Lone Worker Safety for Local Authority & Social Work
Protecting social workers and community teams during high-stakes family visits and outreach. Protect your teams for £39.50 per user, per year — smartphone-only, zero hardware, deploy in under an hour.
The real risks Local Authority & Community Social Work lone workers face
Local Authority & Community Social Work staff regularly work alone — in the community, on client sites, or out of hours. These are the hazards your lone working policy must address.
Crisis Volatility
Face-to-face contact during family interventions, child protection cases, or mental health assessments.
Half of social workers have been verbally abused during solo home visits in the past year, according to UNISON's 2026 survey, compared with 40% on joint visits.
Community Outreach Risk
Working in isolated or high-risk neighbourhoods without immediate physical backup.
Under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, employers must assess and manage the risks faced by staff working alone in the community. The Sentry gives you a practical, evidenced way to meet that duty.
Incident Record Gaps
Difficulty in proving verbal threats or intimidation without objective witness evidence.
From October 2026, the "all reasonable steps" duty under ERA 2025 requires employers to prevent sexual harassment of staff, including by third parties such as service users. A private, whistleblowing-aligned reporting channel is exactly the kind of practical step that duty expects to see in place.
Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 & Employment Rights Act (ERA) 2025
Local authorities have a general duty under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 to protect lone-working staff from violence and abuse during visits and outreach. Separately, from 30 October 2026, ERA 2025 raises the bar on preventing sexual harassment, including by third parties, from "reasonable steps" to "all reasonable steps." The Sentry supports both: real-time alarms and GPS monitoring for general lone-worker risk, and a confidential incident-reporting channel that helps evidence the proactive steps the sexual harassment duty expects.
Explore the full UK compliance frameworkSocial Work England / HSE
The Sentry provides the digital audit trail and whistleblowing-aligned reporting that help local authorities evidence the steps they've taken to protect staff.
How The Sentry maps to Local Authority & Community Social Work risks
Each Local Authority & Community Social Work hazard below is met by a specific Sentry feature — not generic safety software, but protection built for the way your teams work.
Verbal abuse during visits
Private incident reporting
Aggressive escalations
Automatic video capture
Late-night crisis calls
Live location sharing
Built for the way Local Authority & Community Social Work teams work
The whole platform deploys on the smartphones your Local Authority & Community Social Work staff already carry — no devices to buy, charge, or replace.
One-touch panic alarm
Instant SOS with live location sent to your duty office and Nearby Team.
Automatic video capture
Secures witness evidence for legal and safeguarding records.
Private incident reporting
Confidential channel for reporting near-misses and hazards.
Every plan includes the full Sentry feature set
The same two-sided system — staff app plus manager portal — protects your Local Authority & Community Social Work teams. No hardware, no IT integration, live in under an hour.
Home-screen widget SOS
Exclusive to The Sentry: fire the alarm, share your location, and start recording straight from a home-screen widget — one touch, without opening the app. In a real emergency, the extra steps simply aren’t there.
Loud or silent panic alarm
One alarm, two modes. Loud mode sounds an audible siren; silent mode is completely discreet for confrontational situations. Both instantly share live location with your managers and Nearby Team.
Automatic video capture
Recording starts the moment an alarm triggers. Unalterable footage is saved to the cloud audit trail, emailed as a view/download link, and kept on the handset. (Loud mode records video only; silent mode also captures audio.)
Lone Worker Timer
Session-based timed check-ins: set your own interval and the app prompts you to check in during a session. If a check-in is missed, help is escalated. Added specifically for the wider lone worker sector.
Fake phone call
Defuse a tense situation with a simulated incoming call that uses your phone’s native ringtone and generates a fresh caller number each time — so it appears entirely genuine.
Live location sharing (user-led)
Real-time GPS — but only during a work session you choose to start. The Sentry never tracks passively or automatically, so your personal time stays private. Privacy by design.
Private incident reporting
A confidential, whistleblowing-aligned channel to report harassment — with the option to submit anonymously. Once sent, no trace is left on the device: no email confirmation, nothing stored locally. Satisfies EHRC Step 4.
Friends & Family licences
Every staff member gets three free personal licences, so their family can use the same safety technology — entirely separate from the employer’s account.
Manager portal — included on every account
- Live dashboard of all active team sessions — worldwide map, unlimited users visible
- Configurable incident-report routing per user or branch, with read-receipt tracking
- Complete encrypted audit trail with unlimited history, plus PDF export of incident reports
- ERA 2025 compliance documentation pack and downloadable, timestamped audit trails
- Multi-branch / multi-site structuring on one account, and unlimited manager accounts
Why Local Authority & Community Social Work teams trust The Sentry
A UK-built, self-funded platform with the evidence trail regulators and procurement teams expect.
Supports ERA 2025 Compliance
Local Authority Trusted
Zero IT Friction
Unbeatable value. No lock-in.
Local authorities save up to 80% compared to legacy hardware-monitored contracts.
Common questions from Local Authority & Community Social Work buyers
“Does it affect battery life?”
No. The app uses advanced GPS batching to ensure minimal impact on battery life during a full shift.
“Is it hard to deploy?”
No. No hardware distribution means you can roll out to 500+ staff in a single afternoon.
Local Authority & Community Social Work lone worker safety FAQ
Is there a contract lock-in?
No. We offer simple annual subscriptions with no multi-year mandatory lock-in.
Can we use it for contractors?
Yes. You can add or remove users instantly as your caseload or staffing levels change.
Explore other industries
The Sentry protects lone workers across every UK sector.
Your people protected. Your business covered. Simple.
Get your team protected in under 60 minutes. No IT integration required.
No credit card required • Free 30-minute demo • Protect your team today