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The Times They are a Changing, The new face of SIA Door Supervisor Training

Guest post by: James Seaward

Article Overview: With the ever evolving Security Industry Authority is the face of door supervisors changing for the better? How is the new Door Supervisor course criteria going to affect the industry?

The Times They are a Changing, The new face of SIA Door Supervisor Training

IIf asked to picture a door supervisor the typical image would be a large bent nose, cauliflower eared bouncer. Asked to describe the their behaviour and attitude one might say brutish, and prone to violence. Sadly this was the case a few years ago where any hard man could get a job working the doors. A fracas or altercation was often resolved with a bundling out of a fire exit and a physical telling off. Of course some of the customers were less than angelic and often created the situations themselves.

Since the formation of the Security Industry Authority the industry has been regulated with such initiatives as compulsory licensing of individuals undertaking designated activities within the private security industry and the approved contractor scheme which introduced a set of operational and performance standards for suppliers of private security services.

The aim was to ensure a more professional attitude and demeanor was adopted by door supervisors, ensuring that the priority of the job was customer services. However, over time deliverers of the required training have abused this. Seeing a huge potential market, trainees have been trained to “pass the exam” rather than ensure potential Door Supervisors could do the job efficiently and effectively. Another issue has been the dilution of courses to shorten the delivery time, therefore a faster course turnaround, some even offering enhancements of other training such as a first aid certificate within the prescribed time of the Door Supervisor course.

Another, perhaps more important issue was the fact that there was no Physical Intervention training supplied to Door Supervisors. The upshot of this was that whenever a violent altercation ensued the Door Supervisors dealt with it in whatever way they knew how. Often complaints and allegations of assault and GBH being levied at security staff.

In 2010 The SIA changed the criteria of the training of Door Supervisors making it more in depth and including mandatory contact with the tutor time of 30 hours, the full course time no less than 38 hours. Also included is a new physical intervention unit comprising of disengagement and escorting techniques. The positive of this is that the less than scrupulous trainers now will find it difficult to cut corners. It also means that if the techniques within the PI unit are adhered to, it would be unlikely that allegations of assault would be proven as the techniques themselves have been approved by home office doctors as low risk of injury.

There is a downside however. There are a number of different PI courses out there, all with there own techniques. If you have Door Staff that have trained in different systems, whether it be the CRW/Elite delivered by Shindo Trainingor another provider such as Maybo, it could lead to a lack of cohesion within the team as one member would not know the others approach.

Perhaps even more frightening is that at the time of writing this article the only new Door Staff have to complete the Physical Intervention Unit. Existing DS do not have to complete this training, not even when renewing their licence. With only an estimated 10% new Door Staff every year that means 90% remain untrained, so what’s changed?

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Article Tags: bouncers, Door Staff, door supervision, Door Supervisors, doorman, nightclub security, physical intervention, security industry authority, security training, SIA



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