Security Industry Authority “turning the tide” on training malpractice

Those individuals working within the private security hold positions of trust and responsibility. It’s essential that members of the public, customers and stakeholders alike have confidence and trust that security operatives are properly trained, qualified and capable of keeping people, property and premises safe. A key component of ensuring this trust and confidence is assuring the validity of the qualifications that operatives receive before they can apply for an SIA licence.

Pete Easterbrook (interim director of inspections and enforcement at the SIA) said: “The majority of providers who deliver SIA licence linked training are professionals who share our commitment to high standards. However, where this is not the case, poor standards and training malpractice can, at their worst, put the public at risk.”   

While the SIA plays a central role in setting the minimum standards for licence-linked training, the regulator is “not the only player in the game”. The SIA defines the core skills and knowledge required for operatives to qualify for a licence. However, the delivery of that training is conducted by around 650 training providers who are, in turn, approved by Awarding Organisations, themselves regulated by Ofqual (England and Wales), the Scottish Qualifications Authority (Scotland) and the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (Northern Ireland). Ofqual, of course, oversees quality assurance across the sector.

“Qualifications regulation is a well-established model that’s in use in other sectors across the UK,” continued Easterbrook, “but having multiple organisations involved in the process doesn’t always make things straightforward. Regardless of who’s responsible for which part of the process, where a qualification leads to a licence being granted, the SIA’s role is to ensure that the individual to whom we’ve granted a licence is fit and proper. That includes possessing the safety-critical skills and knowledge to undertake their role effectively.”

Training malpractice    

Last year, the SIA began to focus greater attention on training malpractice, which at its most serious can constitute fraud: a criminal offence. As part of this, the SIA undertook work to improve strategic relationships with key partners such as Awarding Organisations and qualification regulators.  An enhanced communications campaign resulted in an increase in the intelligence received by the SIA in relation to training malpractice.

“Since April this year,” noted Easterbrook, “we’ve built on the foundations of this work and we are now moving into a new phase under Operation RESOLUTE. RESOLUTE has been designed as a high impact initiative with a strong operational focus on intelligence-led and unannounced inspections at training providers’ premises, as well as a deeper collaboration with partners.”

According to Easterbrook, the SIA is now realigning its resources and ensuring that it leverages the considerable expertise of its people. “By way of an example,” said Easterbrook, “we’ve now brought specialist training integrity resources into our Inspections and Enforcement directorate. This shift has unlocked wider investigative expertise and enabled a more proactive and intelligence-led approach to tackling training abuse.”

In addition, the regulator has invested in nationally accredited training to sharpen the investigative skills of its front line teams to ensure they’re equipped to tackle training malpractice head on.

Impact to date  

What Easterbrook references as the SIA’s “robust and decisive” approach is already having an impact. Post-1 April, the SIA has:   

*increased the number of unannounced Training Centre visits by 120% when compared to the same period last year (those visits have resulted in ten Training Centres having their approval to deliver training withdrawn and one being suspended from delivering training until the Awarding Organisation is satisfied the appropriate standard can be met  

*commenced a criminal investigation in one case due to the serious nature of the offending (as part of this investigation, 17 individual SIA licences have been revoked where enquiries have brought into question whether the training an individual has received has been up to the required standard)

*conducted a series of targeted inspections across the UK, visiting 15 Training Centres in a single week (while standards were generally high, four Training Centres were found to be delivering training below the SIA’s expectations, while in two cases the issues were so serious the Training Centres were sanctioned by Awarding Organisations and any further training will be scrutinised and monitored)

Easterbrook affirmed: “We are about to undertake a strategic review of the licence-linked qualifications, within which we will seek to further reduce opportunities for abuse of the training system. Naturally, this will involve us taking a close look at how assessments are conducted and administered.”

In the meantime, the SIA is working closely with its partners and will continue its work under Operation RESOLUTE, acting swiftly and decisively to root out abuse, detect and disrupt criminality and render the private security industry a hostile environment for those who seek to exploit it.

Updates on progress will be communicated as and when appropriate.