The council are celebrating after adding another top national award to their growing collection at a ceremony in London.
The council’s eServices Team took home the prize for ‘School Security’ at the Education Business Awards following their work with the West Midlands Police to reduce the number of break-ins across schools in the city.
Last year, the team launched their crime reduction scheme following a spate of burglaries at schools across the city. They introduced DNA forensic marking kits to protect valuable ICT equipment from theft and technology such as laptops and iPads in 61 local schools are now marked.
Neil Beards, eServices manager said: “I am normally quite modest about the work we do and it’s the first award I’ve entered the team for alone, so to win is an amazing achievement. “Working alongside West Midlands Police, has enabled us to successfully implement our crime reduction scheme and I am pleased that our recent work has had a major impact and settled the break-ins considerably across our supported schools.”
The awards are all about recognising the sterling work of schools across all sectors and were presented by Stephen Drew of reality TV show Educating Essex fame, who is currently headteacher at Brentwood County High School.