He is helping to spread gas safety messages to customers in potentially vulnerable situations, educating children so they can educate their grown-ups.
He is also a perfect illustration of collaboration and sharing good practice that is vital to those of us determined to help customers who need extra support.
We developed ‘Safety Seymour’ a few years ago. Our caped crusader fronts a full day’s educational activities offered free to primary schools, for kids in Year 2 (age seven and eight). The content aligns directly to the national curriculum, and teaches children the basics on carbon monoxide, through drama, art and other fun activities. Every child gets an education pack to take away and complete as homework, which helps them consider (with their parents or carers) gas safety at home.
We offer this to any school or youth organisation, but like to proactively target Safety Seymour sessions in areas with high volumes of emergency calls to CO incidents. We provide a free carbon monoxide alarm to each child, when we go to these areas.
It’s a new initiative, but the potential was immediately obvious. Cadent shared the content and resources with the other gas distribution networks. Now adopted across the UK, Safety Seymour activities will soon have reached 7,500 children.
Effective safeguarding
So, an example then of how networks and the wider industry have worked together to educate and assist customers in vulnerable situations.
Establishing effective safeguarding, as highlighted by contributors to Utility Week’s Energy Customer Conference in January, is important to us all.
In the past, as an industry, we’ve been slow to share good practice, but we’re working hard to improve that.
For example, about five years ago, my Cadent colleague Jo Giles identified a clear desire and obvious need for greater collaboration to improve the impact of the Priority Services Register (PSR). You may know that customers who have signed up to the PSR have access to free, additional services from networks and suppliers, such as alternative cooking and heating during a gas outage.
However, this ‘register’ is in fact multiple registers, as each individual company holds its own version. A customer may need to sign up to several to cover all bases.
Bearing fruit
Jo established a working group – the Safeguarding Customers Working Group – under the auspices of the Energy Networks Association, and invited representatives of all energy networks, suppliers, trade bodies and key national charities to be members. It has made great strides in breaking down any barriers to sharing data and developing consistency, earning praise from the Information Commissioner’s Office and interest from the water industry in mirroring the approach.
This is already bearing fruit, evidenced recently by an engineer’s visit to a property with clear safeguarding issues, such as disconnected heating and no running water. Armed with knowledge of the resources available, a referral to the appropriate agencies has enabled that customer to receive the support they need.
This also illustrates the power of identifying the right agency, which the customer trusts the most, to deliver the message. We work closely with fire and rescue services, providing their officers will information and resources to cover gas safety issues during their home safety visits to people living in vulnerable circumstances. Through this initiative, we know that around 7,000 carbon monoxide alarms we’ve supplied this year will be in homes across our geographic footprint.
Last Autumn, we worked with the police and fire and rescue in Leicestershire to help share safety messages on two sites occupied by traveling communities. We supplied carbon monoxide alarms, with the fire service also providing smoke alarms. The police officer who distributed the alarms said the residents were ‘astounded and delighted’ by the offer, which they agreed had real potential to save lives.
We’re increasingly seeing referrals too for fitting our locking cooker valves. These safety devices are offered as a free service by all gas networks and are usually provided (but not exclusively so) in homes where a resident is living with dementia.
Awareness and confidence
The valve is fitted to the pipework of a gas cooker or hob. Keys are given to a carer who can turn the valve off and on, and lock it in place, removing the safety risk.
It is such a simple thing and it is making a big difference.
Cadent has installed around 200 in the last 11 months, and we’ve plans to establish more links with agencies such as local authorities and health service providers, to raise awareness of the offer.
Meanwhile, Cadent’s two-year partnership with the Alzheimer’s Society – and our commitment to ensure all of our engineers go through Dementia Friends training – will mean our field force has even more awareness and confidence in this area.
We exist as a network to keep energy flowing to 11 million homes, with a reliable and safe supply. If our customers need a little extra help to use that energy in a safe way, we’ll continue to work hard to help them do that.