Driving up standards

The first experience many people have when attending or visiting a hospital or other NHS premises is the car parking facilities. Safety for staff, visitors and patients is a key concern for hospitals so it’s vital to make car parks safer.

Setting the standards in parking
The Safer Parking Scheme, run by the British Parking Association for the Associations of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), is designed to show drivers where they can park safely. Car parks with the Award are provided with signage featuring the distinctive Park Mark® tick so that drivers know exactly where to go for safer parking.
    
2006 was the most successful year to date for the Safer Parking Scheme since it was launched in 2004. Membership increased by an impressive 40 per cent and award holder numbers stood at just over 2,900 parking facilities in spring this year, compared to around 2,000 at the same time last year.

Risk assesment
Park Mark® is designed to create a benchmark standard for all parking areas across the UK, and establish safer parking areas both for the public and their vehicles. Police Accredited Assessors undertake a site specific risk assessment, taking into account management and maintenance of the facility. The parking operator must put in place measures appropriate to the surroundings that help to deter criminal activity and anti-social behaviour, thereby doing everything they can to prevent crime and reduce the fear of crime in their
parking area.
    
When using a Park Mark® car park, people can be confident in the knowledge that the area has been thoroughly vetted by the Police and they are parking in a safe and non-threatening environment.

Car park crime
National statistics show that around 30 per cent of vehicle crimes occur in car parks. A car park with the Park Mark® has measures in place, such as patrols, surveillance and controlled entry and exit points, which are a real deterrent to crime. Some Park Mark® facilities have reported an 80 per cent drop in vehicle-related crime.

The safer parking treatment
In December 2003, the Secretary of State for Health launched a new strategy for security management work in the NHS, developed by the NHS Security Management Service (NHS SMS). A key part of this strategy was the introduction of the Local Security Management Specialist (LSMS) in each NHS health body – providing professional skills and expertise to tackle security management issues. There are now over 600 LSMS in place within local NHS Trusts throughout England and Wales.
    
The NHS SMS is also currently developing a strategy to specifically address car park safety, it will launch later in the year. The strategy, which the BPA has contributed to, will provide guidance to help ensure NHS car parks meet the standards of the SPS scheme.
    
The guidance will be essentially for Local Security Management Specialists (LSMS), risk managers and those who manage or operate car parks. It covers action that health bodies can take in seven areas: pro-security culture; deterrence; prevention; detection; investigation; sanctions and redress.

Caring for your customers
Proper and effective management of car parks is an important area of customer care. Another BPA initiative that will benefit all customers of NHS car parks is its Approved Operator Scheme (AOS), backed by a Code of Practice for Parking Enforcement on Private Land and Unregulated Car Parks.
    
The Code is designed to ensure that motorists are treated firmly but fairly: unreasonable, unfair enforcement will become a thing of the past. All AOS members that do not comply with the terms of the Code could have their BPA membership initially suspended, and possibly terminated.
    
Part 2 of the Code aims to standardise the industry’s approach to ticketing on private land and introduce a level of fairness for the consumer. Compliance with the Code will be monitored by the BPA and members will be required to submit evidence of compliance annually, highlighting any issues and identifying proposed solutions. A dedicated compliance manager will conduct regular and random testing via on-site inspections to ensure that the Code’s principles are being maintained.
    
This will mean an end to rogue companies issuing parking tickets on private land, which can often occur near to, if not within hospitals. Ensuring that you only employ companies in the Approved Operators Scheme, which comes into operation in October 2007, to manage your parking is another way to show that you care about your car park users.

What Park Mark® can do for you
It makes sense that anything you can do to reduce crime and make people feel safe in your parking facilities will bring benefits. Being a Park Mark® Safer Parking award holder can help achieve this. Now that we have a significant number of award holders all over the UK, it is the BPA’s intention to make sure that consumer awareness grows, so that award holders get maximum benefit from a drive to keep their facilities safe.
    
Research carried out in the north-west of England showed that, with greater awareness of the scheme, consumers are more likely to seek out an award-holding car park. We want people to actively choose to park where they see the Park Mark® sign.
    
A new regional marketing campaign is underway across six areas up and down the country covering the West Midlands, Yorkshire, North Wales, Strathclyde, Devon and Cornwall and Kent. This support will allow the Safer Parking Scheme to gather momentum and continue to grow throughout the year.
    
All this is about putting the Park Mark® tick firmly in the mind of consumers as the only choice for safer parking and, of course, ensuring that the membership is supported and rewarded for continued support.
    
The BPA is working closely with the NHS to make sure hospitals can take full advantage of the Safer Parking Scheme and have all the guidance and help they need. Park Mark® is about keeping people safe, so it’s in all our interests to drive up the standard for safer parking in hospitals.

For more information
Website: www.britishparking.co.uk