In the November print issue of Professional Security is an article by door security trainer Andy Walker, on the door staff training requirement newly brought in by the Security Industry Authority, after work by the Northumbria police and crime commissioner (PCC) Vera Baird, after the case of the rape in Newcastle of a 17-year-old. Here is part of what Vera Baird wrote in a Policy Exchange collection of essays by PCCs.
โDoor staff needed to see that their work obligation could not oust their ordinary duty of care to another person need- ing help Their employers had to agree. The police officers who see a woman, worse for drink, walking down an unlit alley with a man, need to check if all is well. It seemed little known that having sex with a person who is too drunk to decide whether to consent ๏ฟผor refuse is the criminal offence of rape. It was clearly too little appreciated that an ordinary-looking male who says he is seeing a woman safely home, may be a predator not a Samaritan.
โWe developed what is truly a simple training package for all police officers and door staff. Once awareness is switched on, well-meaning people are ready to help. Nobody left out of account the need for people in the night time economy to look after them- selves, and there have been many campaigns to that effect, but being ready to take a protective step for someone who isnโt safe is all that we were encouraging.
โThe course, developed by Northumbria Police, Safe Newcastle, the local authority safeguarding and licensing teams, Tyneside Rape Crisis and Phoenix Security, our leading local door staff company, ensures that door supervisors learn how to assess triggers of vulnerability, assess how much alcohol someone has consumed. Of particular importance was the inclusion of a core conversation for both police and supervisors around how to recognise what was troubling and what was not and how to intervene in a range of ways if the former might be the case.
โPhoenix Security made sure that all their staff took this training within weeks. Other security firms quickly followed suit. The police were with us step by step. One tireless local police trainer is the star of this show although I view this scheme with great pride too, it is fantastic that as a PCC I have been able to lead from the front and bring partners together to bring about change. This programme is now being rolled out across the whole force area. In all the towns and cities of Northumbria, If someone is out and about, those who work in the night time economy now have the insight to spot potential problems and the skills to take action.
โA lot of research and effort went quickly in to developing this programme. As we tuned it, of course the truth became very clear, Currently, no door staff anywhere were being trained in safeguarding skills. The national Security Industry Authority had no such requirement …
โI asked the Home Secretary whether she knew and approved of what I called a gap in SIA training. To her great credit she responded strongly and asked me to talk to her senior staff who oversee the SIA. In short, the outcome of this work is that Northumbriaโs โVulnerability Train- ingโ has already become a compulsory part of Security Industry training. The SIA were as keen as anyone to support this work.
โThis training has now been taken up additionally by our street pastors, hotel staff, transport workers and British Transport Police, so our cities are acquiring more eyes and ears open to keeping people safer. The street pastors are particular stars. They do invaluable work, often freeing up the police, but they, and the other โeyes and earsโ need somewhere to take people for longer that they can easily be accommodated on club or pub premises, until their friends or family can be contacted. So in Newcastle, we are working, again with partners, to create a โSafeHavenโ in the very middle of the cityโs nightlife to be staffed by professionals from the health sector, funded by savings to be made on ambulance call outs.โ
In a speech to the Policy Exchange think-tank last month Home Secretary Theresa May said: โAlthough Bob Jones, the police and crime commissioner in the West Midlands, took the early decision not to proceed with the Business Partnering for Police scheme โ which would have used the private sector to deliver more efficient policing support services โ he has since revealed plans to design and implement a business and ICT improvement plan, working with the private sector.โ She summed up: โOur opponents said you couldnโt cut police spending without crime going up. They were proved wrong.โ
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Background
A year ago, the first Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) were elected across England and Wales, on low turn-outs. Charged with setting strategic policing priorities, holding chief constables and forces to account and improving public confidence in law enforcement, the 41 new PCCs form part of the Governmentโs police reform agenda.
A think-tank Policy Exchange says that it has consistently argued that single, democratically-elected figures have the potential for renewing the police governance model and revitalising the relationship between the public and the police. The Home Secretary Theresa May gave a talk on policing and PCCs to the think-tank on November 7 – for the speech in full visit the Home Office website on the gov.uk website.
As these reforms continue to bed in and the PCCs get to grips with their new roles, Policy Exchange asked a cross-party group of PCCs to share their perspectives on their first year in office, highlight the key initiatives they are leading, outline the challenges and opportunities facing policing, and describe how their new leadership can help the service to succeed. Visit the Policy Exchange website.
