ARC stands for Alarm Receiving Centre. This is a facility where alarms are received and then processed. There are several different services that use ARCs including some intruder & fire alarms, personal safety devices and lone worker solutions. An Alarm Receiving Centre is staffed 24/7 so that businesses and homeowners have peace of mind that if an alarm is raised it will be received and dealt with quickly.
What happens when an alarm is raised by a lone worker?
If an Alarm Receiving Centre was to receive an alarm from a lone worker an operative will be notified by computer & phone. They will then:
- look at the data they have and speak to the worker to assess the situation
- If the alarm is genuine (and not a false alarm) they will reassure the lone worker and give support
- they will then notify the relevant responders - this is likely to be a designated manager or colleague
- If they cannot get in contact with these people they will either send their own responders or alert the emergency services
- In the case of a genuine emergency they will contact the emergency services first and then notify the other designated responders
Will the emergency services always be alerted?
An Alarm Receiving Centre will only contact the emergency services if there is a genuine emergency that requires the police, an ambulance or the fire service to attend. They will not call the emergency services for any alarm, as many people assume. This ensures that they do not waste the emergency services' time when an alarm could be dealt with by another responder (such as a manager or colleague who is close by).
If an ARC needs to alert the emergency services to an incident involving a lone worker, they will often get a faster response than if the lone worker was to call the emergency services themself. This is because ARCs use Unique Reference numbers (URNs). These numbers are given only to organisations that meet National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) guidelines. So, if the police are asked to respond to an incident via a URN, they know it has come from a trusted, reliable and accredited source.
Where is your ARC?
We are partnered with Fenix Monitoring; an award-winning, NSI Gold-approved Alarm Receiving Centre (ARC) based in Oxford, UK. Their state-of-the-art technology and highly trained operators provide an excellent service, fast response times and improved monitoring capabilities.
How reliable is your ARC?
Our partnership with Fenix Monitoring ensures a reliable service for you due to:
Faster connections – Fenix Monitoring has demonstrated exceptional performance. In the past year, they responded to 89.08% of lone worker activations within 10 seconds, surpassing the industry requirement of 80%. Their average response time was just 5 seconds.
Proactive system health checks - Fenix Monitoring emphasises innovation and customer-centric service, aiming to reduce false alarms by up to 90% and providing proactive equipment health checks
Decades of industry experience – the Directors and staff at Fenix are true, industry experts and are able to answer all questions quickly and accurately.
Read more about Fenix, their accreditations and their team here.
Does my organisation have to use an Alarm Receiving Centre for alarms?
No - it is up to you and/or your organisation to decide whether alarms raised by your lone workers go to an ARC or directly to someone (or a security team) in your organisation.
This is something you should have already outlined in your emergency response procedure in your Lone Worker Policy. It will likely depend on a few factors including; the level of risk your lone workers face, the environment your lone workers work in and the proximity of your lone workers to managers or colleagues.
If you need to create or update your Lone Worker Policy we can help. Simply download our Lone Worker Policy Guide for advice on how to write this policy and a template to use so you don't miss anything out.
I have my own ARC, can I manage alarms in my ARC?
Whilst we always recommend using our ARC, we understand that for some organisations you may prefer to use your own ARC or security team in your emergency response procedure. If this is the case we are happy to accommodate your preferences, as long as you can assure us that this is equally as safe as using our ARC.
During your onboarding session, our team will help you to create your escalation chain (who should be contacted when an alarm is raised) and include your ARC or security team within this.
