As Key Workers, our Division and all Marlowe Group companies have remained fully operational throughout the pandemic, continuing to keep our customers safe and compliant with their essential safety, health and compliance obligations.

In March 2020, James Brokenshire, Minister for State for Security at the Home Office confirmed our Key Worker status: “Security & fire safety personnel can play a vital role at this time of national challenge. People working in these sectors who are essential to national infrastructure are “Key Workers” for the purposes of the Government’s guidance on COVID-19.”

Our Fire, Security and Alarm Monitoring Services are vital to the protection of the public, industry and critical infrastructure within the sectors detailed by the Cabinet Office including; Health & Social Care (NHS), Education & Childcare, Key Public Services, Local & National Government, Food & Other Necessary Goods, Public Safety & National Security, Transport, Utilities, communication and financial services.

Fire Safety

Keeping Critical Sectors and their users safe and secure through the delivery of fire alarm and detection system testing, fire extinguisher testing, fire suppression system testing, sprinkler system testing, security system maintenance, providing critical alarm monitoring services and emergency lighting system maintenance.

Security

Security services essential to public safety including essential alarm monitoring, CCTV system maintenance and monitoring, panic alarms, nurse call systems and intruder alarms. By continuing our essential work, we provided key services, including critical maintenance and security, so our frontline colleagues could do our duties as part of the national effort.

Monitoring & Connected Services

Despite all the challenges of lockdown we have maintained the monitoring of critical alarms throughout the pandemic with no reduction in services. 6250 Fire Alarms handled with an average response time of 6 seconds and 1286 Panic Alarms handled with an average response time of 8 seconds. We were available to each and every one of our customers with advice and responses to their questions.

Innovation

In response to the pandemic, our Innovation Team were proactive and took it upon themselves to independently design, develop, market and deliver a comprehensive range of Crisis Management Solutions.

People Counting and Flow Control Systems – during the Coronavirus lockdown, feeding the nation was of course a priority and many retailers responded with assigning physical personnel to control the customer traffic at their entrances which is not only an additional overhead but also puts them at risk of coming into contact with large numbers of the public.

We supported retail partners to ensure the supply of food and essential goods remained safe and secure with our People Counting & Flow Control Solution; designed to help businesses to comply with safe occupancy limits at their store or site for the safety of customers and staff.

Fever Screening Solution – the pandemic generated immense interest in the use of thermal imaging cameras as a tool to identify individuals with elevated body temperatures. Our Fever Screening Solution offers rapid and safe preliminary fever screening in a wide range of applications by detecting elevated body temperatures in large groups of people, in under 1 second, with accuracy up to ±0.3°C.

To assist businesses in getting up and running after lockdown, we created a number of additional solutions to help organisations to transition their employees back to work, safely and in compliance with Government Guidelines.

WC Occupancy Control Solution – designed to restrict the number of people using toilet facilities at any one time, our WC Occupancy Control Solution was developed to help businesses comply with social distancing rules and reduce the spread of virus.

Hygienic Door Opening Solutions – simple, cost effective and Hygienic Door Opening Solutions to control the spread of virus within the workplace by eliminating the use of door handles and door release buttons, a major source of contamination.

Social Distancing & Contact Tracing Solution – a wearable real-time device which ensures social distancing between workers by alerting them if they get too close to each other.

To showcase these solutions, the Innovation Team brought all of this technology together in the Marlowe Fire & Security Group Innovation Suite at Lowry House where Team Members, prospects and customers can see, feel and experience the solutions first hand.

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Our Fire, Security and Alarm Monitoring Services are vital to the protection of the public, industry and critical infrastructure. In March, James Brokenshire, Minister for State for Security at the Home Office confirmed our Key Worker status: “Security & fire safety personnel can play a vital role at this time of national challenge. People working in these sectors who are essential to national infrastructure are “Key Workers” for the purposes of the Government’s guidance on COVID-19.”

Our exceptional workforce remains committed to meeting the essential needs for our customers and ensuring that they, too, can continue to provide their much-needed products and services.

The health, safety and wellbeing of all our employees and those we come in contact with is of paramount importance and we have implemented a number of measures to ensure the safety of our customers and our staff as they carry out their essential work.

All Engineers have been issued with hand wipes and alcohol based sanitiser, appropriate PPE (including gloves and masks) and a specific Risk Assessment relating to risk reduction ensuring social distancing is maintained in compliance with government guidelines.

Fire Life Safety

During this extraordinary situation, it must be noted that Fire Life Safety cannot be put on hold. Those responsible for buildings are reminded that even during the COVID-19 Coronavirus Pandemic, maintaining regular inspections, at specific periods and intervals, is a firm requirement under British Standards which informs your compliance under The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and potentially, your insurance providers.

