Other services are also available, such as water coolers and water boilers designed for education sectors. The available services include:
Hygiene in Education Facilities
Sanitary bin services are essential within all education sectors. All female, non-binary and transgender staff and students require sanitary bins within schools. This ranges from primary schools where older students are just beginning to require these services, all the way through to high school and higher education facilities.
When Sanitary Bins are Essential
All educational facilities need to be equipped with sanitary bins, including primary schools. Female toilets within primary schools should be equipped with sanitary bins as girls can get their periods from as early as eight years old. It is also a legal requirement for female staff toilets to include sanitary bins. In addition to this, if there are no bins, or not enough provided, students may resort to flushing sanitary items. Flushed sanitary products can cause blockages in sewage pipes and pollution in waterways. By providing suitable facilities and a regular collection organised by the FW3 Services Team, these issues will be bypassed.
Sanitary Bin Servicing
Sanitary bins are collected by the same technicians on each occasion. This is particularly relevant for locations such as large schools. By having a regular technician, this saves time as they are familiar with the bins location and can navigate their way around without regular assistance.
Primary and secondary schools require sharps disposal bins in areas such as first aid rooms. Whereas, higher education facilities such as colleges and universities may require a larger number of sharps bins for departments with laboratories. Sharps bins should be readily accessible to encourage responsible behaviours and ensure students and staff are fully catered for with facilities to safely dispose of sharps.
Hand dryers are a necessity for maintaining hand hygiene within education sectors. This is because dry hands reduce the spread of germs and bacteria as they are dispersed more easily via damp hands. By incorporating efficient and well maintained hand dryers within busy and high use environments such as schools and universities, this improves the health of staff and students and reduces absenteeism.
Wide Range of Hand Dryers Available
Hand dryers such as the Biodrier Biobot are ideal for younger students within primary schools, with the child friendly design in place to encourage students to use the device. There are additionally hand dryers with lower decibel ratings which are perfect for very young children or those who have learning disabilities who are intimidated by the noise. A wide range of hand dryers are available for all ages, budgets and environments. This ensures appropriate and energy efficient facilities are accessible to all institutions.
By including hand dryers as part of your Facilities Management package, your hand dryers are monitored and serviced regularly. Ongoing maintenance and a break down service additionally provides you with confidence in your hand dryers.
Improving the quality of air within education facilities will result in less student and staff sickness. By providing aircare in the form of an air and surface purifier such as the BioZone, airborne bacteria and germs are captured and destroyed. Within education sectors one of the most effective ways of reducing the spread of bacteria and viruses is within the washroom. These enclosed areas are subject to continuous, high traffic contact and shared fixtures. As a result washrooms turn into environments where germs and bacteria can be easily spread. By including a BioZone within school and university washrooms, airborne viruses and bacteria are effectively destroyed.
Air fresheners can be used in conjunction with the BioZone. They mask the sterile smell generated by the BioZone with an agreeable scent, helping to create a more pleasant environment.
Increased Efficiency in Education Sectors
Institutions such as schools, universities and colleges benefit from water management systems. This is because educational institutions are empty for significant periods. With long holiday breaks, weekends and evenings unattended, there are lots of times these institutions are empty. When urinal water management systems are implemented, this allows for significant water savings. In turn, this leads to big monetary savings. Without water management systems, urinals flush continuously, regardless of whether they are in use or not.
FW3 Services offer water management systems which have flush settings that are triggered by infrared sensors. As a result, these sensors cause the urinal to flush when a person steps up to the urinal. A curtesy flush occurs once over a 12 hour period when the urinal isn’t in use, for example over evenings, weekends and holidays.
Replacing paper towels with hand dryers as the main method of drying hands makes a big difference in improving finances. Hand dryers are a much more cost effective option than paper towels. This is because hand dryers require no maintenance by the school or university as FW3 Services undertakes this responsibility.
The Cost of Paper Towels
Paper towels are also expensive to upkeep, costing much more on a yearly basis than if a hand dryer were used. In addition to this, paper towels require regular restocking and monitoring of stock levels. This takes significant time, particularly in large institutions such as schools and universities.
For example, one of the hand dryers available through FW3 Services is the Biodrier Biobot. This hand dryer saves over a £1000 a year when swapped from paper towels.
In addition to direct savings, there will also be no more toilets blocked by flushed hand towels or bins piled with non-recyclable refuse. Without these additional levels of maintenance, both money and time is saved. As a result, budget and manpower can be put towards other valuable areas.
Water Coolers
Accessible mains fed water coolers for students and staff encourage water consumption, which in turn improves general health and concentration. With easily accessible water, this provides a free alternative to other drinks high in sugar, additives and caffeine. By providing plenty of water outlets this additionally contributes towards the reduction of single waste plastic. This is because bottled beverages do not need to be purchased as frequently when there is a free alternative available.
Water Boilers
Providing water boilers for staff members also saves time and energy. This is because water boilers dispense instant hot water. The water boilers offered by FW3 Services produce up to 45 cups worth of boiling water in one go (depending on the model of water boiler selected). By having large amounts of hot water ready, drinks can be made quickly and easily without needing to wait. As school staff members tend to have breaks together, there are increased numbers making drinks at the same time. To cater for this, water boilers are able to produce large volumes of hot drinks within short time frames, providing a great alternative to kettles which require constant filling and need to be boiled in advance.
Buying Consortiums
FW3 Services is additionally a supplier of the Crescent Purchasing Consortium. This is a buying consortium owned and run by the Further Education Sector. As a supplier to a buying consortium, FW3 Services conforms to the purchasing framework of ‘Supply and Distribution of Drinking Water Dispensers and Related Services’. In addition, FW3 complies with the Public Contracts Regulations and works to save educational institutions time and money. To be accepted as a supplier of a buying consortium, FW3 Services has complied with all the requirements stipulated and has been proven a credible and reliable supplier.