Case Study

EMH Group provides affordable homes, care, and support services within the East Midlands. There are more than 21,000 properties in over 40 local authority areas across the region, and support residences are provided to hundreds of vulnerable individuals.

Samsic has been providing professional security services to EMH Group’s care and support services since 2007. The support services are comprised of multiple mixed occupancy accommodations, whereby residents can come from backgrounds of drugs, violence, prison sentences, or poor mental or physical health. In this, it is essential the security service provided by Samsic is not only professional but thorough and with a great deal of safeguarding provided to residents.

The Challenge

EMH Group’s residential care facilities present daily challenges for on-site Security Officers. 

Residents are typically vulnerable, ranging from elderly individuals to previously homeless youth, and issues such as substance abuse are prevalent. Safeguarding these residents requires constant vigilance, awareness of ongoing issues, and specialised training.  

Each of the 5 sites requires keyhold response and regular patrolling as to maintain safety. In 3 sites, however, manned guarding is an additional requirement to protect residents.  

For EMH Group, security is of paramount importance for their care and support service, as is fast response.  

The Solution

Combining technology, consistent management support, and staffing management of Security Officers has enabled and improved the security service of Samsic at EMH Group continuously basis since 2007.  

To enable sufficient safeguarding, all Security Officers recruited for EMH Group are subject to a rigorous selection process and review, to ensure their character and capabilities are matched to the site.  We provide extensive ongoing support and close management of all Security Officers, from initial recruitment onwards. This includes regular training, frequent performance reviews, and maintaining open communication channels. The goal is to ensure any staff or work-related issues that arise are promptly addressed and resolved. 

Within the role, Security Officers are also provided with physical guides on how to perform processes, whether they involve site compliancy, or safeguarding and handling of on-site issues. These guides give the security officers a reference point on how to deal with the huge range of issues which may occur, and as such provide confidence. Daily handovers also provide confidence, as they alert officers to any issues which may have occurred throughout the day, or any potential issues which may occur. 

If there are issues, it is imperative that a resolution is reached and quickly. The Samsic mobile response team, the largest mobile unit in Leicestershire with 9 vehicles, is easily contactable on a 24/7 basis and can be on-site in minutes to offer back-up and additional manpower. Violent behaviour is quickly dispersed using a combination of security manpower, and support of the local police, who we maintain a positive relationship with. 

Our ECAT quality auditing management system, and the use of our security innovation SamTech, are instrumental in being able to showcase results and standards to EMH Group management and are useful in the ongoing maintenance and improvement of the service. ECAT, which allows Samsic and EMH management constant cloud access to quality audits and compliancy records, used with SamTech which records on-site issues and shows the completion of site duties, builds confidence in the service. The additional use of these technologies is that management can review ongoing issues, and plan for further management support or measures to help resolution, and the carbon footprint and efficiency of the team is much stronger.