Sutton and East Surrey Water

Sutton and East Surrey Water has entrusted Peoplesafe with protecting their lone working meter readers, inspectors and water samplers, thus enhancing their safety whilst carrying out their duties.

Providing water to over 282,000 homes across east Surrey as well as parts of South London, West Sussex, and Kent, Sutton and East Surrey Water covers a wide area, much of it rural.

With water samplers and inspectors often working alone, they can be vulnerable to slips, trips, and falls. Should an unfortunate incident or accident occur, having no immediate help at hand can leave the worker vulnerable to a worsening and critical situation. Sutton and East Surrey Water decided that a suitable, flexible, yet cost-effective lone worker solution was needed to ensure the safety of their staff.

It was also agreed that lone working customer liaison officers, who regularly enter customers’ homes alone, should also be afforded the same level of backup and response, thus providing them with an essential means of communication in the event of an incident – such as a physical assault.

Sutton and East Surrey Water understands that protecting their employees, whether they work alone or not, is paramount to providing them with a safe and secure environment in which to operate. The failure to ignore the Duty of Care to employees can lead to business-crippling fines, court orders and even custodial sentences for serious cases of neglect.

Before committing to equipping their staff with a means of protection, Sutton and East Surrey Water took advantage of Peoplesafe’s free trial. A sample of end-users tested whether the MySOS personal protection device was suitable for their use. The verdict? A thumbs up!

As Karl Reid, Health, Safety and Security Manager for Sutton and East Surrey Water states, “the staff that carried out the trial have said the MySOS personal safety device was easy to use and very effective.”

The MySOS is a keyfob-sized, state-of-the-art personal alarm that enables the user to raise an alarm at the touch of a button. As soon as the alarm is raised, Alarm Controllers at Peoplesafe’s fully accredited Alarm Receiving Centre know who is calling, their exact GPS location, and can listen in via the two-way audio functionality of the MySOS to find out what is happening.

All alarm data and calls are recorded for evidential purposes and appropriate response is handled accordingly. Should it be required, Alarm Controllers will summon the relevant emergency response, bypassing the 999 system if deemed necessary to ensure a timely resolution.

Should a user slip, trip or fall and be unable to manually raise the alarm, a fall detection sensor within the device will activate the alarm and Peoplesafe will be immediately alerted to a potential problem – vital for those working in conditions that might expose them to such hazards.

All reports and incidents can be viewed via Peoplesafe’s secure online portal, allowing client administrators full control over the service’s users, devices, reports and activity. All changes via the web-based platform are made in real-time and include the option to switch or even pool devices between users.

Karl also spoke highly in regards to Peoplesafe’s continued support throughout setting up their contract.

“The response from the aftersales team, whether it be Customer Support or the Technical Team has always been very polite, efficient and timely. As an administrator for the service, the Customer Support team have been invaluable.”