Security News and Industry Updates!

Ask For “Angela”.

What on Earth is this I hear you ask? The “Ask for Angela” initiative has been around for several years now but it remains a hugely important method of ensuring the safety of vulnerable Women in uncomfortable or dangerous situations.

Quite simply, if a Woman is being harassed, threatened or feels intimidated or unsafe whilst on a night out on licensed premises she can simply “Ask for Angela” at the bar, or a member of staff. The vast majority of operators of licensed premises will have educated their employees as to what needs to be done in these circumstances. Normally, the Woman in trouble will be taken to a safe place in a back of house area, a friend or taxi will be called, then she will be escorted out of a rear exit to meet her means of departure. The man or group causing the problem can be stalled by staff, until the subject of the harassment is safely on her way home or to a safe location.

If this is news to you please spread the word and let your loved ones know what to do and who to ask for, if they are in trouble on a night out!

Violence reduction initiative to promote student safety.

Starting in late November our South East Partnerships and Interventions team worked with local police forces targeting five university towns calling at their top pubs and clubs where students go to socialise.

The South East team shared best-practice guidance on safer physical intervention for door supervisors as a reminder of how to keep their clients and themselves safe.

Our team shared a poster and leaflets which featured guidance and illustrations of best practice for safer restraint. The collateral was intended to be a quick reminder for door supervision licence holders and relates to the training they received in physical intervention. At the time of writing the poster has been downloaded nearly 500 times.

The aims of the events were to promote the importance of safer restraint and reduce any possible violence during the run up to Christmas. The initiative was trialled in Brighton, Reading, Hatfield, Canterbury and Oxford and was designed to improve students’ safety during the Christmas partying season. Our team worked in partnership with Sussex Police, Thames Valley Police and Hertfordshire Constabulary.

Kevin Young, our Investigations Manager, South East Region, says that the initiative was a positive way to promote safer working practices at venues that are likely to encounter violence and was well received by the pubs and clubs that were visited.

“We wanted students and young people to have a great night out and go home this Christmas unharmed. It also ensured the safety of the licensed door supervisors who work at these venues, the majority of whom do a very good job in challenging circumstances.”

An outcome of the initiative is that a Reading doorman was found to have a cloned licence; the investigation continues.

The campaign also sought to persuade businesses and door supervisors in the local night time economy to report incidents to the police so that we can get an accurate picture of the level of violence that takes place against students and door supervisors.

The National Crime Statistics reveal that victims of assault are usually male (2.1% compared with 1.3% of women) and they account for a larger proportion of victims of violence with injury sustained (53% compared with women at 47%) and they are aged between 16 and 24. Incidents of violence increases when alcohol is involved.

A Fantastic Silver Fox Audit Result!

100% success for Moor House Security Team.

Throughout the past year the Silver Fox Audit team from FM Contract Watch have carried out a series of unannounced audits to independently test the Ultimate Security team contracted to Moor House Management Services Ltd. Savills in the City of London.

On 16^th November, Lynda Moore, Managing Partner of FM Contract Watch presented the 2018 Silver Fox Certificate to two members of the Security team, David Nicholson and Gary Cobham, in recognition of the excellent results achieved by all the Officers who passed every audit, reaching 100% on 3 occasions.

*Madeleine Pugh, Operations Manager, for Moor House was delighted with the results and congratulated the Security Officers on their outstanding success.*

*L – R Madeleine Pugh, David Nicholson, Gary Cobham, Mike Harding.*

(We have asked Lynda Moore, to tell us more about these audits, featured later in this issue….

TPSO would very much like to add it’s congratulations to the entire security team. Nice work! ……Ed.)

Security Institute: Education, Accreditation, Training & Standards Initiative!

Just in case you thought that nobody else cares about standards of training within the security industry, here is just one of the new initiatives being rolled out by The Security Institute………..

For many years the training provision and the personal and professional development of security staff has been a topic of debate, and with an industry made up of so many sectors it is little wonder that the debate continues with so many differing views.

The Security Institute (SyI) has for a number of years, held Continuous Professional Development (CPD) with its deserved value, and made it integral to the development of the individuals’ journey from Associate (ASyI) to Member (MSyI) to Fellow (FSyI).

