Portable Appliance Testing Who Does it where u r? Survay

[noah]

Hi -

 

Just doing abit of a survay to find out how other school cope with the legal responsibility of PAT.

 

Wondering if you could help me by telling me who does PAT in your school?

 

How does your school manage the responsibility?

 

Also please can you let me how large your school is. Aprox how many appliances etc.

 

Thank you.

[Vegas]

Science Tech does it here, he's actually full time so has not much else to do during the summer.

Sorry no idea how many appliances, I stay well clear as I know he hates it and has been trying to palm it off on my team for years.

[triggmiester]

I do it at my school (IT Tech) it was part of the deal so I could be full time.

 

Although, the science tech does science and the DT tech does all D & T (Food etc) and I do the rest of the school, I've no idea how many appliances, but it includes kettles, hoovers, floor polishing machines, TV, Videos, DVD Players, OHP.

 

On the HSE website it says, you class a portable appliance as anything under 18 Kilos that you have to move to use (hoover etc). Things like IT equipment, I am doing on a three year rolling program, because it doesn't move to be used. ANy new equipment that gets bought in gets PAT tested before it goes onto site.

 

Our school has 850 kids on roll, so its not that big a place.

[Sylv3r]

PAT testers from the LEA are currently on site now and have been all last week also. They are here for 7 days and last year they did 2700 tests. Not sure how many they have done up to now here, but a lot of the new ICT equipment which we bought will not be tested so the figure may be less then last year.

 

The teams consists of 5 men and they aim to do a minimum of 70ish tests each per day.

[dezt]

It used to be the LEA that came and did our stuff, but our SBM had a good (sacasticly said) idea to send the site manager on the PAT course.

 

I'm still waiting for the appliances to be tested this year, nothings been done yet, the stickers on the sides of appliances say they must be tested before the end of August 2007.

 

Bit late here then.

 

Does anyone know what action I should be taking, who I should be airing my concerns with? I've spoken to the SBM (my line manager) but nothing has happened and that was 2 weeks ago.

[enjay]

Science Tech does Science, I do the IT, Site Supervisor does everything else. Triggmeister makes a good point about whether PCs are strictly-speaking portable devices anyway - if you need to move it, it's portable; if you need to go near the power supply, it should be tested, but of course neither of these statements apply to PCs.

 

If it is your job to do these, it would be worth getting yourself on a course and finding out how little you actually need to do! A "visual check" after 3 years is all you're legally obliged to do on PCs, and new items are deemed to have passed already. I'm not suggesting that we all just run on the legal minimum (and would hate to use that as a defence if someone got electrocuted), but it is worth knowing...

[plexer]

Ours is out sourced to a firm by the LEA.

 

However anything new coming in over the course of the year after they have been in still gets tested normally by the site manager or me if I'm bored.

 

Ben

[mrforgetful]

Ours is done by an external company.

 

They failed nearly every PC on Visual Inspection because there was damage to the fronts, was covered in a topic ages ago.

[noah]

PAT testers from the LEA are currently on site now and have been all last week also. They are here for 7 days and last year they did 2700 tests. Not sure how many they have done up to now here, but a lot of the new ICT equipment which we bought will not be tested so the figure may be less then last year.

 

The teams consists of 5 men and they aim to do a minimum of 70ish tests each per day.

 

Thank you for all your responses

 

Out of interest do all the appliances get brought to a central location by the school, before testing or do the LEA testers have to get all the kit out of the cuboards etc?

[tech_guy]

Our Senior Science Tech does everything in the school - a herculean task cosidering how much kit there is - about 2000+ appliances. I just hope she's paid decently for doing it all! It's done on a rolling program during the holidays.

 

She has to go digging around in all the nooks and crannies for the bits and bobs although we try and make sure all the IT stuff is readily available and accessable. Staff & laptops are the biggest headache - forgetting to bring them in or getting upset because the power supply has been failed and taken off them because the sellotape holding it together after they broke it or cut through the cable by trapping it isn't very safe!

[timbo343]

We have an IT Technician to do ours. He has also designed his own database as simply pats is rubbish

[noah]

We have an IT Technician to do ours. He has also designed his own database as simply pats is rubbish

 

Hi timbo343,

How many applicances does your school have aprox? Does your ICT Technicain do all the schools PAT? How many Hours does it take him per week?

 

Thanks

 

Noah

[timbo343]

We have loads!! approx 450 machines, and then all the power leads, and monitors. Plus all the printers and extension leads, servers, switchs, APs. But then we have another PAT guy on site who deals with things like portable heaters.

