For front of house staff at visitor attractions, there may be overlaps between first aid, customer care and security. The head of operations at an historic London site spoke (again) to Professional Security.
We first featured Gerry McCartney when he was based at the Imperial War Museum (IWM) flagship south London site at Lambeth. In recent years he has been head of operations at the Cabinet War Rooms (CWR). The visitor can appreciate how security and safety can be intertwined. Go through the double doors and a member of staff behind a table says ‘I’m security’, and asks to search your bag. You then can turn right and go down stairs to a reception desk (where a sign on the wall says that for security reasons there aren’t cloakroom facilities). Briefly, the CWR was an underground bunker where wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill could shelter from the worst German bombing. As the IWM has taken pains to keep the site as authentic as possible, there are things you might bump your head on. The site has 330,000 visitors a year, yet Gerry reports that there’s only about one incident a month involving staff or visitors. It might be a child on a school trip who feels poorly from eating too much; or someone having heart palpitations. It may be a case of taking the unwell person to somewhere quiet, and offering assistance – which may be ‘care and comfort’ rather than treatment to an injury – until the professionals arrive, whether paramedics or an ambulance or a fully-qualified first-aider. No two places are alike: another of the IWM’s London estate, HMS Belfast moored on the Thames, has ladders and all the potential things you can slip or trip into on a (de-commissioned) warship.
At the War Rooms, Gerry reports that no-one has had to be sent to hospital for two years. As he says: "Part of our ‘problem’ is actually that our first aiders don’t get enough practice. So it does mean they feel perhaps they aren’t using their skills; that they are losing their skills. So we make sure that people go on refreshers courses, if they are full first aiders." And these volunteer first aiders do get a small amount of cash, or extra paid time off, as a thank-you by the employer rather than an enticement. Gerry speaks of a possible shift by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) more towards ‘appointed persons’ who have one-day training in first aid, so as to assist a casualty, rather than full first-aiders, who have four days of training. Something else Gerry mentions is that the first aiders, by being willing to take the extra training, are the sort of people who may seek to move from front of house to other roles; ‘so there’s a fair amount of turnover’. So when the site has a full time of first-aiders, one by one they may need to be replaced. In short, there’s no such thing as a no-risk area. The CWR has begun using the Rivo safety, health and environmental reporting software. Any accidents get reported, and instead of ploughing through pieces of paper, managers can check the software to see if places, times of day or whatever are particular causes of bumps or falls.
The Cabinet War Rooms are also home to the Churchill Museum. Events range from evening talks to functions and dinners. VIP visitors have included the then US President George W Bush; and the chairman of the Post Office. For even what might sound routine, security is required. Take the museum’s small temporary exhibition about the Post Office and the 1914-18 war. Among the exhibits was a Victoria Cross. Such a priceless medal needed to go inside a heavy-duty cabinet; and a dome camera was fitted in the ceiling above especially. Gerry confessed to feeling relief that such an exhibit would no longer be on his hands. And as Gerry escorted Professional Security to the exit, he helped two lads in a party of blue-blazered schoolboys with their ‘talking guides’. A head of operations’ work is never quite done.
