Interviews

Institute chair

by msecadm4921

To carry on a series of interviews in 2012 with the people heading the bodies that represent the private security industry, we talk in London to Mike Bluestone, chairman of the Security Institute (TSI).

Mike’s office – he is Director of Security Consulting for Corps Security – is at Farringdon, just north of the City of London. The district is having quite some makeover, thanks to Crossrail, one of the two main things shaping London in our time. The other one being the 2012 Olympics. Asked about the Games, Mike spoke of positives: how it will demonstrate the professionalism of the UK private security industry – ‘not only in terms of protecting the Games per se, but in terms of playing a part in protecting the national infrastructure’, the shopping malls, the transport. “And secondly I think it will be another tick in the box for co-operation between the badged services and private security.” Private security effectively keeping the peace: “That’s definitely going to be one of the positives when the Olympics are all over.”

He has welcomed the Security Industry Authority changing focus from the security individual to the security business. “I [also] look forward to the re-configuration of the regulatory regime in 2013 and 2014. With the new business licensing approach, I think that’s going to be great for the industry; I think it will save costs, I think it will be better for end users.”  

Mike Bluestone held recently a chairman’s dinner as a way of acknowledging what he called ‘the tremendous efforts members make to recruit new people’. TSI had 208 new joiners in 2011, ‘which is incredible’, he said, ‘when you think of the economic times we are going through’. That adds up to about 20 per cent of the institute’s 1200 or so members. Mike puts it down to the institute’s profile rising, and co-operation with other bodies, such as the Worshipful Company, the Association of Security Consultants (Mike attended the ASC’s annual conference Consec in November), IPSA, ASIS and Skills for Security, to name a few. Mike is incidentally a member of the Association of British Investigators. “I don’t think there has ever been a period when there has been such co-operation between the different [security industry] institutes and associations,” Mike said. On that score, in February TSI signed a memorandum of understanding with ADS, a trade body for the defence and homeland security end of the security industry. That comes after a year or two of dialogue between the two. Mike sees the two bodies as complementing each other, and TSI being able to appeal as an institute standing for professionalism and integrity, to people working in the international defence sector, beyond UK corporate security. That said, as Mike pointed out, TSI has ties with equivalents in South Africa and Australia.

Readers may recall the interview with Mike Alexander, the ASIS UK chairman, in the February issue. Mike Bluestone is at pains to point out that TSI is not trying to pre-empt ASIS, the institute being just that; an institute not a trade association. Mike Bluestone was indeed sitting on one of the panels at the annual ASIS Europe conference, in London in April; and other institute members had a part in that ASIS event, which was a Security Institute CPD Partner event. To explain that, if institute members attend (or the Counter Terror Expo, or IFSEC or University of Portsmouth seminars), they earn continuing professional development points. If you are a Chartered Security Professional, you have to ‘do’ CPD.

For any group, there has to be a balance between long-standing people, with the experience, and new blood with ideas and enthusiasm. Mike said he was absolutely delighted with the number of young people coming into the institute: “Our Linkedin community is very active.” Among new appointments, Sharon Williams is leading on student membership and Barrie Stewart on mentoring – that being something Mike is keen on, ‘because it is all part of career path development’.   

On that subject, Mike said: “Looking forward, I would like to see the institute playing a much bigger part in helping the 300,000 licenced operatives out there, who may feel the institute is beyond their reach, to aspire to becoming security professionals at managerial level. And we are going to be working harder with other partners and stake-holders to provide the opportunity for people at security officer and guarding level to work their way upwards.” Other professional bodies have done it, he went on, giving the example of the law and accountancy, where people may start as legal secretaries and accounting clerks respectively; ‘and we need to create that dynamic for everyone working in security that has the ambition and aspirations to do that’.

Mike paused. “Here in the institute we feel a sense of responsibility to those working in the field of security, that aren’t ready for institute membership; we want to reach them, and at least explain to them how they can move forward; because it is a statistical fact that we have members and fellows of the institute who started off in life as security officers. It’s a fact. On the other hand, we have members and fellows who have been senior officers in the badged services; that’s also a fact. But as long as people are fulfilling and acquiring the right competencies in security, how and when they started off is not an issue.” In a nutshell, as Mike said: “We are not an elitist group.”  

On the Register of Chartered Security Professionals, Mike Bluestone said: “Standards are high and there are people being declined on a first application, for different reasons, because we are looking for a certain set of competencies and strategic experience which not everyone may have, but which we hope everyone will aspire to. Even one or two of the people that have had applications declined have actually commended us for having high standards and it doesn’t put people off.”

To recap briefly, the Security Institute developed the Register for ‘security professionals’, for the Worshipful Company of Security Professionals. You don’t have to be a member of the institute to join the Register – or indeed the Worshipful Company: though Mike notes that everyone who has made it to the register, that were not institute members, have applied to the institute, ‘which is really encouraging’. Separate is the institute’s application for a royal charter, with the aim of making the institute a chartered institute, with all that means for an occupation, such as accountancy and engineering.    

Last but not least, the institute and Mike personally make much of the professional and academic learning that a security manager can and should take (professionals having security-related academic qualifications being among the Privy Council requirements for chartered status). TSI offer a certificate and diploma in security management, accredited by the awarding body Edexcel to BTEC level three and five respectively. The Institute of Criminal Justice Studies at Portsmouth University recognise the diploma, and award 80 credits towards Portsmouth’s BSc honours degree in risk and security management. All good things; and the institute is looking to offer more where that came from.

For more about the Register of Chartered Security Professionals, and a list of registrants, visit http://www.csyp-register.org/.

Related News

  • Interviews

    Give us seized assets

    by Mark Rowe

    We should receive 100 per cent of the assets and cash seized from criminals targeting their local areas, councils say. Councils help…

  • Interviews

    View on shadow IT

    by Mark Rowe

    Counter shadow IT with cooperation, tools and new procurement processes, writes Alessandro Porro, vice president of international at Ipswitch. On top of…

  • Interviews

    Fraud women meet

    by Mark Rowe

    Social engineering is an art, but how do we defeat the imposter? That’s the theme of the Fraud Women’s Network annual event…

Newsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay on top of security news and events.

© 2024 Professional Security Magazine. All rights reserved.

Website by MSEC Marketing