In April 2025, Martyn’s Law (formally called the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act) received Royal Assent, marking a significant step forward in the UK’s approach to public safety. Named in memory of Martyn Hett, who tragically lost his life in the Manchester Arena attack, the law places new security responsibilities on a wide range of publicly accessible venues; including schools, colleges, early years providers, and further education settings.
With a 24-month preparation window, now is the time for school security to be assessed and measure put in place to ensure they comply.
What Does Martyn’s Law Require of Schools?
Unlike large arenas and stadiums, schools are covered under the standard tier of Martyn’s Law. That means the expectations are proportionate, but they are still significant. Every school will need to appoint a “responsible person” to oversee security planning and compliance, who will carry out regular risk assessments to identify vulnerabilities and plan responses to threats.
The responsible person will be required to prepare security procedures including, but not limited to:
- Evacuation planning for moving people safely out of buildings.
- Invacuation planning to bring students and staff into secure areas during an external threat.
- Lockdown procedures to restrict access and movement across the site.
- Communication processes to ensure timely alerts and instructions.
- Training staff and testing procedures to ensure plans are practical and effective.
In short, schools must be able to secure their sites quickly and effectively should a threat arise.
Why Access Solutions Are Central To Compliance
While Martyn’s Law doesn’t mandate specific technologies, it does require schools to act “so far as is reasonably practicable” to reduce risks. That’s where automatic access solutions can play a crucial part in keeping your school, college, early years, or further education facility, secure.
Lockdown and Site Security
During a lockdown, the speed at which a site can be secured often determines how effective the response will be. Relying on manual locks means staff must physically move to each door, something that wastes valuable time and can put individuals at risk. Automatic doors remove this vulnerability by locking instantly when triggered, sealing access points in a matter of seconds, and reducing opportunities for unauthorised entry.
In educational settings, where multiple entrances and exits are common, automation ensures consistency across the site. A single command can secure every main access point at once, preventing confusion and eliminating the chance that one door is overlooked. This capability is at the heart of Martyn’s Law’s emphasis on proportionate but reliable safety measures.
Controlled Ingress During Normal Hours
A school is a busy environment, with staff, pupils, contractors, and visitors moving through daily. Without the right systems in place, distinguishing between authorised and unauthorised individuals can be difficult. Access control panels for schools, whether a keypad, swipe card or fob, provide a practical way of ensuring only the right people can enter secure areas.
By setting permissions, schools can tailor access to different groups. For example, teaching staff may have unrestricted access to classrooms and common areas, while contractors or visitors are limited to specific zones. This reduces the risk of someone wandering unsupervised into sensitive areas and supports safer day-to-day operations in line with compliance requirements.
Perimeter Protection
Threat management doesn’t start at the front door, it begins at the site perimeter. Controlling who can drive onto school grounds is essential, especially during an emergency. Car park barriers act as the first line of defence, ensuring that only authorised vehicles are able to pass through. This prevents opportunistic entry and keeps potential threats at a safe distance from buildings.
Barriers are also useful in day-to-day operations. They can be scheduled to remain down during school hours, opened only for staff or deliveries, or integrated into a wider access control systems. For schools located near busy roads or open spaces, this additional layer of protection is a simple but effective way of aligning with Martyn’s Law’s expectation for proportionate site security.
Securing Vulnerable Entry Points
Not every access point is obvious. Staff-only entrances, plant rooms, storage facilities, and side doors can often be overlooked, yet they present significant vulnerabilities if not secured correctly. A roller shutter installation company can offer an effective solution by physically reinforcing these entry points, making them far harder to force open or exploit.
For schools, shutters also serve a dual purpose: protecting against both security threats and vandalism. By deploying shutters on less-frequented entrances, institutions can not only enhance compliance but also reduce repair costs and maintain site integrity. When combined with automatic locking doors at main entrances, shutters create a layered defence that strengthens a school’s overall security.
Integrated Response
Perhaps the most useful aspect of modern site access solutions is their ability to work together. In a crisis, staff should not be expected to operate multiple systems manually. An integrated response ensures that, with one action, whether pressing a lockdown button or activating an alarm, every connected system reacts simultaneously.
In practice, this means automatic doors lock, car park barriers lower, and roller shutters close, all within moments. Integration reduces human error, accelerates response times, and creates a seamless security framework across the entire school site. It transforms separate pieces of equipment into a unified protective system, which is exactly the kind of joined-up planning Martyn’s Law encourages.
Practical Steps Schools Should Take Now
While Martyn’s Law has received Royal Assent, it will not come into force immediately. There will be an implementation period of 24 months, meaning that it is expected to become fully effective in 2027. To prepare for this, there are a number of actions schools can take immediately to get themselves ready.
