Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Statement for our Clients & Other Stakeholders

General advice about the virus and health precautions can be found at:-

Advice for employers has been issued by ACAS and can be found at:-

Our primary aim is to minimise the effect of the virus by taking steps to prevent the spread and also to plan for the possible disruption to service provision as the situation develops. To help with this we have already implemented certain procedures and changes and we have a series of additional precautionary plans in place which can be implemented as and when required. Naturally we will continue to work on additional measures to ensure continuity of business throughout this period.

A statement has been issued to all staff providing them with advice on the virus, its symptoms and immediate precautionary steps that they need to take. They have been given the current NHS guidance to help prevent the spread of the virus.

We are monitoring the government and NHS guidance on a regular basis and send updates to our team so that they always have the latest data.

We have made sure that hand sanitiser is available for all of our site teams and all of our mobile patrol drivers. 

Our mobile patrol team already carry gloves and masks as standard because of the condition of some buildings which they enter.

All employees have been issued with Avantguard washable masks to be worn according to client site policies and when there is a need to work closer than 2 meters distance from a colleague.

The nature of our business means that many of our staff are trained at multiple sites and their regular role involves working at more than one location. Our mobile patrol drivers visit multiple sites as a standard part of their role and we also have a supervisory and management team who visit all of our frontline team on at least a monthly basis.

We have immediately stopped all non-essential site visits by our management and supervisory team. Our British Standard (7499) states that staff should be subject to regular site welfare visits but under the circumstances, we think that it is acceptable to carry out welfare checks by telephone. We will ensure that we maintain regular communication with the front-line teams and that they have all the necessary welfare equipment which they need, but it will be a telephone assessment unless a visit is deemed absolutely necessary. Stopping our management team from travelling from site to site will help to reduce the possibility of spreading the virus.

We have a series of staff appraisals planned over the next few months but as with the welfare visits, we intend to conduct these over the telephone. This is an unusual practice but under the circumstances a telephone discussion should be sufficient. Staff will be given the opportunity to postpone their appraisals until face-to-face visits are viable again.

We are looking at our current and future roster planning arrangements in an effort to minimise the movement of staff around multiple sites.

Our patrol driving team have to visit multiple sites are part of their duties but the vast majority of their role involves either external site checks, or only involves internal checks when a building is empty. This naturally will reduce their risk of contracting the virus but they have been informed to frequently wash their hands or use hand sanitiser as they start and end each site patrol.

Contingency planning, absence management and disaster recovery planning are fundamental parts of our strategy and form a major integral part of our Business Continuity Plan.

We have a built-in 10% full-time relief capacity. These are officers who are trained across all of our sites to step in and provide cover for members of the core team when necessary.

We also have an additional 12.5% part-time relief capacity. This is made up of officers who currently work on a part-time basis but are available to provide additional cover as and when required, potentially even moving into temporary full-time roles if necessary.

All core administrative services are already cloud based and are tested regularly for remote working as part of our standard Business Continuity Plan. These include essential systems such as roster planning, workflow management (GuardTools) & assignment instructions. Should our admin team need to revert to home-working or self-isolation then all of their core duties can be conducted remotely.

Communication within our business is critical, especially for our alarm response clients so that their ARC can contact us at any time to report an alarm activation. Our telephone systems are automatically set-up to divert to the duty manager or control room in the event that our head office is unable to open. 

Our control room have been undertaking extensive disaster recovering planning and rehearsals to ensure that they remain operational in the event of self-isolation requirements.

Our administrative team have been working from home as much as possible during the last few months and we have ensured that a roster is in place to keep staff levels in the office to a minimum (generally only 2 people).  However, there are some duties which just can't be completed from home and we have re-arranged our offices to allow for the safe working of 4 of the admin team at any time, with the rest working at home.  Hopefully our clients won't have noticed much difference since our cloud IT systems have kept everything flowing very well.

As part of our statement to all of our staff, we have provided information and advice on the latest self-isolation protocols.

It goes without saying that in the event that any of our staff test positive for Coronavirus COVID-19, then we will immediately notify any affected clients. We will follow all procedures and advice provided by the NHS and Health Authorities in such a circumstance. Our cloud based roster system, GuardTools and vehicle tracking systems mean that we can easily identify all sites visited by any staff member in a given period of time so that all necessary information and precautions can be taken.

Naturally, we would expect our clients to keep us informed if any of their staff test positive, having worked at a location where we provide security services.

Under these circumstances we will work with the client to agree an action plan to ensure the security of their building and follow advice regarding the notification of staff who have worked at the location.

We would ask our clients to keep us informed about the advice they have been given by health officials in relation to a positive confirmation.

The most important factor is for us to remain in communication with our staff and with our clients so that everyone is kept up to date and informed but without causing undue panic. We will continue to follow all government guidelines and will work closely with our clients to provide a service that maintains the safety of their building, their staff and also our own employees.

There are many options available to ensure building security is maintained and each solution will be unique to the client’s own building and situation.

Being a local provider means that we have the ability to maintain closer regular communication with our clients and keep a flexible approach to service delivery at all times.

On 26 March 2020, there was an update via the Security Industry Authority website on the status of SIA licensed personnel and the critical work they undertake.

We believe that the security services which we provide to our clients fall into these categories and should West or East Sussex fall into a higher risk category which requires additional 'lockdown' measures then we will follow appropriate guidance at the time but continue to operate unless specifically advised that we are unable to do so.

We have implemented stringent rules on hygiene and social distancing to ensure that the work environments are as safe as possible, including changes to the handover procedures and staggered shift times. We would ask that our clients also ensure that their buildings and work environments are regularly cleaned, especially door handles and commonly touched surfaces.