Client: A North West multi-academy trust — estates & facilities team
Quick take
A North West multi-academy trust had no consistent way of dealing with graffiti across its schools. Caretakers were finding inappropriate content at 7am with no one to call, and each school was sourcing its own contractor at its own price. No Graffiti Ltd introduced a single trust-wide arrangement with DBS-checked operatives, a before-school response for anything inappropriate, and dated photographs supplied for safeguarding records. Repeat-target walls were coated, and the trust gained one rate card and one point of contact across every site.
Graffiti at a school is not a maintenance issue in the way it is anywhere else. Content that is racist, sexual, threatening or names a pupil becomes a safeguarding matter the moment it appears, and the expectation on the school is to deal with it immediately — not to add it to a list. The practical difficulty is that it is almost always discovered by a caretaker at seven in the morning, an hour before several hundred children arrive.
This case study looks at how a North West multi-academy trust replaced a scatter of individual arrangements with one trust-wide service built around that reality. Names and exact figures have been kept general to respect client confidentiality, but the approach and results are representative of the work No Graffiti Ltd delivers for schools and academy trusts across Manchester and the North West.
About the client
The client is a multi-academy trust running several primary and secondary schools across Greater Manchester and Cheshire. A small central estates and facilities team supports site managers and caretakers at each school, covering everything from statutory compliance to grounds maintenance on limited budgets.
Like most trusts, the central team sets the standard but the day-to-day reality sits with the person on site — which is exactly where the inconsistency was creeping in.
The challenge
Key pain points
Before the trust-wide arrangement, each school dealt with graffiti in whatever way its site manager could arrange. That produced a familiar set of problems:
- Nobody to call at 7am. Inappropriate content found before school meant a scramble — a local contractor who might come that week, or a caretaker attempting it themselves with whatever was in the store.
- Safeguarding content left visible. On more than one occasion graffiti naming a pupil stayed up through a school day, which caused real distress and generated parent complaints.
- Contractors on site during lessons. Where work did get booked, it often happened mid-morning, putting unvetted contractors into a live school environment.
- No evidence trail. Incidents were dealt with but rarely photographed, so safeguarding logs and governor reports relied on recollection.
- Wildly inconsistent pricing. The same job cost very different amounts at different schools, and the central team had no way to compare or budget.
The impact of the problem
The trust was carrying reputational and safeguarding risk it could not see. Parents were forming a view about how seriously each school took offensive content, and that view was being set by how fast a caretaker happened to find someone. Meanwhile the same handful of walls and bin stores were being targeted repeatedly at two schools in particular, with the cost absorbed quietly into site budgets and never surfacing centrally.
The solution
Why they chose No Graffiti
The trust wanted one arrangement covering every school. No Graffiti Ltd was selected on four points:
- DBS-checked operatives as standard. Non-negotiable for school sites, and something the trust had not been able to guarantee with ad-hoc local contractors.
- A genuine before-school response. Vans based in Macclesfield covering Greater Manchester and Cheshire East, so a 7am call could realistically be dealt with before the gates opened.
- Photographic evidence as routine. Dated before-and-after images supplied without being asked, ready for the safeguarding log and governor reporting.
- One rate card across the trust. The same job priced the same way at every school, so the central team could budget and compare.
Implementation: team & resources
The arrangement was introduced over a single term, deliberately starting with the schools carrying the most risk.
Phase 1 — Site walk-rounds (weeks 1–2)
We visited each school with the site manager, logging existing graffiti, identifying the walls, bin stores and outbuildings that were being repeatedly targeted, and agreeing access arrangements — where operatives would park, which gate they would use and who held the key for an early start.
Phase 2 — Before-school response (ongoing)
A single reporting route was set up for all schools. A caretaker photographs the graffiti, sends it with the school name, and anything inappropriate is treated as urgent for attendance before the gates open. Everything else is scheduled for an early morning, a weekend or a holiday period. Contractor presence during the school day dropped to nothing.
Phase 3 — Protecting the hotspots (holidays)
During the summer break we treated the repeat-target surfaces at the two worst-affected schools with anti-graffiti coatings, and deep-cleaned playground surfacing and paths where moss had built up into a genuine slip risk. Doing this in the holidays meant no disruption and no drying-time constraints.
The results
The headline change was timing — inappropriate content now goes before pupils see it. But the trust valued the evidence trail and the pricing consistency almost as highly, because both were things the central team could actually manage.
| Measure | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Response to inappropriate content | Same week, sometimes visible for a day | Before 8am |
| Operative vetting | Varied by school | DBS-checked as standard |
| Contractor visits during school hours | Routine | None |
| Safeguarding evidence | Rarely photographed | Dated photos supplied every time |
| Pricing | Different at every school | One trust-wide rate card |
Where graffiti names a pupil or is hate-related, photograph it for the safeguarding log — and any police report — before it is removed. Once it is gone, it is gone.
Client testimonial
“The difference is that our site managers now know exactly what to do at seven in the morning. They send a photo, it gets dealt with before the children arrive, and I get the evidence for the file without chasing anyone. It has taken a genuine worry off all of us.”
Lessons learned & key takeaways
Three key insights
- Timing is the whole service. On a school site, removal at 4pm and removal at 7am are different products — only one of them prevents the harm.
- Photograph before removing. Safeguarding logs, governor reports and police referrals all need the evidence, and there is no second chance once the wall is clean.
- Use the holidays. Coatings and deep cleans are far easier, cheaper and less disruptive when nobody is on site.
Advice for others
- Do insist on DBS-checked operatives, and ask to see the paperwork rather than taking it on trust.
- Do set one arrangement across a trust — inconsistent pricing between schools is almost always a sign nobody is comparing.
- Don't let a caretaker tackle it with a pressure washer. Playground surfacing and soft brick damage easily, and the repair costs far more than the clean.
Book graffiti removal for your school or trust
Need graffiti gone before the gates open?
We work with schools and academy trusts across Manchester and the North West — DBS-checked operatives, out-of-hours attendance and photographic evidence for your safeguarding records. Tell us about your sites and we'll put an arrangement together.
Frequently asked questions
Are your operatives DBS checked?
Yes — DBS-checked operatives are available as standard for school sites, and we would expect any trust to ask for evidence of it. Where work is scheduled outside operating hours, which is what we normally recommend, pupil contact is avoided entirely.
Can you attend before school starts?
Yes. Early-morning attendance is the most common arrangement and the right one for anything inappropriate — the graffiti is gone before pupils and parents arrive. We also work weekends and school holidays for larger jobs like playground cleaning or applying coatings.
Do you provide evidence for safeguarding records?
Yes. Dated before-and-after photographs are supplied as standard. Schools routinely keep them as a record of the response for safeguarding logs, governor reporting and, where relevant, police liaison.
Can one arrangement cover every school in our trust?
Yes, and it is usually the main reason trusts come to us. One rate card, one reporting route and one point of contact means the standard does not vary by site, and central reporting shows which schools are generating repeat incidents.
