Soloprotect service receives the thumbs up from Community Gateway Frontline staff
 Faced with the problem that its 74 frontline personnel were reluctant to use the bulky lone worker safety devices allocated to them, Community Gateway Association, a community housing association in Preston, looked for an alternative solution which their staff could deploy without having to carry around an extra piece of equipment. The solution came with Identicom, the award-winning and ACPO accredited lone worker device from Connexion2, which looks like a normal ID badge and can be worn either around the neck on a lanyard or with a lapel clip.
Purchased as part of SoloProtect, the best of breed protection services includes the market leading Identicom lone worker device with a 24/7 manned monitoring service accredited to the highest UK standard, BS5979 Cat II. SoloProtect provides end user training, which has been delivered to thousands of lone workers.
The Community Gateway Association is a not-for-profit community business set up to meet the housing needs of people in Preston and the surrounding area. The housing association has around 6,000 high quality homes for people in need.
SoloProtect has supplied 74 Identicom lone worker devices to Community Gateway personnel whose roles encompass Neighbourhood Officers; Rental Recovery Officers; Community Assistance Officers; Customer Liaison Officers; Support Line Response Officers and other frontline staff. Measuring 102x72x14mm and weighing just 68 grams, Identicom‘s innovative technology is all contained unobtrusively within the unit. When an employee is entering a new lone working situation, they use the device to leave an amber alert message (a short voice message facility); this provides important location information to SoloProtect’s Alarm Receiving Centre (ARC) in the event of a red alert. If a red alert is activated the ARC’s support staff can discreetly listen in to what is happening and make an assessment as to the level of support required– involving the police if necessary and verifying the user’s location through the amber alert and location positioning technology. In the event of a verbal confrontation the ARC can also record the conversation for future action.
“From time to time our staff do face instances of aggression and we need to ensure they have a means of raising an alarm if they are faced with a potentially hazardous situation”, said Leigh Bentley, Facilities Manager at Community Gateway. “We like the functionality of Identicom as it is simple to operate, very user friendly and provides a win, win, win situation for the organisation, workers and their families”.
Last year Community Gateway participated in the BBC 1 TV reality “Neighbourhood Watched”, which highlighted the good work undertaken by the housing association’s frontline staff in dealing with problem families, abuse and fly tipping. The programme showed officers dealing with extraordinary and difficult situations with incredible calm determination and perseverance.
Connexion2 was formed in 2003 and specialise in lone worker security. Passionate about raising the profile of safe lone working, the company focuses on improving the safety and productivity of lone workers through understanding the needs of an employee, employer and other stakeholders such as the police. Connexion2 is approved through audit against sections 4, 5 and 6 of BS8484 – the British Standard for Lone Worker Device Services. Connexion2 supplies product indirectly through a network of authorised channel partners who range from lone worker service providers, security companies and systems integrators. The Identicom lone worker device (LWD) manufactured by Connexion2 is an Identity card holder containing mobile phone technology for use by a lone worker facing risk of verbal abuse, attack or a ‘man-down’ situation. Identicom is easy to wear, discreet to use and always close at hand for the lone worker. Identicom is the only Lone Worker Device to attain Police endorsement through ACPO’s ‘Secured by Design’ status.
www.connexion2.com
JULY 2010
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