As the SyI continues to engage its members and drive improvements within the industry, a number of Special Interest Groups (SIG) have been developed and one of the newest was launched at last years SyI annual conference on 24^th October; Security Education, Accreditation, Training and Standards (SEATS). This is one of the most ambitious and encompassing SIGs and the team of volunteers have excellent diversity of industry experience amongst their number, something that the leadership team are looking forward to harnessing for the good of the wider security industry. To get such a team together with a common, greater goal is an achievement in itself.

Broadly speaking, the SEATS SIG is looking to start with a series of mapping exercises, establishing what training, education and accreditation are currently on offer, and which of those meet any current standards. Once the mapping is completed the individual workstreams will be looking at seeking improvements and advancement in aspects of its scope.

So please assist and look out for and engage with the mapping and developments that we will pass out via a number of channels.

Ron Gregory MSyI – Chair, The Security Institute, S.E.A.T.S. Special Interest Group

(This is a big deal, and if you have any thoughts we will be glad to pass them on to the Security Institute, admin@PeerPublishing.Ltd ………..Ed.)

The Security Industry Authority consultation on the skills’ specifications for licence-linked qualifications.

In October 2018 the Security Industry Authority (SIA) launched a consultation which will help to determine the content of the next generation of licence-linked qualifications for the private security industry. The consultation ran for four weeks concluding on 26 October.

Employers and prospective operatives spend a considerable sum of money each year on these qualifications, and they need to be fit-for-purpose. The SIA can achieve this only with the help of the private security industry.

The consultation was structured around the SIA’s six licensable sectors (below) that require a qualification. These are supported by nine skills’ specifications being consulted on and they include common industry knowledge and specialist content areas that go into making up the licence-linked qualifications. Visit the SIA website for the table of existing specifications.

The SIA’s licensable sectors that require qualifications are:

Cash and Valuables in Transit
Close Protection
Door Supervision
Public Space Surveillance (CCTV)
Security Guarding
Vehicle Immobiliser.

The specifications will be re-drafted following this consultation, and will be put out to two further rounds of public consultation.

Tony Holyland, SIA Head of Quality & Standards, says:

“This consultation is a fantastic way for those of you working in the industry to contribute and to help to get the specifications right. This is your opportunity to shape the future of the licence-linked qualifications to ensure they are relevant for your industry in the years ahead.”

The specifications were created in collaboration with the private security industry. The SIA worked with expert working groups drawn from each of the specialist areas to develop the content for the qualifications.

The SIA has commissioned IFF Research to carry out research into the industry which will finish in October. The findings of the research will be used to help shape the next edition of the specifications.

When this consultation concludes the SIA will work together with the expert working groups and they will analyse, review and amend them.

The SIA will then make the next draft of the specifications available to the public again for comment. This will be supported by a further consultation that will be designed around more in-depth interviews.

The development of the specifications is a key milestone in the SIA’s Private Security Skills & Qualifications Review; and this consultation is an essential element.

(When the SIA releases it’s ‘next steps’, TPSO magazine will let you know, and we will campaign for the rights and wishes of front line UK security workers. What do you want to tell the SIA?… Within reason…. Let TPSO know …….. Ed)

So many of us work alone, out of hours or a long way from help or support. TPSO is an enthusiastic supporter of the Lone Worker Safety Expo. We asked reporter Mark Glover, to tell us all about LWSE 2018…..

RE-INVENTING THE WHEEL

The 2018 Lone Worker Safety Expo represented a shift in attitude toward mental health and wellbeing and a strong urge to re-define what the term lone working actually means.

“Can you see why I struggle with this term lone worker?” said Nicole Vazquez, addressing delegates inside No 11 Cavendish Square, a grade 2 listed Georgian townhouse and venue for the conference.

Event organiser Nicole had just canvassed the floor asking delegates how their job role incorporates lone working: sectors including security, transport and retail were put forward. “It [lone working] can mean so many different things to so many different people,” Nicole responded. “But we have to somehow bring everyone together on all of this.”

Taking place in central London on October 2, the conference had undergone something of a re-brand. The show’s content looked to represent the fluid nature of lone working and to question the nature of the risks to employees. Content straddled legislation, regulation and technology but also ventured into new territory including mental health and wellbeing.

“Over the last couple of years there has been an advancement in the recognition that isolation can have on stress,” Nicole continued in her introduction to the day, acknowledging that the traditional idea of risk has now changed.

