The University of Warwick will be the new venue for the annual National Association for Healthcare Security (NAHS) conference, and awards night dinner. The two-day event opens with the association’s AGM on Tuesday morning, November 25; then will have updates from the UK official NPSA (National Protective Security Agency) and on Martyn’s Law, the law passed in April and due to come into force in 2027 whereby premises, including hospitals, have to take steps to counter the threat of terrorism.
Looking forward
NAHS chair Roger Ringham, looking forward to the event, said that the landscape for healthcare security is changing rapidly. Assaults against healthcare staff are at an all-time high, he said. ‘Right Care Right Person’ is among the topics on day one; ACC (Assistant Chief Constable) Jenny Gilmer, the national police lead for private security and the community safety accreditation scheme, is due to speak. Roger said that that policy (whereby police will not attend a call about mental health which would be more properly handled by healthcare responders) means that police no longer can be relied upon as first responders.
Mental health and the concept of ‘capacity’, and an update on training standards from RRN (the Restraint Reduction Network) are further subjects on the first day. Briefly, the RRN is a body of organisations and individuals that work on against unnecessary use of restrictive practices. Up until now, this has only affected mental health and learning disability services commissioned by the NHS, Roger said: “However, version two of the RRN standards will expand to include acute trusts, ambulance trusts, secure transport and hospital based security services, contracted or in-house.” Those standards are under consultation, he added.
“We are also seeing a watershed moment across the security industry,” Roger said, pointing to the IPPS (integrated police and private security initiative, featured in the October edition of Professional Security Magazine). Add the coming into force of Martyn’s Law, and the cost of settling litigation claims as a result of violence, and ‘there is no doubt that investment in private security across the healthcare sector must increase’, he summed up.
For more details visit https://nahs.org.uk/nahs-awards/nahs-annual-conference-awards-2025/.
Background
The RRN has its own two-day conference in Liverpool and November 13 and 14.
After making Freedom of Information requests, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) pointed in August to what it described as ‘a rising tide of violence’. Professor Nicola Ranger, RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive, said it leads to physical and mental scarring, lengthy time off and sometimes staff never returning. “It’s unarguably true that you can’t fix the health service when vital staff are too scared to even go into work.” In response, NHS Employers said preventing and reducing violence is one of the areas to be included in a new set of standards for staff to be introduced by April 2026 as set out in the Ten-Year Health Plan.
Photo by Mark Rowe: among the 2024 NAHS awards winners, the security team at North Middlesex.