Postponing these checks, maintenance and servicing may result in equipment failure should defects not be noticed.

COVID-Secure Workplace Solutions

Our COVID-Secure Workplace Solutions can assist organisations to transition their employees back to work, safely and in compliance with Government Guidelines.

The post Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update 04.11.2020 appeared first on Marlowe Fire & Security.

Now that the Government is moving towards a phased reopening of schools, easing the current restrictions, it is important you are prepared to manage the new risks the virus presents to your staff and students. ​​​​​​​

Helping you to safely reopen

We recognise that schools and colleges will be at the forefront of our emergence as a nation from the COVID-19 lockdown.

To mitigate your risk, we have developed a range of highly effective, innovative solutions that can help you to protect your students, teachers and support staff.

Fever Screening Solution

Quickly identify and isolate students and staff with a fever with accuracy up to ±0.3ºC – efficiently and effectively – without physical contact.

Locating thermal cameras at entrances allows large numbers to be checked at one time as they enter the site.

People Counting & Flow Control Solution

Measure and manage your occupancy levels to help comply with the Social Distancing restrictions.

Remove the need and risk of physical personnel to control the traffic at entrances.

Contactless Access Control

A non-contact, fast, accurate and safe way of identifying staff, students, parents and visitors as they enter a site.

Remove the need for touching any surfaces such as a keypad, fingerprint reader, turnstile, or door.

Compliance. Assured.

Before resuming normal operation, those with duties for Fire Life Safety in schools should make sure that the policies and the procedures of your estate are compliant with appropriate legislation.

The Responsible Person has an obligation to ensure that the fire safety systems including making sure your Fire Alarm System, all Fire Doors and Emergency Lighting is operational in compliance with the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.

Marlowe Fire & Security can work with you to help clarify your obligations and advise on how  to provide appropriate fire detection and fire safety equipment across your estate.

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The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has developed social distancing guidance for shops that are preparing to reopen, learning from the experiences of thousands of supermarkets and other essential retailers who have been doing so successfully since lockdown.

To enable these measures many retailers have responded by assigning physical personnel to control people flow at their entrances. This option is not only expensive but puts the personnel and the public at risk.

Marlowe Fire & Security has a cost effective, efficient and risk mitigating solution to support the retail sector.

Helping you to safely reopen

Our innovative People Counting & Flow Control Solution can ensure your compliance with Social Distancing restrictions for the safety of customers and staff.

The technology can be configured with automatic door closures and door locking systems, automatically controlling them once the number of people has reached the store or building’s capacity.

Our enhanced live occupancy solution can be implemented and customised to your specific requirements.

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BAFE – new lockdown measures and the fire safety industry

BAFE warns fire safety should be addressed as soon as possible as we ease out of coronavirus lockdown

Minister of State defines Key Worker Status directly to FIA

BAFSA – Essential information regarding the protection of buildings from fire during COVID 19

FIA – Latest COVID-19 update specific to the fire inudustry

FIA – Home Office updates the FIA about Key Worker status of Fire Safety personnel

BSIA – Update from the Security Industry Authority regarding Key Worker status for the private security industry

NSI – Supporting calls for security and fire safety employees to be classified as Key Workers

BAFE – Coronavirus Latest News

BAFE – Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update 01/04/2020

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However, as our work practices, movements and behaviour changes, businesses should also consider how their fire and security systems can help them mitigate risks in the wake of COVID-19.

Fire safety during the Coronavirus pandemic

During this extraordinary situation, it must be noted that fire safety cannot be put on hold. Fire does not discriminate, and it is important that your fire safety policy is well maintained appropriately.

Maintaining regular inspections, at specific periods and intervals, is a firm requirement under British Standards which informs your compliance under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and potentially, your insurance providers.

We would encourage all of our customers, at this time, not to attempt to disrupt the ongoing planned preventative maintenance regime of their fire and security systems. You still have an obligation to maintain systems and carry out your legal duties regarding fire protection within the property.

Restriction of access to site

It is understandable that premises management would be restricting access for fire safety providers to their buildings at present. It is also very understandable that business continuity and the welfare of staff is your primary concern.

If your business premises are now closed this could be an ideal time to ensure your fire safety systems and provisions have been or could be maintained suitably according to legislation. You may want to consider scheduling in maintenance so that your premises are occupied some of the time. It also allows the opportunity to undertake work with unimpeded access.

However, we must stress only do this at present if it is safe to do so. If you are unable to fulfil your scheduled maintenance of fire safety provisions, please take measures to ensure any people in the building will remain safe (and document actions) and return to your regular fire safety policy and scheduled work/maintenance when appropriate. Your specified fire safety providers/local Fire and Rescue Service will be able to advise further.

