Scotscare

Scotscare, a charity dedicated to helping Scottish citizens living in London is  successfully deploying LookOut call, an automated safety system to help protect all its out reach staff that work throughout the city.

The charity is more than 400 years old and its origins can be traced back to 1603, when James V1 of Scotland took over the English throne. Scottish noblemen followed their King south hoping to seek their fortunes. Over time they established what became known as the “Scotch Box”. Rich merchants made donations to the giant money box and these funds were used to help those less fortunate than themselves. Its funding was used during the Great Fire of London and the Plague and has also influenced the development of some of London’s earliest hospitals and workhouses.

Scotscare provides help to first and second generation Scots living within a 35-mile radius of Charing Cross station. It offers financial assistance and support to people who are out of work, to families on a low income, to students, the elderly and the disabled. The Charity also assists with accommodation and has a number of properties available for young working people and the elderly who cannot afford London property prices.

Scotscare does not offer financial help to the homeless directly, but does help them to find temporary accommodation. They have three hostels for the homeless, located in Lewisham, Barnet and Whetstone.

The organisation originally ran a “visitor system” for carrying out client assessments, but in 2005 policies were reviewed and all assessments were carried out at their premises in Covent Garden. In 2007 the client assessment process was reviewed again and the charity decided to operate an outreach system for assessments of the elderly and young families.

Part of the restructure involved a complete review of the organisation’s health and safety policy, and the decision to adopt LookOut call was a part of this process. The use of LookOut call has now been integrated into Scotscare’s overall health and safety policy and is used by all outreach staff.

Comments Shona Keenan, Managing Director for the Trust: “Our outreach teams have to travel to some of London’s poorest suburbs so they were really pleased that our policy on lone working was revised. It is now compulsory for all outreach staff to use the system if they are visiting a client. LookOut call is excellent value for money and I was ready to place an order as soon as I had seen a demonstration.”