On the town with London’s booze bus

Title – On the town with London’s booze bus
Source – The London Paper
Date – 19th December 2006

The emergency services in cities round the country face increased pressures driven mainly by alcohol related incidents, over 38,000 annually in London alone. Ambulance staff and paramedics know that a large part of their duties on a Friday and Saturday night will involve dealing with alcohol related incidents, many may resent it and many feel like their time and skills are being wasted by these cases, which are essentially self inflicted.

Within the licensed retail sector and security industry, professional door supervisors are realising that they have a role to play in ensuring that this increasing problem is controlled, managed and redressed. Although the pressures on bars and clubs to reach sales targets are continually increasing, many are realising the advantage of responsible alcohol retailing rather then discounting and encouraging binge drinking. Some in the industry are realising that while selling 4 discounted drinks to binge drinkers is one way to ensure maximum turnover, selling one at full price to a customer (with the lower overheads this can offer in staff cost alone) is just as profitable.

Door supervisors, managers and licensed retail staff rely on their ability to call the police, fire brigade or ambulance service whenever they are needed and assume that they will turn up in support. But if we are to start working as a team with the emergency services, then we can not just demand their assistance, we also have to offer ours.

The professionalism spread via the Security Industry Authority and those working to promote better levels of training in the industry, has made managers and staff stop and start to realise; that controlling those within our venues has the potential to reduce the number of drink related incidents that spill onto the streets and tie up the time of those emergency service staff we rely on to support us.

On the other side of the equation, as much as door supervisors and managers are employed to protect staff and other members of their team, by considering members of the emergency services are part of the bigger support team and essentially being on our side, we have a duty to protect them too. Assaults against ambulance and NHS staff are at unacceptable levels and responsible licensed retailing sector has a role to play in reducing these attacks.

We believe that training is the basis of making the security industry more professional. By presenting In-House Security Induction Courses (IHSI) we can train your staff specifically for your venue and where required provide the National Certificate for Door Supervisors (NCDS) to help individuals attain their SIA Door Supervisors Licence. We help our clients through Consultancy Projects to put systems into place to ensure that all staff are aware and capable of playing their part in providing safe and responsibly managed venues.

We also provide courses for NHS staff, ambulance staff and paramedics in Conflict Management and Resolution (CMR) to enable them to control volatile situations and reduce violence toward them and their colleagues.

Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk

Virginia police sign out on code words

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Title – Virginia police sign out on code words
Source – www.bbc.co.uk
Date – 7th December 2006

Communication is just one of the skills taught in Beyond The Blue’s Conflict Management & Resolution course (CMR). But communication comes in various forms. To be effective working within the security industry we have to understand both communication with our customers who ever they may be and in whatever state they are in and also effective communication between our own teams.

As this article proves even the police get it wrong and have to evolve. Codes are used both by the police and the security industry. The point of code words is to make communication of key information clear and concise, to allow individuals communicate vital information or ask for help without needing to give a big explanation. This information is often transmitted over two way radio or in environments where there is excessive noise or where individuals are under extreme pressure. These communication blocks often lead to communication break downs.

As the police in the New York found during the 9/11 terrorist attack, when many different forces came together to help and support each other, communication broke down as each individual team had slightly different code words. This balance is very important, enough code words to cover emergencies and common problems, but not so many that they become confusing.

In the security industry code words are commonly used and every bar and club seems to have a different set of codes they work from. Through Consultancy Projects, we help develop communication systems that allow all members of staff to understand each other whatever area they work in. This process can be reinforced by In-House Security Induction training (IHSI) and Venue Specific Manuals that we can develop to set systems for your venue. For clients with more then one venue these systems are especially useful as they can be rolled out across all venues, so that staff who may be interchangeable will be able to work in any venue, rather then having to learn a whole new set of rules and systems each time they move.

We have staff who have been developing systems for over 15 years, they are tried and tested and work effectively in many different environments. When we start a Consultancy Project we examine your current set up and reinforce the positive systems already in place and review and replace those that are letting your team down. We work within your environment with your staff and management so that the changes we advise on, already have the support of those people who will need to enforce them once they are in place. We don’t assume we know best and don’t dictate, because each venue has its unique features, but our systems help clients to achieve their goals.

Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk