Managing a nursery comes with so many different obligations and challenges, right? That, of course, includes keeping the children safe. While most nurseries focus on interior risk assessment – removing dangerous objects, protecting children from collisions and accidents, etc. – risk assessment also needs to take into account the entrances and exits. Ask yourself this: when was the last time anyone in your nursery checked the barrel locks for UPVC doors (or whatever door type you have)?
Nurseries need to focus on creating an entry system that is both secure and easy for parents and staff to access. All it takes is damage to the door lock barrel, and you could find your doors jamming shut or becoming a little too easy to access. To give you more information about the importance of having quality barrel locks for UPVC doors, we asked an ironmongery expert from Locks & Hardware for advice. What did we learn?
Read on to get insight from one of the UK’s leading experts when it comes to door locks and security.
Being Aware Of Nursery Safety Concerns Is Essential
Look, we understand that working in a nursery setting is incredibly hard work. Remove the admin side from the job for a moment: caring for all of those children is not easy. Nor is forming relationships with the parents so that you can ensure every child gets the support they need. It’s a lot, right?
That’s why it’s completely normal for simple things – like the quality of your barrel locks for UPVC doors – to slip through the net. However, having quality entrances and exits to your nursery, guarded by a high-quality lock, is essential to creating a safe environment for parents, children and staff.
Nurseries need to find a way where the entrances to the nursery are well-secured but easy for staff to access. At the same time, they should be secure enough that children cannot simply open the door and wander off into the school, the playground, etc.
Most of the time, this comes down to making sure your doors are secured by the right lock cylinder. Having locks which are rickety, loose, or even damaged creates an immediate security risk. Doors that do not unlock properly could create an emergency where the door will not open, or the lock cylinder could fail, and your doors do not lock, making unwanted access to the nursery easier.
While you focus on setting up a safe nursery setting where toys and amenities are safe to play with, you should converse with your nursery maintenance staff about the quality of your door locks. All it takes is for the barrel of a lock to fail, and the entire nursery security becomes compromised.
The Benefits Of UPVC Barrel Locks
Investing in quality security extends beyond modern technology, such as smart security systems or CCTV cameras. It means having the right foundations in place – starting with ensuring you have high-quality barrel locks for UPVC doors. Investing in the right quality of barrel lock gives your nursery:
Improved Security Features
First and foremost, installing a high-quality, British Standards-approved barrel lock ensures that your nursery remains watertight in terms of security. Nobody can get in or out without the keys.
Any nursery should only accept British Standards-approved barrel locks for UPVC doors. These locks come with the approval of a high-quality testing facility, which has put the lock mechanism through its paces. Lock cylinders that are British Standards approved come with the peace of mind of knowing that they are resistant to things like lockpicking and lock snapping, making force entry more difficult.
It also means that, so long as the lock is engaged, the door remains shut. As such, children cannot wander off or go exploring other parts of the nursery without supervision.
Easy Electronic Integration
Most nurseries today are moving towards investing in multi-layer security, including electronic and smart locks. However, you can still integrate traditional barrel locks for UPVC doors into this system. Working with a commercial locksmith means you can get your standard lock and key system paired with the smart system, making it easier to manage access to the nursery.
Quick, Simple Locking
Nurseries are a busy place, and taking the time to lock or unlock a complicated door lock cylinder is not always possible. As such, nurseries need to have quality barrel locks for UPVC doors that allow for quick and simple locking without diverting the attention of nursery staff away from the children.
Most UPVC barrel locks are designed to be quickly locked with a simple thumb turn. That means staff can quickly engage or disengage the locks with a quick turn of the thumb, provided the thumb is kept out of reach of the children so they cannot disengage the lock themselves.
Low Maintenance, High Durability
Another benefit of opting for barrel locks for UPVC doors is that they tend to be quite low-maintenance. You cannot afford to have doors that are not working in a nursery, can you?
As such, if a problem does emerge, you want to know that a locksmith can fix the problem quickly. With most barrel locks for UPVC doors, the entire lock cylinder can be replaced by a locksmith in a matter of minutes. That low-maintenance nature is one of the great benefits of a cylinder barrel lock. The locks remain highly durable and resistant to break-in as well as wear and tear, whilst being easy to repair or replace in the event that they do become damaged.
Barrel Locks: The Perfect Choice For Nurseries & Daycare
Looking after young children is such a time-consuming and attention-grabbing job that, really, your staff cannot afford to lose any time worrying about anything else. That’s why having barrel locks for UPVC doors fitted is such a wise choice; they remain the ideal pick for low-maintenance, high-security locks. Giving your staff one less thing to worry about is something they will vastly appreciate.
With the right cylinder barrel lock, you know that children are kept safe in the building, parents can easily access the nursery to collect their children, and staff can easily moderate access to the nursery.
Hire a locksmith today and have a review of your current locks; you’ll be surprised at just how much easier it can be to secure your nursery with the right door lock installed!
