Health kick

To its great credit, UNISON has since fully supported and worked alongside the Security Management Service to tackle this troublesome agenda and, in June, played a huge part in establishing the inaugural ‘Security Awareness Month’ throughout the NHS. The aim? To encourage staff to report violent incidents, heighten awareness of the work carried out by the Security Management Service and to raise the profile of local security management specialists in general.

The latter are trained and accredited professionals who have been appointed by health bodies across England to tackle security issues on a local basis while providing a single point of contact for staff and the police. They have a simple objective – to deliver a safe and secure environment which then allows NHS staff to provide high quality patient care.

Sounds superb, but delve below the veneer of political spin and the reality is a little disturbing. Two-and-a-half years in, it remains unclear how many local specialists a given NHS Trust should appoint. Financial constraints – surprise, surprise – have limited the recruitment of area security management specialists. The four in post are swamped with bureaucracy.

In addition, each local specialist must pass a security foundation course accredited by the University of Portsmouth. Excellent. However, as Nick van der Bijl points out (‘Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea’, pp24-26), that course ignores the key elements of security planning, the complexities of security surveys and the refined skills absolutely essential to successful general management.

The mandatory principles of attendance on this course and its curriculum would appear to present a risk to the development of healthcare security. Experienced and qualified security managers – a commodity demanded by the NHS – may now look elsewhere to further their careers.

The Security Management Service is the ‘new boy’ on the security block. It cannot assume it knows best. Dealing with violence and aggression is fine, but that must not be the sole focus. There has to be a move towards training for those wider security management issues currently overlooked.