Skills and standards setting body Skills for Security reports new suites of National Occupational Standards for Security Dog Handling and Cash and Valuables in Transit (CViT).
Developed, SfS says, with leading sector employers, the standards have been approved by the UK Co-ordinating Group acting on behalf of the qualification regulators.
Ruth Oliver, Standards Development Manager at SfS said: "The need for the development of new CViT standards was identified during the Security Industry Authority (SIA) consultation on licensing of the sub-sector when it became apparent, that the existing standards, ‘Transporting Property Under Guard’, no longer reflected the way the sector was operating. In a similar way, the security dog handling standards became essential when it was determined that the sub-sector would not be licensed and the three key industry bodies, the National Association for Security Dog Users (NASDU), the National Training Inspectorate for Professional Dog Users (NTIPDU) and the British Institute for Professional Dog Trainers (BIPDT), approached us to develop these standards as a professional benchmark."
Both standards, SfS says, are the result of national industry consultation, with more than 20 organisations, including the four major cash carrying companies, contributing to the development of the CViT standards and ten organisations from the private and public sectors supporting the dog handling standards development work.
Steve Hill of NASDU said: "We cannot stress enough, both the significance and importance of these new standards. With the increased overlap of private security sector and policing sector responsibilities, we now have a professional benchmark that allows us to develop a progressive qualifications framework and that will give our police colleagues confidence in the private security dog sub-sector. I am delighted to have been an active member of the Skills for Security steering group."
All standards developed by SfS are available on the National Occupational Standards Directory, which can be accessed via:
