The background

South West Communications Group provides Vinney Secure Unit in South Gloucestershire with a telephone system its staff could rely on together with cost-savings of £18,000 to £20,000.

Vinney Green Secure Unit is situated in South Gloucestershire, located to the north-east of Bristol. The unit opened in February 1995 and accommodates 24 young people of both sexes, aged between 10 and 17. The main centre includes the educational unit and has accommodation for 16 young people. A separate living unit has facilities for a further 8 young people. It is managed by South Gloucestershire Council's Department for Children and Young People.
 
The challenge

Vinney Green needed a new telephone solution to replace its obsolete BT Norstar system which had become very expensive in terms of support, line rental and call costs.

While the Unit needed to control and reduce these costs, it still needed to be able to provide controlled phone access for each young person. These controls included the barring of calls to the emergency services, restricting the amount of time they could make calls and limiting their access to a predefined list of approved numbers. Furthermore, any outgoing calls needed to be introduced by an announcement message that informed the person receiving the call that it was from a young person at Vinney Green Secure Unit. Incoming calls were not to be permitted.

All calls needed to be recorded. The recordings needed to be listened to via the telephone system and if it was deemed necessary, be stored on a CD or USB memory stick, so they could be used as evidence in court.

Lastly, Vinney Green was keen to make use of cordless telephony throughout the site so that staff would be able to make internal and external contact instantly when incidents arose.

The solution

South West Communications Group provided an Alcatel-Lucent telephony solution which was customised to meet Vinney Green’s specific and individual needs. The solution comprised:

• OmniPCX Enterprise telephone system
• Controlled secure unit extensions
• Licence-free call recording
• Cordless handsets
• System administration application
• Substantial cost savings
• 24/7 support and maintenance

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