Security Focus: The professional face of door security
Goodbye bouncer. Hello door supervisor. November 1 was a momentous day for the trade's 'greeters'. With Scotland coming on board that day, every pub, club and bar in the UK must now ensure that all doorstaff are registered with the Security Industry Authority (SIA).
October's postal strikes might mean some applicants north of the border didn't get their licence on time. But as long as you've done your part of the job the SIA will, hopefully, be sympathetic.
Anyway, it's safe to say that door security has entered a new era. Nearly 250,000 people now carry an SIA badge, many of them the licensees themselves. There's certainly no excuse for hiring unregistered doorstaff - you can check them all on the SIA's website. And perhaps even stronger evidence of what's changed is the fact that more than 900 doorstaff have already been struck off or suspended. The SIA scheme is living proof that professional standards are rising on pub doors across the country.
Not too many years ago people might have laughed at the idea that 'bouncers' could have their own professional organisation, and even their own awards. But both exist under the banner Conflict Professional, which handed out its second annual set of accolades recently.
Among them was a new special award, sponsored by the BII, for the door supervisor who, as well as being good at their job, had the "communication and interpersonal skills to actively improve the management of conflict among their peers".
That went to Scott Gornall of Professional Security UK for his performance as head doorman of Norman's Bar in Leeds. Scott will receive up to £1,000 worth of training with security training centre ConflictPro.
Top award in the licensed trade, also supported by the BII, went to David Pattinson of FGH Security for his work at Passions nightclub in Kendal, Cumbria. David has used his 'crowd dynamics' experience to implement new queuing procedures, easing agitation and resulting in a "tremendous" fall in the number of calls to police.
Highly commended was Blake Golding of Regency Security, a victim of a 'glassing' incident who has since launched the POP campaign to replace glass with polycarbonate in high-risk venues.
