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Assaults on frontline housing staff almost tripled between 2020 and 2024

Lone Worker Safety for Social Housing & Housing Associations

Protecting housing officers and maintenance teams during inspections and tenant visits. Protect your teams for £39.50 per user, per year — smartphone-only, zero hardware, deploy in under an hour.

No hardware requiredLive in under one hourFounded 2019 • UK-based

The real risks Social Housing & Housing Associations lone workers face

Social Housing & Housing Associations staff regularly work alone — in the community, on client sites, or out of hours. These are the hazards your lone working policy must address.

Tenant Aggression

Confrontations during evictions, inspections, or visits to tenants with known risk markers on their account.

Assaults on frontline social housing staff almost tripled between 2020 and 2024, according to Inside Housing Management's annual assaults survey.

Anti-Social Behaviour

Working in high-crime areas or entering communal spaces where ASB is prevalent.

Frontline housing staff regularly report abuse and threatening behaviour during day-to-day tenant contact.

Structural Hazards

Inspecting derelict properties, roof voids, or sites with poor mobile signal.

BS 8484 sets the traditional benchmark for lone worker alarm response, built around 24/7 Alarm Receiving Centres. The Sentry takes a different approach for multi-site monitoring: connecting staff directly to managers and nearby colleagues, giving real-time visibility across your housing stock without the cost of an ARC.

Your legal duty

Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023

The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) expects providers to ensure staff can deliver services safely. Failure to manage lone worker risks can lead to Ombudsman investigations and severe financial penalties.

Explore the full UK compliance framework

Regulator of Social Housing (RSH)

The Sentry provides the audit trail to help evidence that "reasonable steps" have been taken to protect frontline officers during tenant-facing duties.

How The Sentry maps to Social Housing & Housing Associations risks

Each Social Housing & Housing Associations hazard below is met by a specific Sentry feature — not generic safety software, but protection built for the way your teams work.

Sector risk

High-risk tenant visits

Sentry feature

Automatic video capture

Capture evidence if a visit escalates beyond verbal abuse.
Sector risk

ASB in communal areas

Sentry feature

Silent distress signal

Discreetly notify the hub of a threat without alerting the perpetrator.
Sector risk

Multi-site repairs teams

Sentry feature

Live location sharing

Coordinate reactive repairs teams with live GPS visibility across your housing stock.

Built for the way Social Housing & Housing Associations teams work

The whole platform deploys on the smartphones your Social Housing & Housing Associations staff already carry — no devices to buy, charge, or replace.

One-touch panic alarm

Instant SOS with live location sent to your security team or managers.

Automatic video capture

Cloud-based video evidence stored for legal and disciplinary use.

Private incident reporting

Whistleblowing-compliant channel for reporting unsafe property conditions.

The complete platform

Every plan includes the full Sentry feature set

The same two-sided system — staff app plus manager portal — protects your Social Housing & Housing Associations 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 Social Housing & Housing Associations teams trust The Sentry

A UK-built, self-funded platform with the evidence trail regulators and procurement teams expect.

Direct-to-Team Escalation

RSH Standards Support

Zero Hardware Costs

Unbeatable value. No lock-in.

Costs 4x less than monitored hardware pendants while providing superior video evidence capture.

The SentryBest value
£39.50/user/year + VAT
Safepoint
£120–150+/user/year (with ARC)
StaySafe
£114+/user/year + 36-month lock-in
Vatix
£71+/user/year + add-on fees
See full pricing & what’s included

Common questions from Social Housing & Housing Associations buyers

“We have a buddy system”

Buddy systems are prone to human error and provide zero location data or video evidence in a crisis.

“What if there is no signal?”

The Sentry stores incident metadata locally and uploads as soon as a connection is restored.

Social Housing & Housing Associations lone worker safety FAQ

Can this replace our hardware fobs?

Yes. Most housing associations are moving to smartphone apps for better usability and lower costs.

Is it easy for repairs teams to use?

Yes. It takes one tap to start a session and one tap to trigger an alarm.

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