Page 22 - the SyI Quarterly 13 - (V4)

Our Membership
‘NHS Security Management
Unique Management Challenges - Unique
Opportunities - Unique Rewards’
By Mike Lees CSyP FSyI & Lisa Corbridge MSyI
As I sit here writing this article I am acutely aware that my frontline,
uniform colleagues are supporting nursing staff to restrain a male
patient of 19 years who has acute mental health and physical
challenges. When they aren’t providing that essential support in
ensuring our nurses and other patients are safe from harm they
are engaged on mind-numbing bed-watch duties sat outside the
same patient’s cubicle in case he has a violent episode owing
to a rare form of epilepsy he has suffered since infancy. These
particular duties of our frontline colleagues and our responsibilities
as healthcare security managers are just one core segment of
a complex and richly diverse sector of public protection. As the
intention is to return to the thorny issues relating to NHS violence
and aggression please accept my disclaimer that the opinions
voiced in this article are mine alone and not the views of Barnsley
Hospital, G4S Secure Solutions or the wider NHS.
The modern-day UK National Health Service has always faced a legion of challenges and currently
these are increasing day by day. It is a misconception that the NHS is one national entity; in reality it
is over four-hundred individual, regional and national organisations alongside several thousand GP
surgeries. The NHS is the fifth largest employer in the world and its organisational spectrum ranges
from huge trauma centre acute hospitals to local cottage hospitals and large, secure mental health
establishments to small, allied health contractors. With some 1.3 million staff employed and a planned
expenditure of £172bn the security challenges soon become obvious. We manage a small security
unit within Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and contracted uniform officers (total staffing
13), whilst the hospital serves a population of some 250,000, with circa 350 patient beds and built
in 1970’s, so not the most modern building in the world. The Trust employs 3,500 staff and provides
emergency, intensive, medical and surgical care, care of the elderly, paediatric and maternity services
alongside the vital diagnostic and clinical support. The hospital has recently opened a community
diagnostic care centre (CDC), the first of its kind in a town centre location providing x-ray and
phlebotomy services. This initiative is proving hugely successful with service users and is no doubt the
way forward in community patient care. Not wishing to continue like an M&S advert, the hospital site
also has two large pharmacies, pathology laboratories, nuclear material, children’s wards, a dialysis
unit and large public mortuary. The latter facility has occupied our team in security enhancements
over recent months due to extremely serious criminal offences committed at mortuaries in Kent.
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My introduction outlined one of the recurring and legacy issues facing NHS security
management and I purposely made this our initial focus. I can see NHS colleagues
bristle whenever I debate that violence and aggression should form only a very
limited (if any) slice of their responsibilities. Although substantial numbers of acts of
violence and aggression are recorded annually, only a relatively small number relate
to deliberate acts against NHS staff, the majority are non-deliberate or medically
related. Barnsley Hospital recorded 13 incidents of deliberate and 154 incidents of
non-deliberate physical assault during 2021/22. It begs the question of whether such
an important and impactive area on staff members lives would be better served by a
clinically trained mental health or safeguarding lead.
The responsibility for violence and aggression, the training and related administration
only goes to dilute the effort and concentration we as security professionals should
have on what should be our core discipline. This also applies to health & safety, risk
management, car parking and other estates and facilities related functions. NHS
security management should be focused on that portfolio and that portfolio alone. As
a unit we addressed this by bonding our two portfolios into one, much as previously
business continuity, major incident response and recovery were bonded into EPRR
and not kept as disparate disciplines. Our key information and advice sources for all
our activities are CPNI and NCSC.
The opportunities within NHS security management are many and include ensuring
that our loyal and very hardworking uniform officers feel very much members of
the Trust family. In this we encourage their professional development, issue regular
good work minutes and add lots of humour. A recent security call-out involved
Officers Jonas and Paul rescuing members of staff and a department from a burgling,
marauding squirrel that had gained access via an open window. It goes without
saying that the accompanying body worn video was hilarious and we designed
a certificate and arranged a special presentation ceremony for the officers. As
members of the Worshipful Company of Security Professionals, Lisa and I have
both been granted Freedom of the City of London and last month allowed to drive
sheep across London Bridge, not every day you can do that. Via the Company and
the Security Benevolent Fund we can also provide practical support to our uniform
colleagues if it is required.
The rewards primarily come in the form of keeping our staff and patients safe
and secure. It comes down to ‘just doing a good job’. However, the NHS promotes
initiatives which as a unit we still enjoy pushing new boundaries. This creativity
allowance has allowed innovative use of body worn video by both security officers
and clinical staff, therapy dog visits to the team, training as drone pilots, surveillance
camera certification, our ‘hospital eyes’ programme and a number of forthcoming
initiatives to support our vulnerable women agenda. We have been privileged to be
acknowledged as finalists and awardees by The Security Institute, NAHS, IFSEC Global,
Women in Security, Business Continuity Institute and Suzy Lamplugh Trust.
Finally, hospitals are places of high emotion, bubbles just waiting to burst, it is rare
that anyone walks across our threshold for a positive reason. Babies are born in
hospital (some 250 in one month alone), tragically patients die whilst with us and
life changing diagnoses are shared within our confines. The role of NHS security
management is to maintain that delicate balance between patient care and welfare,
coupled with the pragmatic security of all staff, attendees, equipment and buildings.
The challenges in that role will be ever present.
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