Here is the speech given by Security Institute chairman Emma Shaw, at the Churchill War Rooms in central London on Tuesday evening, November 18, to unveil the institute’s manifesto for the UK security sector:
Ladies and Gentlemen … Fellow Security Professionals … Welcome to this historic venue which we thought would be a resonant place for what is an important day in the history of the Security Institute … the launch of our Manifesto for Professional Security.
I’d go so far as to say that everything this organisation has done over the first 15 years of its existence has been building up to this event. That we are here at all is down to the visionary few who were our founders. Today we would like to think this Manifesto carries on their tradition of being willing to seek change and courageous enough to do one’s utmost to bring it about.
Today is the day I feel our professional body comes of age…the point at which we become mature enough to say we can only achieve our ambitions for this profession, not by pursuing our own agenda, not through acting as a member association with a narrow focus on member interests but instead by recognising that the first duty of a professional body is to serve the profession itself and all its many and varied stakeholders.
We understand that across the sector there are valuable relationships currently used for narrow benefit that could be developed to serve the greater good.
This Manifesto is first and foremost about COLLABORATION. It sets out a vision and a series of initiatives that encourage working together to achieve key outcomes. In working to bring this about all organisations within the sector would maintain full autonomy and retain their own individual identity and traditions whilst working for the good of all.
Before I come to the core suggestions in the manifesto itself I’d like to give you the background that informed our thinking when we were developing it.
I think we’d all agree that these are times of immense and rapid change for the security profession and all of its practitioners.
The nature of threats is changing: accessible information technologies, global networks, diversification of threats and disruptive technologies will all create risks for the public, for society, and for businesses in equal measure. These complex threats require complex solutions and this will require far greater collaboration and cooperation from those responsible for the security of assets and also the organisations that represent them.
But we need to remember that it’s not only security professionals who are our stakeholders. Ultimately the end user of all our services is the general public and we feel that not enough has been done to include them in our thinking as a profession.
There is a need for greater understanding of what the public perceives as threats, which tend towards the local and short term rather than the international and longer term focus of the National Security Strategy. The profession must, through its professional bodies, strive to build bridges with the publics it seeks to protect…they are our primary stakeholder.
Security also must engage more actively with its user stakeholders to demystify its practices and to make its own case for wider recognition as a force for good in society and, on an individual level, to promote a clear understanding and appreciation of the things the Security profession does to maintain their wellbeing.
At a time when security is becoming ever more ubiquitous and might be perceived by some as overbearing we can’t afford to let the public lose faith in the professionals who work tirelessly to manage and mitigate the risks they face and in doing so keep them safe.
A fine line exists between protecting the public and infringing their liberty in the pursuit of greater degrees of security. The profession has the opportunity to be a reassuring and independent presence between the public and the legislature. We have the opportunity to offer a reliable information channel.
The profession has to encourage an ongoing debate around the moral basis of security. Ethical challenges will frequently arise as technology empowers the profession to gather, analyse and use data about citizens.
But what of our profession itself?
We feel strongly that the security profession must evolve in line with the changing nature risks and equip practitioners to cope with those risks in order to enable them to meet the challenges society faces.
Technology is one of the key drivers of change and the profession and practitioners need to demonstrate the technical and intellectual skills to enable them to work effectively within this environment.
New tools can transform the sector: big data analytics can be made into working tools, enabling complex data to be turned into smart data, allowing data analysis on a massive scale to quickly provide deeper insights and create new types of service for the organisations they work for.
We should consider the make-up of the profession too. It’s still widely viewed as a second career for those coming out of military or police service and we need to encourage young people to enter security as a first-choice profession after leaving school or university.
Greater and closer cooperation between stakeholder organisations is essential if we are all to fulfil our individual organisational obligations to the profession.
So what are the reasons why things we would all agree need to be done don’t get done?
Firstly, it’s apparent to many of us that Security simply doesn’t speak the language of business or the public effectively and so does not participate in the conversations that frequently set the agenda.
Secondly, one of the strengths of the sector is the engagement of its members and the vibrant groups, associations and institutes they establish…but this also its weakness: The Sector is fragmented and lacking in clear leadership
We believe too that the nature of the relationship between the profession and the public should change. Security needs to develop a relationship with the public whereby the users are the ones demanding the services rather than having services they haven’t asked for imposed upon them
And returning once more to my key theme of collaboration and cooperation, we feel there is a need for a true and sustaining partnership between the profession, businesses and institutions and the general public.
