Royal Mencap Society

Mencap, the leading UK charity that fights for the rights of people with a learning disability, has purchased 3000 x licenses for LookOut call, an automated safety service for lone workers.

The service will be used initially by community based support staff in the charity’s Housing and Support Services. Their roles vary greatly and include visiting people with a learning disability in their own homes and supporting them to become more independent.

The Housing and Support Services section employs approximately 6000 staff. Over the forthcoming months Mencap will make the service available to other parts across the organisation across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Mencap is the first non-profit making organisation of its type to deploy an automated lone worker safety system.

The charity carried out an initial risk assessment for its lone workers and it became apparent that existing, manual lone worker procedures were not enough on their own and standard lines of support such as managers were not considered a sufficiently secure way of ensuring staff safety in an emergency. They decided to investigate some of the different technology-based systems available, and invited several organisations to present their solutions.

LookOut call was finally chosen because of its unique features such as “Watch me”, and because of its affordable price, which is essential to a charity such as Mencap.

 Says Steve Baker, Assistant Director for Mencap: “The safety and well being of our staff is important to Mencap and we were really pleased that Lookout call was able to provide an affordable option.”

The charity is also keen to work with Lookout call to investigate the possibility of modifying the system so it can be used by service users to help boost their confidence and encourage them to become more independent.

Steve Baker continues. “Sometimes making a trip into town can be very daunting for a person with a learning disability. We are constantly supporting people with these types of issues to develop their skills and become more independent in the community. LookOut call could potentially play an important role in helping people with a learning disability to achieve this by providing them with an instant link to support staff if they needed it.”