 

He just does it when things need doing. Its part of his job describtion.

[Sylv3r]

Thank you for all your responses

 

Out of interest do all the appliances get brought to a central location by the school, before testing or do the LEA testers have to get all the kit out of the cuboards etc?

 

The LEA team go into the classrooms one by one to test all equipment - it is up the head of department to arrange with their staff in their department to get the equipment out of cupboards etc for it to be tested.

[speckytecky]

I looked into this. Sussed out a course and the kit and was about to enrol for the course and buy the kit. However, when the Admin people checked with the LEA the answer came back that they weren't happy - an insurance issue!

[localzuk]

Our site manager does all our testing - it takes him a couple of weeks, and he is planning to do it after half term this year.

 

IT wise, we don't have that much to check, as nearly all IT equipment is under 5 years old anyway - so visual checks are fine.

[noah]

I looked into this. Sussed out a course and the kit and was about to enrol for the course and buy the kit. However, when the Admin people checked with the LEA the answer came back that they weren't happy - an insurance issue!

 

An insurance issue? Has anybody else had this problem?

 

Again thanks for your replies.

[Guest richard]

I got made to go on a course a few years ago but when I moved schools I conviently lost my certificate Where I am now they have someone come in over the summer break.

[torledo]

Our site manager does all our testing - it takes him a couple of weeks, and he is planning to do it after half term this year.

 

IT wise, we don't have that much to check, as nearly all IT equipment is under 5 years old anyway - so visual checks are fine.

 

Does that mean any piece of IT equipment does not need to be PAT tested if it is less than 5 years old ? Or is it up to each indivdual organisation to decide what they want PAT tested.

 

As for the job of PAT testing itself - it must get very boring very quickly.

[enjay]

Does that mean any piece of IT equipment does not need to be PAT tested if it is less than 5 years old ? Or is it up to each indivdual organisation to decide what they want PAT tested.

That is the law, but apply common sense to that (something which obviously can't be legally defined!). If the item is a something which is rarely never unplugged or moved (PCs, big printers, etc), then a quick visual check will suffice; if it is a laptop or camera which is constantly being plugged in and out, moved around, bashed about and so on, then check it more frequently and carefully.

[mrforgetful]

PAT Testing is a complete load of sh***.

 

Why?

 

Try find some information on it. Actual, solid, documented information.

 

Seems to me if this is a legally binding set of required parameters there should be free, downloadable content online provided by the government.

 

The closest you get are some PAT websites with vague descriptions, especially when it comes to the 'Visual Inspection'.

 

Anyway, hometime so am not looking here til Monday

[Netman]

Does that mean any piece of IT equipment does not need to be PAT tested if it is less than 5 years old ? Or is it up to each indivdual organisation to decide what they want PAT tested.

 

Computer equipment in offices does need a formal visual inspection every two to four years. If it's not double insulated, it needs to be PAT tested every five years - however, none of my kit lasts that long so no - it doesn't need to be tested and isn't. This does only apply to office environments but I find that generally covers most areas of the school. The key is whether the equipment/cables are moved very often.... if they are then you would inspect/test more regularly.

indg236.pdf

[torledo]

Does that mean any piece of IT equipment does not need to be PAT tested if it is less than 5 years old ? Or is it up to each indivdual organisation to decide what they want PAT tested.

 

Computer equipment in offices does need a formal visual inspection every two to four years. If it's not double insulated, it needs to be PAT tested every five years - however, none of my kit lasts that long so no - it doesn't need to be tested and isn't. This does only apply to office environments but I find that generally covers most areas of the school. The key is whether the equipment/cables are moved very often.... if they are then you would inspect/test more regularly.

 

Unfortunately authorities tend to insist on annual checks as part of their H&S policy. Thus spending more money unnecessarily. Not like them is it ?

[mrforgetful]

Every website I've ever looked on about PAT says visual every year and electrical test every 2.

[localzuk]

Does that mean any piece of IT equipment does not need to be PAT tested if it is less than 5 years old ? Or is it up to each indivdual organisation to decide what they want PAT tested.

 

Computer equipment in offices does need a formal visual inspection every two to four years. If it's not double insulated, it needs to be PAT tested every five years - however, none of my kit lasts that long so no - it doesn't need to be tested and isn't. This does only apply to office environments but I find that generally covers most areas of the school. The key is whether the equipment/cables are moved very often.... if they are then you would inspect/test more regularly.

 

Unfortunately authorities tend to insist on annual checks as part of their H&S policy. Thus spending more money unnecessarily. Not like them is it ?

 

Our authority says to only do visual checks every couple of years...