The Manifesto itself asks a number of things of various stakeholders within this profession and those influence over it…
We call on all the professional bodies in this industry, however diverse, large and small, to set aside any parochial interests and join with us in working independently and together for the benefit of our profession, the benefit of our industry and the benefit of our society
We call on education bodies and awarding bodies to join with the professional bodies to examine the future development of structured learning programmes to upskill the security workforce
We call upon key commercial organisations to work with the professional bodies to provide the funding and support that some of these initiatives will entail
We call upon government and its many agencies to establish an enabling, meaningful and ongoing dialogue with the profession to ensure it develops in a way that is entirely consistent with the needs of government and society.
And to achieve this the Manifesto proposes a number of initiatives that we the professional bodies and member associations in the security sector can establish through working together.
We encourage thoughtful and dynamic collaboration between groups, businesses and individuals. To achieve this we should establish a Security Commonwealth where all organisations come together on an equal basis retaining their full individual autonomy whilst working collectively in the development of common approaches to joint challenges
We propose we should work collaboratively with all willing groups and individuals within the industry to set up a Security Information Service. This will give the public general advice via a website ( ideally sponsored by the industry and possibly government) on all aspects of personal, domestic, travel and cyber security and which can be used to steer public opinion in a favourable direction.
It will share information on how professional security succeeds – at major events, like the Olympics and Commonwealth Games and on a day to day basis in peoples’ lives – at the shops, on transport, out in the evening. We will celebrate the achievements of those working for the public and support measures to address abuse and misuse of security.
We work together to improve and heighten the profile of the sector. We encourage collaboration with universities and education providers, schools and university careers services and employers. We establish clear career paths that demonstrate progress from first entering the profession to the top, via specialist and generalist roles, technical roles and business roles. We show security to be the challenging, intellectually stimulating, exciting, pubic serving discipline that it is. We can do this through the medium of a Security Careers Advisory Service.
We work together to develop and share a common position on professionalism within our industry. Our joint aim should be to be the exemplar that the world can copy. We create a working group, Security Outreach, and target this outreach to opinion formers, politicians, management organisations, such as the CBI and the IoD, and increase awareness through the HR profession and Purchasing and Supply and Facilities Management, who are key enablers in our area. We act together to promote the gold standard created by the Worshipful Company of Security Professionals, that of the Chartered Security Professional.
We act in unison with other industry bodies to create a common point of view and voice that we will use to approach government with clearly thought out suggestions to encourage and influence the development of a government white paper on the future of the security profession. Security Outreach will play a role in this. To ensure our voice is heard we propose the creation of a Joint Securities Associations’ Lobbying Group to speak on behalf of all the associations and through them on behalf of the profession and its members.
I recognise that this is an ambitious manifesto and requires all stakeholders in this sector – the associations, the trade bodies, the press, individual members – to come together and work effectively for the good of the profession.
Let’s recognise that we have a great deal in common and that all bodies in the sector were established first and foremost to support the members of this profession. There is much we can and will continue to offer as individual associations but let’s be brave enough to recognise that there will be many occasions when to be truly effective we are better together, speaking with one voice, promoting a common standpoint with the weight of our individual organisations behind us.
We recognise that our ambition for the development of the profession is beyond the ability and resources of any one group, organisation or professional association within the sector. We realise that there are many perspectives on the future of the security profession and the broader sector and that there are informed voices outside our organisation who can claim thought-leadership.
We have no wish to necessarily lead these initiatives but undertake to work tirelessly to get them off the ground and to give them our full and continuing support as a willing participant.
Indeed so determined are we to make them a reality that we are ready to contemplate a future in which the Security Institute itself may cease to exist in its present form…subsumed into a larger more representative grouping that carries greater authority through its universality.
As a professional body we’re rightly proud of our journey over the past fifteen years – and some of our founders are here with us tonight – and I believe we’ve made a strong contribution to the sector. However, I honestly believe that if this Manifesto meets with an enthusiastic response from other organisations within this sector and through it we are able to bring greater cohesion to the sector that this will be our finest achievement of our first fifteen years.
Having shared my words with you, I’d like to close with some words – rather appropriately given our surroundings – from Winston Churchill who said…
I never worry about action but only inaction
I genuinely believe that we all have an opportunity to start something great together. Let’s not allow it to be brought to a halt through inaction. Please, work with us to make it so…
