Draft27-12

ST17
SIA chief: ACS
is changing
next year
Likely change to the requirements
for SIA-approved contractors and for
renewing your SIA licence were aired
by the chief executive of the Security
Industry Authority (SIA), Alan Clamp,
at ST17.
On Project Griffin, the
voluntary training for security
officers to be aware of hostile
reconnaissance of sites, whether by
thieves or potential terrorists, Alan
Clamp, pictured, suggested that the
Griffin training might be built into
the qualification required for an
application for an SIA licence. He
did note that about a third of Griffin’s
content was already in the SIArequired
training already for a security
officer. It might become a requirement
for renewal of licences, he said. (A
precedent for SIA-badged people to
have to get extra qualifications, was
door staff having to pass training in
how to be aware of risks to vulnerable
people, not in the original curriculum
for the door badge when introduced in
the mid-2000s).
Review
Likewise, guarding companies
and others who are members of
the approved contractor scheme
(ACS) might be required to show
that they are aware of Griffin, and
promoting the training with their
own staff. talking of ACS, Alan
Clamp pointed out that the scheme
was slightly over ten years old (and
thus nearly as old as the badging
of individuals) and ‘has never been
changed fundamentally since it
started, although it has evolved over
time; and over the past seven or eight
months we have been doing a review
of it. This will continue until the end
of the business year.” As he said,
an independent research company
has talked to ‘a lot of organisations,
sending out a lot of questionnaires’.
Implications
The researchers have come
back to the SIA with ‘around 15
recommendations on how the scheme
can be improved’. “We are now
looking at this and thinking about the
practical implications,” Alan Clamp
told ST17. The recommendations
will be ‘distilled’ and put before the
industry for their thinking. Inevitably,
as he added, when you have 830
companies in the scheme, ‘you will
probably have more than 830 different
views’. But ACS fundamentally
should be a ‘hallmark of a company
that provides high quality security
provision’. You can expect to see
details published next year; and if
you’re due to have your ACS status
renewed, and wonder if it’ll fall
under the present requirements or
whatever’s new, Alan Clamp assured
the audience that the SIA would
provide ‘a clear timeline’ about
adjusting to become compliant. On
what the industry told the review and
what will come of it, he said: “The
vast majority of people have said; ‘it’s
approved contractor scheme:
ok’, ‘we would like a bit more of this’
and ‘a bit less of that’. But nobody is
saying ‘chuck it out of the window’.”
Clamp said the ACS after the review
would ‘still be recognisable’ and
‘not too challenging, if you are in the
scheme, to stay in’.
What next
He closed his talk with ‘what next’ for
the private security regulator. A new
leaflet is coming out aimed at buyers
of SIA-regulated services, titled “Do
you buy security? The regulator’s
guide to buying private security’.
He said: “We are trying to engage
more with buyers to get them more
informed and aware, to ask the right
questions so they know what they are
buying”, for example services that
are proportionate to risk. The SIA
is carrying on its work with police,
the children’s charity Barnardos and
others, for example towards reducing
violence in the vicinity of guarded
premises, not least violence against
the security guards themselves.
There’s that review of the ACS; and
further work with police for cooperation
between uniformed police
and private security guard forces, in
London but also outside the capital;
and more on training, particularly
on counter-terrorism. And finally the
SIA sticking to its remit of improving
standards and protecting the public.
He recalled the Home Office review
of the SIA, begun in January 2016
that gathered evidence in by July
2016. Thanks to the 2017 general
election and changes in Home Office
junior ministers that are responsible
for the Authority, the SIA is still
waiting for the report. p
From top: Andrew
Saywell at the Tavcom
Training stand. With
squeezy van giveaways,
Jamie Harris,
Paul Shipman and Tony
Wheat at the Security
Supplies stand. Below,
part of the exhibition
floor; and Julie McGill at
the Winsted stand
Photos by Mark Rowe
www.professionalsecurity.co.uk DECEMBER 2017 PROFESSIONAL SECURITY 70
p68,9 STa 27-12.indd 2 18/11/2017 15:16