What is an Alarm Receiving Centre (ARC) and how does it assist in helping lone workers?

What is an Alarm Receiving Centre (ARC)? 

An ARC is a highly secure monitoring station operated by trained professionals, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. ARC employees will monitor a range of alarms, including lone worker alarms, intruder alarms, fire alarms, and panic alarms.

Who is the ARC responsible for managing First2HelpYou’s lone worker devices?

First County Monitoring (FCM) is the ARC responsible for monitoring First2HelpYou’s lone worker devices. Their trained operators work hard to respond to all the alerts triggered by a First2HelpYou device user. FCM is fully compliant with the BS5979 standard.

What is FCM’s and First2HelpYou’s relationship? 

Four directors at First2HelpYou own and manage FCM. Not only this but First2HelpYou is also located under the same roof as FCM.

BS8484 Accredited lone worker monitoring station

FCM is a BS8484 certified lone worker monitoring station, which means that they follow the response and verification targets outlined in the legislation. Alerts are measured on the ‘time to listen’ and the ‘time to verify’ and we achieve the time frames as specified in the standard.

Response Target

  • 80% of all calls responded to within 0 – 10 seconds
  • 98.50% of all calls responded to within 11 – 40 seconds

Verification Target

  • 80% of all calls verified within 0 – 120 Secs
  • 90% of all calls verified within 121 – 180 Secs
  • 98.50% of all calls verified within 181 – 600 Secs

The BS8484 accreditation also allows us to provide a ‘Level 1’ emergency response service using a Unique Reference Number (URN). This is the fastest way to get the police to respond and as a result, the operator has more information than usual about the location, names, and situation when contacting the police, meaning that help will arrive quickly.

How are the alerts responded to?

The FCM operators are trained to handle alerts appropriately, as mentioned previously. Understandably, a ‘Level 1’ police response isn’t always appropriate, and the operators at FCM will assess a situation before deciding on the appropriate response.