 As many security staff across the country renew their SIA (Security Industry Authority), licences, it seems a good time to reflect. For the last three years (2004-2007), security companies have been coming to terms with the effects of new licensing for the industry. Other industry wide legislation, such as the licensing act and the smoking regulations have also had an impact on management of security operations. There’s been a lot to keep up with!
The smoking regulations have had a great impact recently. The greatest weight of responsibility to enforce no smoking falls to security staff at premises and events. It seems that in premises, people have been fairly compliant in regards to non smoking, and in this case management issues are outside premises. However, this has not necessarily been the case in marquees and other temporary structures. Here, it’s a question of public perception about environments where you can and can’t smoke. Clear signage and information announcements go partway but it is a tall order to enforce no smoking in a marquee at 3am, when there is a dance DJ in full swing.
Public perception is a fundamental factor in safety and crowd management. During 2007, the SIA suffered some bad publicity, in regards to an astounding number of illegal immigrants who had been awarded SIA licenses. There is no question that this presented a setback to the SIA, and added fuel to a number of ‘lack of efficiency’ arguments that the SIA have faced since day one.
Relations between the SIA and NOEA remain good, and a number of opportunities have presented themselves to promote security at events as a “specialism” to the SIA. Of particular reference was a meeting attended by NOEA General Council members and the SIA heads of enforcement (England and Scotland), where we were able to move forward to sophisticated levels of debate.
Over the last year, we have finally seen a shift away from NOEA’s Security Committee focusing solely on the SIA, and a move toward branching out to wider considerations.
Meetings with the SIA have also led to interesting developments with Skills for Security; the government body who lead on training within the security industry. This includes core curriculums set for the SIA, but also such things as physical intervention which have been long awaited by the security industry. Skills for Security have been very focused on door supervision as the only concern in regards to the leisure industry. As is often the case, it seems necessary for us in the events industry to shout a little louder to avoid being marginalized!
With the focus so often on security staff, NOEA is also looking forward to completing work in 2008, started in 2007, in regards to stewarding staff at events. It is right that not all safety staff at events will hold an SIA license. But this also means many staff at events may not have had the same level of training and checks as SIA staff. There certainly needs to be consideration given to these staff when staging an event to ensure competency.
Train to Gain is an initiative offering government funding for Level 2 NVQ’s in spectator safety and other qualifications. This can be accessed through private training companies and is worth consideration by security companies. This may bring some level of benchmark to stewarding, but is by no means event industry specific.
Government policy in regards to education includes the facilitation of diplomas in schools, to be rolled out over the next 5 years. The one diploma of key consideration for the events industry will be in Sport and Leisure.
In the midst of all of this, the requirement is for security companies to offer a holistic package of crowd management and deliver that package in a precise and flawless way, often on a restricted budget. The trick certainly seems to be having one eye on the basics, and the other on the future… without going cross eyed.
I am also pleased I have managed to write a whole article about the events industry without mentioning the Olympics. Oops.
Annemarie Chebib, Managing Director,
Select Security & Stewarding Ltd
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