StaySafe BS8484 Update

The upcoming changes to health and safety legislation in New Zealand are certainly increasing awareness of smartphone-based solutions within the market. As a result, we are seeing significant interest in StaySafe.

The StaySafe solution which we represent in New Zealand has now been successfully audited and accredited under British Standard BS8484:2011 “The Provision of Lone Worker Device Services”.

This is a significant achievement for StaySafe, only achieved after long preparation and rigorous assessment to ensure that the standard’s stringent requirements were met. To the best of our knowledge, StaySafe is the only BS8484 compliant smartphone lone worker device available and supported locally in New Zealand.

At Secure Mobility we are very excited about what this means for the StaySafe solution, and its entry to the New Zealand market.

Accreditation to BS8484 required compliance in two areas:

• Company organisation, policies and set up (e.g. structure & organisation,data security & retention, training etc.) (Section 4), and
• The LWD (Lone Worker Device) itself (Section 5)

In being awarded NSI Guarding Silver status for the provision of lone worker devices in accordance with British Standard BS8484, StaySafe joins a handful of lone worker safety devices available that meet the current industry standards of approval.

What does this mean in the UK?
The standard is aimed at making sure that the companies themselves and their associated LWDs comply with stringent standards.  It also validates that any alerts activated from lone worker devices are professionally dealt with, verified, and false alarms are filtered out before being passed to the police.  A BS8484 compliant lone worker device like StaySafe, linked to an accredited ARC (Alarm Receiving Centre), is the basis of a response system that has direct links to the police.  In the UK a police response cannot be guaranteed by a supplier who isn’t audited and certified to BS8484.

What does this mean in New Zealand?
While BS8484 is a UK standard, StaySafe’s accreditation will benefit customers in New Zealand in two important ways.

Firstly, to comply with the standard StaySafe had to meet specific technical functionality.  For example, the solution needed to provide an “audio facility to aid the controller when determining the nature of the lone worker’s situation”.  This functionality is now incorporated into StaySafe’s Android app.

Secondly, it confirms StaySafe’s commitment to lone worker safety, which benefits to all StaySafe customers, wherever they are around the world. They are now independently recognised as having a solution of the highest quality which is fully compliant with the British standard.

Richard Jenkins, NSI Chief Executive praised the accreditation; “We are delighted that StaySafe has achieved NSI Guarding Silver approval for the provision of lone worker devices. Organisations working in the security sector aspire to obtain NSI approval and StaySafe’s clients and their employees can be reassured that the service StaySafe provides has been robustly audited against the relevant industry standards.  I congratulate StaySafe and wish them every success for the future.”

This short video provides a good overview of the StaySafe system.

Please give me a call or send me an email if you would like to discuss this accreditation in more detail, or simply if you would like more information on StaySafe.