The West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) is a collaboration between the West Yorkshire authorities. It is the place where work that cuts across the whole of West Yorkshire and city region is undertaken. They are the governing board of nine political leaders, plus the chair of the Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership (LEP). WYCA and the LEP are supported by an officer organisation that undertakes their Boards’ policies and actions.
Our involvement
Carlisle Support Services began providing security services to the authority in 2016 and we currently deploy security to category A and B bus stations including Huddersfield, Leeds, Bradford, Castleford, Keighley, Halifax, Dewsbury, and Pontefract. The service includes providing both static security and a mobile response unit that operates across the regions to support the staff where required. Overall we provide in excess of 1,200 hours of security per week with a dedicated Contract Manager and Supervision structure support by our regional management teams. When working with WYCA it was clear that there were three key areas of service delivery which were, customer service, protecting people, property and assets and finally ensuring we had the right level of supervision and management.
Results and Benefits to the Client
Through our partnership with WYCA we have delivered on our promise to re-evaluate the security service and ensure that we are offering a service that not only reduces risk and enhances passenger perception but also delivers value for money and cost savings. This review not only looked at the hours that were provided and the solution but also officer welfare. We have worked with our strategic partners to test new equipment and technology from body cams to stab vests to introducing Management Integration and Control of Assets which integrates:
- CCTV and Video – Intelligent Remote Monitoring
- Public Address Systems – Digital Playlists for Announcements
- Customer Information Systems – Use playlists or soundbites to deliver a consistent message
- Alarm Systems – link alarms to central user groups for alerts – bus access doors
- Help Points – Use tablets and phone to link Help Points
- Building Systems – Air conditioning, lighting, core meter readings, auto sensors to turn lights off in rooms without movement.
We have redesigned the service so that we now offer: zoned supervision; enhanced resilience during shift times; a response team to add resilience and move with hot spots; officers pay increased to ensure parity within the sector; and aligned shift patterns to offer more stability in officer rosters.