Empty Premises

Loss prevention and risk reduction measures should be considered for all buildings in the event of closure, even if it’s only temporary. Unoccupied properties are vulnerable to fire, theft and malicious damage and need to be managed accordingly.

Fires starting in unoccupied premises feature prominently in UK loss statistics. Causes of fire are mainly arson-related, but also include electrical faults in fixed wiring. In addition, theft of contents and fixtures and fittings, vandalism, occupation by squatters are common, especially when routine site inspections are not carried out.

A well installed, tested and maintained fire alarm and intruder alarm system is essential to provide an early warning sign that there is an issue in your building. These systems should be connected to an Alarm Receiving Centre (ARC) to support prompt notification and response to any activation.

Security systems are usually deactivated and activated on a daily basis, so you would know immediately if there is an issue. Fire systems and provisions are not, which is why a regular maintenance schedule is vitally important (and a legal obligation) to ensure these are fully operational in the event of fire.

KEY WORKERS

In the event of a lockdown, the fire protection industry has strongly advised Government that Third Party Certificated fire safety providers are listed as KEY WORKERS, and this has now been confirmed by James Brokenshire, Minister of State for Security at the Home Office:

“Security & fire safety personnel can play a vital role at this time of national challenge. People working in these sectors who are essential to national infrastructure are “Key Workers” for the purposes of the Government’s guidance on COVID-19”

Emergency callouts could prevent any additional/unnecessary false alarms for example. This will reduce any strain on emergency services from attending with additional responsibilities they may face moving forward.

CRITICAL SECTORS

Our services are critical to the COVID-19 response, and are critical to the operation of our customers within the critical sectors detailed by the Cabinet Office including; Health & Social Care (NHS), Education & Childcare, Key Public Services, Local & National Government, Food & Other Necessary Goods, Public Safety & National Security, Transport, Utilities, communication and financial services. Examples of customers we deliver to within these sectors is available.

Fire Safety & Security: Keeping Critical Sectors and their users safe and secure through the delivery of fire alarm and detection system testing, fire extinguisher testing, fire suppression system testing, sprinkler system testing, security system maintenance, providing critical alarm monitoring services and emergency lighting system maintenance. Security services essential to public safety including essential alarm monitoring, CCTV system maintenance and monitoring, panic alarms, nurse call systems and intruder alarms.

CRITICAL SERVICES

The services that our group provides are essential to our client’s operations and we recognise the great trust and reliance that our clients place in us to provide these critical services without disruption to keep them safe and compliant with health & safety legislation.

Marlowe Plc provides essential health and safety services, which assure safety and compliance with the following legislation. The requirements to follow this legislation and guidance have not been reduced by the pandemic: Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (RRO); NPCC; DPA; Health and Safety at Work Act 1974; ACOP L8 Regulation; Workplace Health & Safety and Welfare; Control of Substances Hazardous to Health; TR19 Ventilation and Air Quality.

If our ability, to deliver our Key Services through our KEY WORKERS, to the identified Critical Sectors is disrupted then it will place those working within the Critical Sectors at risk and may result in a disruption in their ability to support us in overcoming this crisis.

We hope all our customers remain safe and well during this period of uncertainty. If you require any additional services or support, please Contact Us.

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We are closely monitoring available information from Public Health England (PHE) and the World Health Organisation on the Coronavirus (COVID-19) to ensure that appropriate measures are taken by all Team Members to mitigate the spread of the virus.

We are pleased to confirm that our operational capacity and ability to deliver our services and solutions have in no way been compromised by the pandemic thus far.

However, we have taken appropriate and sensible steps to mitigate further risks to our Team Members and the delivery of our critical life safety and security services.

• All Engineering Employees have been issued with hand wipes and alcohol based sanitiser, appropriate PPE (including gloves and masks) and a specific Risk Assessment relating to risk reduction.

• All non-critical, face to face meetings have been converted to teleconferencing, postponed.

• All office based Employees who can work from home have been encouraged to do so. We are currently in the process of configuring a number of additional remote desktops for our office based Employees to enable a greater proportion of home working without reducing the capabilities of our 24/7 Call Receipt and Service Centre.

As your contracted fire life safety and security service provider we would encourage all of our customers, at this time, not to attempt to disrupt the ongoing planned preventative maintenance regime of your fire and security systems. Maintaining regular inspections, at specific periods and intervals, is a firm requirement under British Standards which informs your compliance under the Regulatory Reform fire safety Order (RRO) and potentially, your insurance providers.

During this busy period, we are encouraging all customers to communicate with us via email, wherever possible, to enable us to provide you the most responsive service.

