Employees at the London Borough of Enfield can now go about their work safe in the knowledge that help is close at hand should they find themselves at risk.
Using Bold Gemini alarm monitoring software, Enfield Council provides protection for staff working within the Borough, including Social Services workers, with Romad RSP-100 lone worker protection devices from Geonovo. The devices are monitored on the Gemini Locator module which receives GPS co-ordinates, displays the user’s whereabouts on Microsoft Bing online maps and has a “listen in” function for alarm verification. All the personal safety features of the device, such as “man down” alerts and two way audio communication are supported within the Bold software.
Using the device’s SOS button, the lone worker can easily raise an alarm, which is transmitted through to the Gemini alarm monitoring systems at Enfield Public Safety Centre (EPSC), and handled as a high priority event. The control room operator can immediately locate the user on the mapping interface to within 10 metres as well as listening in to the alarm audio clip to determine the cause of the activation.
Located in a secure location in Edmonton, North London, the EPSC is a purpose built combined CCTV control, traffic enforcement and alarm receiving control room for the Borough of Enfield and surrounding areas. Control room operators currently monitor over 260 cameras, 24/7. Metropolitan Police Officers are permanently based on site to collate and analyse evidence of any incidents.
The centre is managed by Alan Gardner who was involved in the original design of the EPSC in 2003 and who has long experience of managing a multi functional, multi client control room, having previously performed a similar same role for Stevenage Borough Council.
Alan commented, “I had been looking at additional ways in which we could capitalise on the superb monitoring facilities we have at the EPSC and lone worker protection seemed to be an obvious choice. The London Borough of Enfield employs so many people who could potentially find themselves in vulnerable situations and the Council of course, regards the safety of its employees to be of paramount importance,” said Alan. “We already had the Bold Gemini monitoring solution which has proved to be the ideal platform, with the Locator module being fully integrated into the core package with full support for the Romad device”.
“One of the really useful and important features of the system, particularly relevant to how our social care staff work, is that one of the pre-allocated speed dial numbers allows lone workers to leave a recorded message when they arrive at an appointment. This message is safely stored on one of our servers and can be quickly retrieved if the user is out of contact or if there is concern for his or her welfare. Users can also be assured that we are able to monitor via an on-screen map display in our control room where they are at anytime during their working day in the event of an alarm event or incident,” said Alan.
Alan intends to offer lone worker protection as a service to other London Borough of Enfield departments employing staff who may be at risk, such as school caretakers, the Community Enforcement Team responding to noise nuisance reports, waste recycling teams and highway officers. “We can also offer this service to other councils who may not have their own alarm receiving centre,” said Alan. The Centre is currently going through its BS 5759 accreditation process following which it is Alan’s ambition is to extend the reach of the EPSC by expanding the lone worker solution and other monitoring services a to commercial and other organisations outside of the council.
Bold Gemini fully supports compliance with the British Standard 8484 Code of Practice for the monitoring of lone workers.