Audit Your Site
The first step in preparing for Martyn’s Law is to conduct a full audit of your premises. This means walking the site and creating a clear inventory of every access point, from main entrances and fire exits, to side doors, service areas, and perimeter gates. Many schools underestimate just how many potential entry points exist, which can leave blind spots in their security planning.
A comprehensive audit provides the foundation for everything that follows. Once you know where people and vehicles can enter or exit, you can begin to assess which points are adequately secured, which are vulnerable, and which require upgrades. It also helps to map pedestrian and traffic flows, so you understand how staff, pupils, parents, and visitors move through the site on a daily basis.
Assess Vulnerabilities
With your audit complete, the next step is to evaluate the level of risk at each access point. Manual doors, for example, may be sufficient under normal circumstances, but they are difficult to secure quickly during a lockdown. Similarly, an unmanned side gate or an open delivery entrance could pose a significant vulnerability if left unchecked.
Assessing vulnerabilities is not just about physical access. It’s also about human behaviour. Consider how staff, students, and visitors interact with your site. Are there areas where people routinely bypass controls? Are visitors regularly let in without checks? Identifying these weak spots early allows you to put proportionate measures in place before they become liabilities under the new law.
Plan for Integration
Schools often install security measures; such as roller shutters on the windows, barriers at the car park entrance, and automatic doors to access the main building, in isolation. While each system has value, their true strength lies in integration. A joined-up approach ensures that when a lockdown is triggered, all systems respond at once, creating a coordinated and effective defence.
Integration doesn’t always require ripping out existing infrastructure. Modern control panels and software can link different devices together, so automatic doors, barriers, shutters, and alarms work in synchronisation. By planning for integration now, schools can avoid duplication of effort and cost later, while also ensuring their systems align with Martyn’s Law requirements for a single, cohesive security procedure.
Prioritise Upgrades
Budgets in education are often stretched, which makes prioritisation essential. Rather than attempting to upgrade everything at once, schools should focus first on the highest-risk areas, usually main entrances, reception areas, and high-traffic corridors. These are the points most likely to be used by both legitimate visitors and potential threats, so securing them delivers the greatest impact.
Once the critical areas are addressed, attention can shift to secondary access points such as side doors, staff entrances, and service areas. A phased approach allows schools to spread costs, demonstrate progress towards compliance, and make improvements in a manageable, structured way. It also means that even before the 24-month deadline, schools will have stronger protections in place at the most important locations.
Test and Train
Installing new systems is only half the job. The other half is ensuring staff know how to use them. Regular testing and drills are vital to confirm that access solutions respond correctly under different scenarios, and to familiarise staff with lockdown, evacuation, and invacuation procedures. A door that locks automatically is only effective if staff know what that means for moving students to safety.
Training doesn’t need to be complicated or overly time-consuming. Simple, practical sessions where staff rehearse what to do in the event of an alert can make a huge difference. Equally, involving students in age-appropriate drills helps reduce panic during real incidents. By combining technical testing with human training, schools can be confident that both systems and people will work together in an emergency.
Maintain Resilience
Finally, no security system is effective without ongoing maintenance. Automatic doors, barriers, shutters, and access panels all require regular servicing to ensure they function reliably. In an emergency, the last thing you want is a faulty mechanism that fails to lock or a barrier that won’t lower. Scheduling planned maintenance not only keeps systems in working order but also provides a clear compliance record.
Resilience also means preparing for the unexpected. Power cuts, equipment malfunctions, or network issues should not render a school defenceless. Battery backups, manual overrides, and redundancy built into the system help ensure that, even if one element fails, the overall security plan remains intact. This approach aligns directly with Martyn’s Law’s requirement for measures to be “reasonably practicable” and sustainable in real-world conditions.
Implementing Martyn’s Law With Confidence
Martyn’s Law represents a major shift in how schools and colleges are expected to approach security. While the law does not prescribe specific technologies, it makes one thing clear: educational settings must be able to secure their premises quickly, proportionately, and effectively. Automatic access solutions, from doors and shutters to barriers and control panels, provide the tools schools need to meet these obligations and protect staff and students.
Every site is different, and every school faces unique challenges. That’s why the most effective approach is a tailored one. Starting with a professional assessment of your premises and working towards a phased, integrated plan. By acting now, schools can not only prepare for the upcoming compliance deadlines but also give parents, staff, and the wider community the reassurance that safety is being taken seriously.
We specialise in designing, installing, and maintaining automatic doors, car park barriers, access control systems, and roller shutters for educational environments. Our team understands both the practical and regulatory requirements schools face, and we work closely with you to create solutions that are reliable, cost-effective, and fully aligned with Martyn’s Law.
Contact us today to arrange a site survey or consultation where one of our fully-trained engineers will help advise you on implementing Martyn’s Law in your school.