"They developed new risk assessment frameworks and worked out the procedures to deal with it.  Judicium were phenomenal in helping us through that period.  We needed measures to control the risks in each school so Judicium set about holding a virtual consultation meeting with each Head before finalising the updated risk assessment and health and safety procedures for each school."

Maritime Academy Trust is a charitable education trust, established in 2016, which runs 13 schools - 12 primaries and one special school - across London and the south east.

The Trust has around 700 staff who together serve a community of around 4,000 children in schools in a range of contexts, from the affluent suburbs of London to some less affluent communities.

Judicium’s methodical and thorough approach to Health and Safety management audits have helped their schools to meet health and safety regulations - even when expanding during a Pandemic.

“COVID has been a really difficult time for us,” says Susan Matheson, COO at Maritime. “The Trust was very concerned about protecting staff and pupils from infection risks. No one had dealt with anything like this before, but thankfully we had Judicium by our side  to support us through the process of re-opening our schools as safely as possible.”

“They also held online meetings for all our schools to discuss common risks and concerns and even joined our evening Board Meeting to talk about the proposed approach to reopening.”

Ricky Bangs, Estates Lead, says that Judicium support helps to simplify the management of the Trust schools. “Before we had different approaches to health and safety audits across the schools but now we have the same process across the schools which supports us in achieving a consistently high level of health and safety management in each school,” he says.

Maritime grew significantly in September 2020 when it formally welcomed three new Medway schools to the Trust.

“Whenever we have a new school join us the process will be the same,” Ricky explains. “Judicium will carry out a due diligence audit report which covers the key health and safety compliance elements.”

“Once the diligence has taken place Judicium will then return to site to produce a detailed report including a fire risk assessment that will clearly set out levels of compliance and create an action plan on the back of their findings. The report will clearly indicate to the trust what it is we need to do in order to comply with regulations. This action plan will be prioritised, with high priority matters needing to be addressed.”

Susan Matheson says that the independent, objective and thorough advice and support provided by Judicium means that Trustees can have much greater confidence that they are delivering upon their health and safety responsibilities.

“The Trust has statutory health and safety requirements to meet in each school so it’s vital  that we have quality, clear and independent insights on where the concerns and risks are,” she says.

If you’d like to learn more about Judicium’s services, please feel free to contact Georgina de Costa on georgina.decosta@judicium.com or 07399 185 443