Our 24/7 Alarm & Video Receiving Centre is functioning as normal. In accordance with NSI guidelines, in the event that we encounter any resource or capacity challenges, we will prioritise all life alarms and fire alarms over lower priority events and telephone calls. In the event of that the pandemic creates a severe capacity challenge event, and reduces staffing levels beyond acceptable levels, we have the ability to switch to our automatic alarm handling facility, to ensure continuity of service and the protection and security of your sites.

To reduce incoming alarm traffic during this busy period we would ask our customers, wherever possible, to use our automated fire testing service. If you have yet to take advantage of this facility, please email alarm.monitoring@marlowefireandsecurity.com and our Operators will provide you details of how to access this service.

At this time, we would like to assure you of our commitment to fulfilling our promise to you, to support you in protecting your people and property, while providing you with peace of mind.

Best regards

Robert Flinn
Chief Executive Officer

Coronavirus (COVID-19) is a global pandemic and our operations will be subject to evolving Government policy and their guidance will take priority over this statement.

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We ask that anybody who may be an infection risk to refrain from entering any of our properties or sites.

Individuals deemed to be at risk include those who:

• Have travelled to the ‘affected areas’ in the last 14 days (please refer to recognised organisations such as the WHO or Government updates for current listings of affected areas. Please note these lists are being updated and evolving daily)
• Have been in close contact with somebody from the ‘affected areas’ within the last 14 days
• Have been in contact with a person who has a confirmed or suspected case of COVID-19

If any of the above apply, then the individual should not attend any of our properties or sites for 14 days from the time of return travel or until they have been symptom free for 14 days.

As a precautionary measure, in the short to medium term, we ask that all external Stakeholder meetings are held where possible via conference call facility rather than face to face in order to limit the potential risk to all parties.

We ask that you please notify your contact within our organisation immediately to report anyone who has been diagnosed with COVID-19 who has recently worked in or attended one of our sites.

Anybody who believes they may have been exposed to COVID-19 or is experiencing any symptoms should contact NHS 111 immediately. In these circumstances, individuals should not go to a GP surgery, pharmacy or hospital in order to help protect themselves and others.

As a Division, we are working tirelessly to help reduce the risk and prevent the spread of COVID-19 amongst our Employees. The below control measures have been taken to assist with this and we are reviewing the situation daily and acting in accordance with Government advice:

• All office based Employees have access to hand wipes and alcohol based sanitiser for use in addition to soap and water
• All fabric towels have been removed from our premises to reduce the risk of cross-contamination
• All Engineering Employees will be issued with hand wipes and alcohol based sanitiser and are requested to carry them at all times
• The requirement for Engineering Employees to wear the relevant PPE whilst on site is reinforced including gloves and face masks
• Cleaning products have been issued to office based Employees for the cleansing of work equipment such as computers, phones and keyboards
• Company canteen facilities and other eating areas are to receive a deep clean to minimise the risk of the spread of the virus
• In preparation for further advancement of the virus, appropriate plans have been implemented to enable support staff to work remotely from our offices
• Engineering employees will be provided with an additional risk assessment to follow on all customers sites specifically relating to the risk reduction of contracting the infection

Please be reminded, the WHO recommends basic preventative actions to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Such actions include:

• Wash your hands often with soap and water for a minimum of 20 seconds. Use an alcohol based hand sanitiser (60% alcohol at least), if soap and water are not available
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands
• Avoid close contact with people who are sick
• Stay at home when you are sick and seek medical attention as necessary
• Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue and dispose of the tissue immediately

Additional information about COVID-19 and regular updates may be found on the WHO and Government websites.

Best regards

Robert Flinn
Chief Executive Officer

The post Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update 12.03.2020 appeared first on Marlowe Fire & Security.

As a market leading fire life safety and security service provider and key member of the Marlowe Fire & Security Group of companies, we have access to an extensive and diverse supply chain, governed by and incorporated into our Business Continuity Strategy. Our Business Continuity Strategy ensures that should one supplier fail us, for any reason, we have an alternative route to the product we specify.

We source solely from distribution and manufacturer partners within the UK. All product sourced from China and elsewhere across the world by our Partners is held on mass within the UK.

Following the news of the outbreak, we have communicated directly with all key Supply Chain Partners who have assured us that they are maintaining sufficient stock within their UK facilities and have assigned particular stock to our account to ensure continuous supply for the foreseeable future.

We will continue to communicate regularly with our Supply Chain Partners to ensure we have the most up to date information available, and to keep our customers informed of any changes in potential impact.

The latest information on coronavirus is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/wuhan-novel-coronavirus-information-for-the-public

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