How Solent Rescue Gains Oversight Over 7 Independent Lifeboat & Rescue Organizations With D4H

Customer Background

The Solent is the strait that separates the Isle of Wight from Great Britain. It is about 20 miles long and varies in width between 2.5 and 5 miles. Solent Rescue was formed in 1971 by auxiliary coastguards as a beach rescue unit in response to a rising level of incidents following increased numbers of visitors each year. The founders wished to address dangers including very strong currents, a shale spit, and Gull island (both of the latter are only visible at low tide with middle sections becoming submerged first thus leading to people getting cut off by the returning water).

The organization operates 2 inshore boats, an Arctic 24 and an ex RNLI D class. They work closely with nearby units to provide safety cover to one of the busiest commercial and leisure waterways in the UK. With everything from cruise liners & cargo vessels, ferries & fast catamarans, and even paddle boarders & windsurfers, Solent Rescue can be called upon to assist all manners of people and animals that may need help when they least expect it.

The Challenge

Solent Rescue was looking for a solution to ease the centralized administrative burden
of the organization as a whole and to help each of the independent lifeboat organizations manage their personnel, equipment, and incident reporting records. They wanted to connect multiple teams together to report upwards to a single organization, Solent Rescue. The idea behind this was to create large datasets to understand their resources, capabilities, personnel, and equipment available within their organization as a whole.

The Solution

Solent Rescue deployed D4H to assist their organization and achieve oversight over each of the individual lifeboat and rescue teams that they oversee. They’ve experienced a number of improvements in their organization;

Multiple Team Data

By connecting all 7 teams together, Solent Rescue can aggregate statistics into a common dashboard for better reporting and analysis. They use a D4H Organization Account to achieve this, the account sits above the individual team accounts, drawing information from each of these individual accounts and allowing Solent Rescue to accumulate the records they need to analyze and report on the rescue team activity across the organization.

Common Reporting

Solent Rescue can now ensure that all teams are using the same reporting forms, categories, and tags and update forms in real-time across their association.

Information Access Levels

Solent Rescue can control permission levels for the organization, allowing central officers, management, and team leaders to view and access information within the Organization Account.

No Paperwork Delays

Electronic reporting removes the delays created by paper-based reporting. Once a report is published, all organization statistics, charts, and maps are immediately updated.

Compare & Contrast

They can now put the teams side-by-side to compare and contrast their ability to pass an audit or receive grants for their logistics, incident command, response, and capabilities.

Determine Training Requirements

D4H has provided the visibility to allow Solent Rescue to oversee training requirements throughout each of their teams. Deciding what the training liability and costs look like, and what budgetary requirements are coming in the next year has now been simplified.