Innovative wristbands keep tabs on young people

State-of-the-art tracking technology developed by The Nucleus based company, The Hug Group, is helping schools avoid health and safety hiccups and steer clear of the subsequent threat of compensation claims.

Pictured: Head of Technology at The Hug Group Lee Denness

Innovative wristbands produced by the start-up, based at The Nucleus Business and Innovation Centre in Brunel Way, Dartford, allow teachers and youth group leaders to easily keep tabs on young people in their care on school trips and excursions, and are being hailed as a ‘game-changer’.

The technology is now set to become commonplace in classrooms up and down the country.

Latest figures from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents have revealed that one person dies every year on a school trip in the UK. Andy Davies, the chief executive of wearable technology start-up The Hug Group, is confident the wristbands can help reduce that number to zero.

“He said: “The stress of school trips can be overwhelming for teachers. The endless risk assessments and health and safety checks mean you can become a nervous wreck keeping tabs on the children and you can’t have eyes everywhere.

“We want to provide an extra layer of safety that removes that stress and allows trips to be enjoyable for everyone. We see ourselves as the equivalent of wearing a seatbelt in the car, it’s that something extra which keeps you safe".

Mr Davies, a former city banker, was driven to launch the product, which sends notifications to a smartphone when a child wearing a device wanders away from a pre-defined zone, after being separated from his child during a trip to the zoo.

He added: “It was the worst five minutes of my life. I went to get a coffee and when I looked around he was nowhere to be seen. He eventually turned up at the top of a climbing frame.

“You can’t legislate for what children will do. When you’re attending to one child in the woods another might run off after a squirrel or hide behind a tree. This technology removes the need to several pairs of eyes in the back of your head and puts your mind at rest.”

The Hug Group has taken advantage of the Nucleus’ partnership with Oxford Innovation, to connect to a network of 24 centres, 1,000 companies and strong external resource and knowledge-sharing partnerships.

As a result, the company teamed up with students from the University of Coventry’s London campus to carry out market research and look at potential new ways of using the data collected on the devices, such as tackling childhood obesity. The Hug Group has developed and is currently testing these new solutions.

The network of actively curated contacts provided by Oxford Innovation has helped the company to improve its business development.

Matthew McClarty, innovation director at Oxford Innovation, said: “The Hug Group came to the Nucleus in 2017 as a startup with a great solution to help teachers with the stressful task of keeping track of young children when out on excursions.

“Oxford Innovation’s business support is not just about coaching, it’s about making things happen.

“Connecting Hug with the local business community and nearby schools has resulted in successful product trials and deep collaborative relationships being formed.

“We look forward to seeing them continue to flourish and make a real impact on the safety of the next generation, bringing much-needed peace of mind to teachers and youth leaders.”

Mr Davies added: “The support we have received from Oxford Innovation has been fantastic and opened doors that we wouldn’t previously have had access to. Getting that first deal over the line is so important and with the schools community working so closely we hope this can lead to dozens of new clients.”