Laurea Develops Safety Management for Schools and Daycare Centres in Lempäälä

Laurea University of Applied Sciences and the Municipality of Lempäälä are jointly developing the safety management of the municipality’s schools and daycare centres. During the year‑long training programme, the municipality’s school and food service staff will receive tools to promote everyday safety in schools and to standardise operating procedures.

Towards an Even Safer Everyday Life for Pupils, Staff and Families

The obligations and responsibilities related to school safety and risk management are based on legislation governing education providers. Schools must ensure that pupils and staff can learn and work in a safe and well‑being‑oriented environment.

Laurea is one of Finland’s leading developers of safety expertise. At Laurea, safety is viewed holistically as part of sustainable and humane everyday life across various organisations and sectors of society.

Nina Lehtinen, Director of Education in the Municipality of Lempäälä, considers the cooperation with Laurea important for ensuring a safe everyday environment for school staff and pupils.

“I believe that by involving the entire school community, we can build a strong and sustainable safety culture. Clear operating models, regular drills and systematic planning, as well as strengthening the competence of staff and pupils, create a safer everyday life,” Lehtinen says.

In many Finnish comprehensive schools, safety management is still quite fragmented, and practices vary between schools within the same municipality. Lempäälä has already done commendable work in safety, but the goal of Laurea’s training is to create even more unified procedures for schools and daycare centres.

“Consistency also brings clarity and reassurance to families. When children from the same family attend different schools in the municipality, guardians can still be confident that each school operates in the same way,” says Soili Martikainen, Laurea’s expert in safety management and risk management and the programme’s lead instructor.

The Role of Threat Identification in Society Continues to Grow

Developing safety competence is essential, as preparedness has become increasingly important in society.

To promote comprehensive safety in Lempäälä’s schools and daycare centres, the training includes the creation of an annual safety management cycle. This cycle structures and schedules safety‑related work systematically. It brings together key safety tasks, inspections and updates. These include fire safety drills, anti‑bullying themes and procedures related to sheltering indoors.

In Lempäälä’s safety management training, safety is approached from a risk‑based perspective. This helps identify what kinds of threats or weaknesses may exist in the basic safety of the workplace and how these areas can be strengthened.

“We must be able to prepare for different situations and recover from them as quickly as possible. If we do not practise and plan, we cannot act correctly in disruptive situations. It is every citizen’s responsibility to improve their own preparedness,” Martikainen says.