Security Services

Andron Finds a Secure Solution

Andron Facilities Management is responsible for the security of eight Lancashire County Council community centres. We were given the opportunity to provide security services based on the high quality service we have delivered to them since 2007 as part of our cleaning contract, where we service 27 primary schools, high schools and colleges throughout Lancashire.

Background

We were approached by Lancashire County Council to provide an alternative proposal to the existing security solutions. They had not previously contracted the work to a specialist security provider; rather the buildings were secured by a staff of building stewards employed directly by Lancashire County Council.

Challenge

We needed to reduce spending by introducing new, cost effective and practical solutions, specifically tailored to the seven sites, whilst exceeding the level of safety and security that the sites had previously been provided with.

Solution

In order to satisfy Lancashire County Councils requirements, we took the following steps:

We reviewed and confirmed the requirements of each of the sites, focusing on the security presence needed on site and the required manned hours. We began to consider if personnel located on site was necessary and looked to replace them with a mobile security team. The benefits of this approach meant that we could reduce hours from a maximum of eight hours per day, per site to two hours per day, per site. Consequently this reduction in hours enabled us to reduce the security team from eight to three, ultimately driving down labour costs, which had previously been the most costly factor of the security operator. Lancashire County Council also benefited from a security team that was vetted to BS7858, Security Screening standard as required by the Security Industry Authority SIA.

We looked at the locations of the seven sites and utilised their close proximity to form scheduled site inspections, to be conducted twice daily, once in the morning and once in the evening, by three mobile patrol vehicles. We clustered the sites into three groups; two mobile patrols to service three sites each, with the third servicing the remaining site due to its distance from the other six sites. This clustering approach reduces operational costs and provides a security team with an in depth knowledge of the surrounding areas, and the physical presence to respond to alarm triggers and other unforeseen events.

We looked to our security technology to ensure that key areas of the sites were patrolled at the correct intervals. Each mobile officer was provided with a (PES) portable electronic sensor as part of our M-Set system. The system records each mobile officer's regular patrols as well as recording any site visit they make, monitor attendance and the actual time spent both on sites.

Delivering a fully effective security service, with a focus on implementing a cost effective measures was at the forefront of our minds through out the development of our proposal whilst providing an enhanced security service.