Suffolk County Council

Suffolk County Council is one of the many councils who have decided to equip their lone working employees with Peoplesafe’s personal safety devices. Suffolk, the East Anglian county has an approximate population of 745,277 and the local council employs 5,373 staff. Each of these employees is distributed into varying roles to administer public services throughout the region.

It’s crucial that the risks faced by employees are considered at all times, especially for those working alone. Organisations are required by law to fulfill a duty of care to all staff and are responsible for employee wellbeing. The key employment sectors at risk identified by the council were those working in health and social care; children and young people’s services, Trading Standards; transport and highways; and the fire and rescue services. These encompass a number of roles, the main being lone workers; staff working with vulnerable people and in customer’s homes; and remote working.

The highways staff employed by the council, face working in highly hazardous areas. These employees can find themselves working on the edge of busy roads, during late hours with no one in close proximity. In some cases, staff also work around potentially dangerous machinery and face working in adverse weather conditions, naturally making them more vulnerable to experiencing an injury.

With this in mind, Suffolk County Council decided to equip these employees with MySOS personal safety alarms. With just a press of the device’s SOS button, an alarm will trigger and be received by Peoplesafe’s very own 24/7 Alarm Receiving Centre. Here, a trained Alarm Controller will listen in and follow bespoke escalation procedures depending on the severity of the situation.

With two-way audio, GPS locating, fall detection as well as a host of other features, the device is fully accredited to the highest industry standard, BS 8484:2022. With this, Peoplesafe has direct access to police control rooms and are able to bypass the 999 system, ensuring for quick response times in an emergency.

Suffolk County Council, decided to opt for roaming SIMs in conjunction with their MySOS devices. These find the strongest signal from the UK’s major mobile networks, so that staff are able to raise an alarm when working in remote areas with limited coverage.

“Peoplesafe’s solution has allowed our staff, particularly lone workers to feel more confident whilst working, which is something we consider really important.
Helen Muddock, Safety, Health & Wellbeing Advisor


With the implementation of MySOS devices, Suffolk Council’s lone working employees can confidently carry out their day-to-day roles knowing that if they were to find themselves in a difficult situation, they have round the clock support.

Working within highways maintenance is fairly hands on, therefore, staff needed a robust solution to meet their needs. The MySOS is designed for ease of use, the workers can attach it to a belt clip, armband, or simply wear the device on a lanyard.

Helen added “having a device does not negate the need for having robust lone worker and personal safety procedures to reduce and control risks, but is certainly an excellent part of the toolkit and is there to ensure staff can summon assistance should it be required.

The deciding factors in choosing Peoplesafe came down to the quality of the devices, the competitive pricing and the service as a whole. We would highly recommend the service to others looking for lone worker protection”.

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