Carmarthenshire County Council case study

The need
Carmarthenshire County Council (Carmarthenshire) employs over 9,000 personnel throughout rural areas of Wales. Acknowledging their responsibilities under H&S legislation and duty of care and by identifying and understanding specific risks encountered by its lone workers; Carmarthenshire investigated a range of safety systems before deciding upon solutions provided by Argyll (Argyll).

Carmarthenshire’s Parking Attendants (PA’s) were identified specifically as being exposed to higher risk since they operate throughout the county and are required to liaise face-to-face with members of the public on a daily basis. As with all public-facing workers, they are at risk of confrontation – which can escalate to either verbal or physical abuse. Following risk assessments, Carmarthenshire identified a need to establish effective time and risk management that catered for out of hours scenarios. They also required management to be provided with
knowledge of the safety and whereabouts of its PA’s at all times.

The solution
Utilising GPS enabled mobile phone handsets plus Seeker, Argyll’s sophisticated location monitoring platform, the council management has access to highly detailed, street level mapping accessible through a convenient and secure web interface. The position of every PA can be pinpointed to accuracies of within 10 metres and displayed on any device or PC supporting a web browser.

Additionally, Carmarthenshire have deployed CommuniCare Argyll’s sophisticated lone worker software and contracted with Argyll’s integrated Control Room to manage and monitor the PA’s location and time at risk and provide them with an effective duress facility 24/7.

How it works
PA’s are provided with a facility to notify Argyll while they are out ‘on-shift’ and at risk. Time based reminders ensure that PA’s interact periodically and notify Argyll that all is well. However, should a PA encounter difficulties and miss a reminder the Argyll control room will follow up, thus ensuring their personal safety.

Fundamentally, should a PA experience jeopardy, they are a single button-press away from summoning assistance - quickly and discreetly. Using a preconfigured button on their mobile phone they can issue a duress signal which instantly alerts Argyll’s 24/7 manned control room and simultaneously opens a voice channel enabling Operators to listen in. Trained Operators then put into effect an agreed incident management procedure and, if required, use existing links with the Police to ensure a swift response. Sophisticated voice recording ensures that every incident is captured and can be produced in evidence if required.

Why Argyll
Carmarthenshire County Council is just one of many Local Authorities to have chosen Argyll because of their experience, expertise, flexibility and range of services and devices. Current clients include Liverpool City Council, London Borough of Enfield and Glasgow City Council.

Argyll operates at the forefront of mobile technology and software and works in partnership with a number of high profile organisations including mobile operators and device manufacturers. The company continually invests in failsafe and uninterruptible IT systems and operates an integrated control room.

Argyll provides the best technical means of minimising risk and monitoring personal safety. Its services aid compliance with current Health & Safety legislation, can be customised to your organisational requirements and are compatible with client’s existing handsets, PDA, BlackBerry®, or any of Argyll’s range of purpose-made lone worker devices.

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