Despite 2,000 school fires every year costing £74 million, only 300 of the UK’s 30,000 schools have a sprinkler system fitted. The growing fire problem was making schools much more difficult to insure.
Zurich Municipal, the industry leader in school insurance, had campaigned for a decade to make sprinklers mandatory in new schools.
Working with a coalition of parliamentarians, chief fire officers and teaching unions, Mandate ensured that the issue became a hot topic.
Detailed, evidence-backed negotiations with Ministers and officials were driven by a broad campaign that made clear that the time had come to take preventative action.
Schools Minister Jim Knight announced in a Parliamentary debate initiated by the campaign that all new schools will now be fitted with sprinkler systems as standard.
