medium" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;school-news&period;com&period;au&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2023&sol;03&sol;SN27-ADMIN-Digital-Visitor-Management-Passtab-1-252x300&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Visitor Management" width&equals;"252" height&equals;"300" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-23604" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Image supplied by Passtab<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>As an extension to the school-based system&comma; some platforms allow visitors to install an app on their phone so they can sign in and out remotely&period; Contractors visiting a particular location in the school may find this useful&comma; as they will not need to report to a central location like reception to sign in before beginning work&period; If a staff member is leaving the school grounds for an unplanned absence&comma; for example if they are unwell&comma; signing out remotely again negates the need for them to visit a central location to sign out&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Thinking of installing a digital visitor management system in you school&quest; <em>School News<&sol;em> reached out to Laura Hunt&comma; Operations Manager at <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;passtab&period;com&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">Passtab<&sol;a> to learn more&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Ms Hunt said a digital visitor management system provides a robust and reliable emergency management solution&comma; and assists in managing a number of time-consuming administration tasks such as registering and tracking items&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Digital visitor management systems allow schools to maintain accurate information of who has entered the building and document the required licences and qualifications for that person&comma; to easily audit records and ensure accountability&period; Visitation records can be rapidly filtered and searched to quickly access the information required at any given moment&period; This is also paramount to support a reliable emergency management process&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The ability to be highly customisable is important in creating a highly functional system&period; Being able to set rules of entry parameters&comma; tailored alerts&comma; control what information is captured&comma; how it’s reported and what checks are being made is vital in ensuring every visitor is screened&comma; registered correctly and the data is accessible and easily auditable&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Ms Hunt said schools should consider a range of factors before implementing a digital visitor management system&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Privacy and security must be at the top of the list&period; Data hosted in Australia should be non-negotiable&comma; as is encryption at every point of the data’s life cycle&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>Additionally&comma; Ms Hunt said systems should integrate well with existing systems and technologies&comma; have an intuitive and user-friendly interface and have easy to access reporting capabilities&period; The system should also be scalable to accommodate changes in the school to grow&comma; develop and improve over time&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The system should have a module that specialises in the management of workers compliance&period; When a worker signs in&comma; both their individual and company documents are checked for compliance&comma; where required&period; The system should also monitor Working with Children’s card validity and teacher registrations for teaching staff&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Digital visitor management systems can also streamline processes in other areas of the school&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;An iPad or computer located in the First Aid room will record information required for accurate documentation&comma; including date and time of visit&comma; student&&num;8217&semi;s details&comma; and details of the incident and treatment&period; The system can also be used to monitor expiry dates of all medicines and items like EpiPens in the first aid centre&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Item tracking capabilities allow monitoring of items such as keys&comma; first aid kits&comma; laptops&comma; and equipment&period; The IT desk at your school can also be streamlined to reduce the workload in collecting relevant details from students and staff&period; The system can be used to register students’ phones that are being handed in and stored by the school&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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