Still though, legislation and regulation underpins health and safety and following a welcoming address by Louise Ward, Health, Safety and Environment Director at Siemens, speakers from The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and law firm Pinsent Masons gave delegates insight into what to look out for in that regard.

“There is no lone worker act or lone worker regulation said Sean Elson, Partner at Pinsent Masons, “Most of the issues that I see around lone working are seen through the prism of the general duties of the Health and Safety at Work Act, through risk-assessment, arrangements under the Management Regulations, PUWER and COSHH.”

And while the law, according to Elson “remains stable”, what is expected as ‘reasonably practicable’ is changing. “It does not stay the same. It is constantly moving,” he said. “What is it we have to do to satisfy our duties.” Referencing PPE: “It is changing at a rapid rate, even though the under lying legal duties, you could say, haven’t changed in years.”

The HSE was represented by Barbara Hockey, Head of the regulator’s Vulnerable Worker Team, an area that encompasses lone workers and in recent years has seen a shift in mental health, stress and wellbeing factors. The HSE’s management standards, Hockey said, are useful to apply when dealing with employers who have work related stress issues. “They apply a systemic approach,” she said, “so it can really help work through the issue.”

Chris Shaw, Head of Health and Safety at North East London NHS Foundation Trust, shared with delegates the NHS’s mantra towards health and safety and lone working. “If you don’t look after your staff, then how can you look after your patients?” he said.

Shaw’s trust is a community and mental health one, and its many staff are seen as lone workers who often find themselves in vulnerable positions and Shaw explained the challenges involved in managing such a workforce. “The NHS across the UK, employs approximately two million people; it’s a business in itself,” he said. “across all sorts of roles: engineers and construction and they all lone work.”

Previous speakers Louise Ward and Sean Elson who were joined by Heather Beach from the Healthy Work Company, Adi Scott from Worthwhile Training, IOSH’s Duncan Spencer, BSIA Lone Worker Section Vice-Chairman Craig Swallow and Matthew Trigg from Human Applications for a lively panel debate on the morning’s content.

The panel and the floor came back to the definition of the term lone working and what it means in 2018 and beyond. “Additional guidance would be useful for the duty holders,” said Sean Elson, with a nod towards the HSE.

Post-lunch workshops covering managing violence and aggression, risk assessing and duty of care and helping employees stay safe while travelling abroad were all enthusiastically attended, including Heather Beach’s session on managing the mental health and wellbeing of lone workers. “A lack of human connection is a stress factor for lone workers,” she said before saying that “depression will be the leading cause of disability by 2020, according to the World Health Organisation.”

It’s a startling statistic and one that took some delegates by surprise. The impact of stress on lone workers was one of the key takeaways from the day, as was the notion that some delegates didn’t even realise they had lone workers in their ranks at all.

Speaking to event organiser Nicole after the event she told me of one conversation she had with a delegate. “I came thinking I had six lone workers, but after today, I realised I had 54,” they told.

Nicole continued: “If today we have expanded the definition of lone working and highlighted to organisations how it can have a real impact on their employees’ safety, security and wellbeing, we will have achieved what we set out to do this year. Next year we aim to provide even more advice about how you manage the risks”.

Mark Glover -Freelance: Writer, editor and digital content +44 (0) 77 9294 6684 – https://markgloverwriting.wordpress.com/

The UK OSPAs announced the finalists of the 2019 awards:

At a networking reception held at International Security Expo on Wednesday 28^th November 2018.

Now in their third year, the UK OSPAs serve to acknowledge the creditable and infinite contributions that companies, initiatives, teams and individuals make to the security industry and wider community. The awards recognise exceptional performance in different categories.

“The standard of entries this year has again been really high making the judging process as difficult as ever” commented Professor Martin Gill, Founder of the OSPAs. “Those that have been selected were marked independently by the judging panel and all reached a score threshold – ensuring they represent the very best in the industry.”

Finalists will now go forward to the next phase of the competition and winners will be announced at the OSPAs awards dinner taking place on Thursday, 28^th February 2019 at the Royal Lancaster London.

The 2019 UK OSPAs have been sponsored by Innovise, global leaders in workforce management software to the security service sector. Martin Gill further added “we are delighted to be working with Innovise as our headline sponsor, the staff have shown great interest and support for the OSPAs and what they stand for.”

The 2019 finalists are:

Outstanding In-House Security Manager/Director

supported by ASIS UK Chapter