QE Facilities is a well-established, wholly-owned subsidiary company of Gateshead Health NHS foundation trust, based in the North of England. The company is a separate legal body set up to provide a range of non-clinical Estates and Facilities services. The QEF team provides a customer service/healthcare security role within main hospitals across the North of England.

Moving away from problematic cameras

QE Facilities (QEF) have used cameras for many years, to support their security teams working across various healthcare locations. Despite having bodyworn cameras to protect their staff, track incidents and challenging behaviour, QEF have faced complications with their previous cameras, which has resulted in time and cost implications. 

There were frustrations with the cameras themselves. QEF’s previous cameras had multiple attachments that would be damaged frequently during incidents, resulting in extensive downtime whilst the cameras were sent away for repairs and maintenance. Not only this, the quality of the video captured was poor, especially in low light conditions, distracting the team when viewing playbacks.

Downloading footage from the cameras was also problematic. The footage had to be uploaded onto a USB stick and then transferred onto a separate hard drive, resulting in further downtime with the cameras frequently being removed from circulation. The process was also extremely onerous for the team involved. 

QEF knew that there had to be a simpler and more time-effective solution in supporting them to capture evidence.

Our Approach

QEF knew what they were looking for in a camera and also the support they needed to overcome and modernise their current processes around the video media created. Through recommendation from a large scale trial taking place at a Mental Health Trust, QEF contacted Lone Worker Service Director, Chris Allcard. After an initial conversation with Chris, where the clients brief was captured, Reliance shared an in-person presentation, enabling QEF to gain a more in-depth understanding of Reliance Protect’s services and body worn camera solutions.

QEF has been a large customer of Reliance Protect for lone worker safety solutions for many years and were confident in the high levels of support and service performance levels Reliance Protect deliver.

'Chris spent a lot of time with my team on-site, helping us to manage the Focus Portal, data, and archive incidents. The training provided was second to none and very straightforward in enabling us to operate the Focus Portal. We also had a very smooth integration of the systems and software and in just under 3 years of using the system and devices we have had no technical issues and are really pleased with the results we have seen across the Trust.'

Rob Stead, Security and Facilities Manager QE Facilities

Modernising the Process

• Compliance – With the VideoManager portal, QEF can easily redact and edit footage, ensuring that all footage issued is GRPR compliant for subject access requests. As a result, Reliance Protect is making it far easier and quicker for QEF to mitigate risk and meet its duty of care for employees and service users alike whilst ensuring the Trust is compliant with regulatory, GDPR and health and safety guidelines.
• Training –  HD video and audio captured on the cameras provide valuable evidence to help QEF with incident debriefs and staff training. As each event is different, incorporating this into training is supporting the learning outcomes from staff members who have a visible insight into their own conflict management skills. 
• Live Stream – The cameras provide a live video stream into the QEF security office and is also viewable by remote staff on their smartphones. This enables QEF to provide support remotely to their team in real-time during live incidents, providing specialist advice on live interventions and gathering evidence for local authorities. 
• Full Video Management Control – VideoManager allows QEF to be in full control of their video footage. The team can easily generate reports, download and edit footage and log incidents in real-time, without the complicated process of uploading videos to hard drives and USBs.  VideoManager is a secure online portal with cloud storage that can also be accessed by departments across the business. 
• Automatic Upload – When investigating incidents and episodes of challenging behaviour QEF are able to quickly, efficiently and securely upload incidents from the cameras directly onto VideoManager and also download footage easily from the portal if it needs to be shared with other individuals or third parties, all with a full audit trail.

'The culture within our team is that our cameras are there to help us, and they do exactly that. Using the body worn cameras to record scenarios within our Trust is vital and whilst we can record and provide the evidence needed, we are also ensuring our team have the reassurance and confidence in the cameras and their ability to de-escalate situations, whilst doing their job.'

Rob Stead, Security and Facilities Manager QE Facilities