Overview
Leeds City Council (Leeds) is England’s second-largest metropolitan local authority. Within it’s Regeneration division Leeds operates a neighbourhood Warden (NW) Service currently comprising of 47 wardens. Acknowledging their responsibilities under H&S legislation and duty of care and by identifying and understanding specific risks encountered by its Wardens as lone workers; Leeds investigated a range of safety systems before deciding upon solutions provided by Argyll (Argyll) for the NW service.

Leeds’ NWs play a key role in community development and maintain a visible public presence. Due to the nature of their work, which requires them to deal face-to-face with members of the public on a daily basis, they were identified specifically as being exposed to higher risk. As with all public-facing workers, they are at risk of confrontation – which can escalate to either verbal or physical abuse.

Following risk assessments, Leeds 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 NW’s at all times.

The Solution
Utilising 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 NW can be pinpointed to accuracies of within 100 metres and displayed on any device or PC supporting a web browser.

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

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

Fundamentally, should an NW 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.

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