With the Summer holidays on the horizon, you’re probably looking forward to a well-deserved break. But if you’re the Duty Holder, Head Teacher or other responsible person, you’ve got a few extra tasks to complete. One of those is to ensure your school is protected from water safety risks, specifically Legionella.
Summer is the perfect time for Legionella to multiply and colonise your school’s water system. It LOVES still, stagnant water, and will take the opportunity to grow and find places it can hide in, too. And that means potential illness lurks, and high costs down the line to help get rid of it. That is, unless you take action, now.
Your school or MAT, just like every other, is duty-bound under HSE compliance regulations to identify and assess areas where the health and well-being of everyone on your site could be compromised. Even during times when there will be few people (or no one) in the building.
If you’re thinking that no one is at risk if no one’s there, consider the bigger picture. Sure, the taps aren’t being turned on. The boiler isn’t being used. But that means all the water is just sitting there, still, and legionella can take hold. Then when everyone comes back at the start of the Autumn Term, boom. It’s in the water fountain, the showers and the sinks. Breathe in any droplets that are in the area and you could contract Legionnaire’s Disease.
8 Steps to Control Legionella in Your School
So, what should you do? Well, there are several steps to perform, so let’s go through them.
1. Perform a Legionella risk assessment for all the hot and cold water systems in place on site. Are there any areas of particular concern? Can you perform some remedial work before you begin? For example, can dead-leg pipes be removed rather than just capped? That’s one less place for Legionella to hide.
2. All taps and water outlets need to be flushed WEEKLY, for 2 minutes. That includes hot and cold taps, outside ones, sports halls, tanks, calorifiers and any dead-legs.
3. Flush all showers, too. Showerheads spray, and since you don’t want to breathe in any potential Legionella, stick the heads in a bucket of water to run through.
4. Flush all toilets on site. You need to empty the cistern thoroughly, ensuring the toilet seat is down while you do so.
5. Flush through all the outside taps and hoses. Do this slowly to avoid spray, (1 min slow, then 4 mins on a faster speed). Remove the nozzle or spray gun from the end and flush separately before replacing it. Ensure that a hose is empty after use, and don’t leave them connected to taps.
6. Check the temperatures of the water when you are flushing hot water systems. Legionella bacteria thrives in water between 25-45°c, so if it’s in that range, it’s worth checking the boiler or calorifier to see what’s going on. You may need to change the temperature to 50°c.
7. Consider collecting water samples before the start of the new term and sending them for testing - it’s not a legal requirement, but it’ll help you establish whether Legionella is present and therefore fulfils your HSE compliance obligations.
8. Keep detailed records to show you have done these things. A good safety management system will make this a breeze instead of piles of paperwork.
We know that’s a lot to do. It requires someone to be on-site weekly to perform system flushes, too. But in the end, it’ll stop the build-up of this dangerous bacteria and other waterborne bacteria too. It’ll also save you significant money down the line if you have to remedy an outbreak, and it stops faculty, visitors and children from getting ill (or worse – Legionnaire’s Disease can be deadly). If you don’t follow these steps and document the evidence that you’ve followed them, you could face legal action if there’s an outbreak on site.
Legionella testing in schools isn’t tricky to do, but it can be time-consuming, depending on the size of your school or MAT. But it is vital to perform. We can help. Check out our Legionella Toolkit, which includes a full eLearning course about Legionella, an eBook and helpful videos to give you the lowdown on Legionella and how to mitigate it. You can download it for FREE right now and get a jump start on this key compliance duty.
Get your FREE Legionella in Schools Toolkit
For practical resources to manage Legionella in your school, consider downloading the iAM Compliant Legionella in Schools Toolkit. It’s chock-full of useful resources to help you get started on managing Legionella in your school, and keeping your staff and students safe.
