Runshaw College
At a glance — key results
Installations completed in 5–10 minutes, down from 45–50 minutes per camera (≈90% faster).
Investigations reduced to under 30 minutes, previously taking hours.
Three legacy providers consolidated into one unified platform.
Lower long-term costs with hybrid cloud storage and a 10-year hardware warranty.
Improved safeguarding visibility supported by higher-quality footage and AI-powered search.
Background
Runshaw College is a higher and further education provider in Leyland, Lancashire, serving more than 5,000 students across a 12-building campus. Offering A Levels, vocational programmes, and specialist pathways, the College is committed to delivering an exceptional learning environment.
As the campus expanded, its traditional CCTV system struggled to keep pace. Reliability issues, limited storage, and slow, manual investigations became increasingly common. Managing multiple separate tools added further complexity, signalling the need for a more modern and effective approach to safeguarding.
Overseeing this estate was Alex Harding, Head of IT Services, who was responsible for ensuring the College’s technology and security systems could support the growing operational demands of a busy campus.
The challenge
Over time, Runshaw’s security estate developed into a fragmented mix of technologies:
Cameras from three different providers
A standalone access control system
An on-premise NVR recorder frequently running out of storage
This patchwork created daily friction. The team faced hardware failures outside warranty, installations that took 30–45 minutes per device, and reduced video quality as well as motion sensor sensitivity to preserve storage. Investigations often stalled — or were abandoned entirely — due to the process being too complicated and time consuming. These limitations became especially clear during urgent safeguarding reviews.
Alex Harding sums up the turning point: “It was about reducing complexity, improving how we reviewed incidents, and making sure we were getting real value.”
Why Verkada
While evaluating alternatives, Alex attended VerkadaOne in London. Seeing the platform in action — and speaking with a neighbouring council already using it — highlighted how a unified, cloud-managed ecosystem could resolve many of the issues Runshaw faced.
“When I came to the event, I realised it’s not just cameras. There’s a full ecosystem.”
The solutions
Following a successful 30-day trial, Runshaw adopted Verkada across video security, Guest, Mailroom, privacy controls, and Command — consolidating everything into a single platform.
“It’s a very well integrated suite of tools, and that’s what we like.”
Video Security: Runshaw deployed cameras across perimeters, entrances, corridors, and specialist areas where high-value equipment is housed – such as the eSports hub. Footage is stored both on-device and in the cloud, providing dependable, high-quality archives for safeguarding reviews. The simple, plug-and-play hardware design enabled Alex’s team to install internal cameras in 5–10 minutes, dramatically accelerating rollout.
Guest Management: The caretaking team uses Verkada Guest to check in and monitor contractors, maintaining visibility over who is on site at any given time. Timestamped logs make it easy to verify visits and coordinate activity across multiple buildings.
Mailroom: Verkada Mailroom streamlines parcel handling with automatic notifications and clear scan histories. This gives staff a simple way to track deliveries, trace items, and manage parcel flow across the estate.
Privacy & GDPR: To support GDPR requirements, Runshaw uses Live Face Blur, which helps protect privacy while maintaining visibility.
Verkada Command: All devices and activity feed into Verkada Command, the cloud-based hub for Runshaw’s security operation. The platform gives the IT team a real-time view of footage, alerts, and system health — accessible via browser or mobile — allowing issues to be identified and resolved quickly without being onsite.
Runshaw College partnered with Phoenix when purchasing Verkada. With over 30 years experience working with the education sector, the Phoenix team was able to assist in providing advice and guidance on public sector compliant procurement routes for the college. This helped ensure a smooth and accelerated procurement process, while meeting the college’s financial and compliance objectives.
The benefits
Faster, more confident investigations
With AI-powered search, staff can locate people or events by typing natural-language descriptions — such as “person in a red jacket”. Verkada’s models analyse colour, shape, motion, and context to deliver highly relevant matches.
As a result, investigations that once took hours now take under 30 minutes, giving safeguarding teams rapid clarity.
Improved safeguarding response
With Verkada, staff can reconstruct activity across the campus in seconds using a unified, map-based timeline. This gives safeguarding teams immediate clarity during reviews that previously required stitching together footage from multiple systems.
The platform also simplifies follow-up: incident reports can be generated and shared securely in just a few clicks. And with Person of Interest Alerts POI and Automatic Number Place Recognition alerts, staff are notified instantly when individuals or vehicles of interest reappear, supporting timely and well-informed responses.
A single, unified platform
By consolidating three legacy systems into Verkada Command, Runshaw now has consistent visibility across all sites. Video footage can be paired with related access events — such as contractor check-ins — providing full investigative context in one place.
Rapid, scalable installations
With Verkada’s hardware innovations, 24/7 global support, and warranties of up to 10 years, Runshaw’s installation and maintenance workload has significantly decreased. The team can now expand or adjust coverage with minimal disruption.
Lower total cost of ownership
Verkada’s hybrid cloud architecture eliminates the need for on-site servers and ongoing maintenance.
Runshaw benefits from:
No local NVRs or servers
Automated updates at no additional cost
A reduced hardware footprint
Minimal downtime through automated monitoring
This allows the IT team to focus on strategic improvements rather than backend upkeep.
Simplified compliance and monitoring
Automatic camera-status alerts help Runshaw maintain insurance and safeguarding compliance without manual checks. Command centralises health monitoring across devices — notifying staff of tamper events, wiring issues, offline devices, or environmental risks.
With AI-powered alerts, staff can also create notifications using natural language, helping them stay proactive when important behaviours or individuals reappear.
Looking ahead
Encouraged by the results, Runshaw plans to secure its new science building with Verkada cameras and Verkada Access Control, further advancing toward a fully unified, end-to-end security model.
“It’s so intuitive. We could immediately see all the benefits.”
With a growing estate and evolving safeguarding requirements, Alex and his team now have a modern platform that simplifies daily management while strengthening visibility, responsiveness, and confidence across the campus.