We are not in construction but there are apps and devices that you can provide to a lone worker which can alert to a fall etc.

There is a plethora of apps and devices that can be used by a lone worker to summon assistance, alert a call centre, require you to tap a button to prove you’re still alive or which detect sudden falls or if the user is prone and hasn’t moved for a period of time.

 Your risk assessment should already have identified the level of risk and under “who may be affected”, and their method statements, the capabilities of the people at risk and how they work could help determine what kind of device/app would be best for them.

 The price of these doodads was coming down when I last used them a few years ago at a local authority, with options to have pool devices rather than one for each person to further reduce costs.

 For the work you’ve described I’d tell my directors that we’d have a hard time proving to the authorities that it wasn’t reasonably practicable in terms of cost and trouble to provide – and enforce the use of – something like this. Added to which your insurers would probably like it.

Originally Posted by: SammyK

we’re looking at an app developer

Plenty of threads on this forum about the merits or otherwise of lone worker devices and apps which can be distilled to a few bullet points:

1) Communication - many a building site in the middle of a city or a remote plot will have signal issues the so called "Not Spots". All that structural steel and scaffolding makes a great Farraday cage. Add to that the demise of the 2G signal (killed early smart meters), the 3G signal (why councils are now panicking about contactless parking meters) and highly likley on the horizon 4G.

2) Power - the device carried and the receiver need to be powered for the duration. If your phone system is linked to the IT systems power outages kill communication.

3) Help - the fundamental issue is getting assistance to the lone worker in a timely manner which only works with a local monitor at the receiving end. Set it to communicate to a group and you fall in to "Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody" - by the time they have rung around each other it won't be an ambulance.

4) Compatability - different phones with varying ages of operating systems and differences in sensors.

5) Site Rules - there are sites where devices may not be permitted (interference or more often to curb operator distraction around heavy plant and machinery).

6) Congestion - major events, especially the unexpected, can overwhelm the phone system for every user.

Then of course what is a "lone" worker - to me this should be an inverted policy about when you should NOT be undertaking a task solo due to the potential for signifcant harm. In such circumstances you are always going to need someone to attract assistance in the event meaning it is not lone working.

This is likely why we tend to neglect any consideration of the employee travelling to and from site, popping to the shops for their lunch, working early/late in the office.

Very interesting to read what is/has been available but no mention of how successful or otherwise.  Have they actually saved a life, raised the right assistance or has anybody died while working alone whether having such a system or not.