History

Guild of Security (UK) Ltd started out life as the dream of its creator and founder John Haywood back in the early nineties. The original website ‘British Security’ was hosted on personal web space provided by internet service provider Blueyonder and was built with the aim of providing an internet based platform with which the workforce of the security industry could exchange views, opinions and catch up on the latest industry news.

In early 200, inspired by what the founder was trying to achieve, Tom Reeve who was at that time the Editor at leading security industry website 'SecurityPark' agreed to host a seperate discussion forum on behalf of British Security on the Security Park website in order to generate more interest.

After a few short months, it became evident that the free personal web space the main British Security website was hosted on, was simply not up to the job. Blueyonder themselves experienced some technical difficulties in providing a reliable service, so the founder decided to seek a professional host for the web site. At the same time, it was becoming apparent that there was a little more than just a superficial interest in the aims of British Security.
One regular visitor to the web site, Leon Meredith, put forward the idea of forming a ‘Guild’ or ‘Association’ which security personnel could join in order to get their views and experiences across to the industry at large, as well as providing a platform for all security personnel to interact with each other.

On May 10th 2002, the Guild of British Security Officers was moved lock, stock and barrel to a new site. The Guild website rapidly became ‘the’ place to be for security personnel and those interested in the security industry. Within 10 months the Guild had over 260 registered members, including security officers, dog handlers, loss prevention officers, security companies, security consultants, regional police forces, the press, security training providers and recruitment agencies.
The website enjoyed phenomenal success in attaining over 100,000 regular visitors every month – far more than any other security industry website we knew about at that time.

On March 26th 2003, the Guild of British Security Officers held its first Annual General Meeting (AGM) under the name of its recently incorporated parent company Guild of Security (UK) Ltd. One of the biggest issues being debated at the AGM was the topic of moving away from a freely accessible website to a subscription based website. Whilst the thought of members paying to access the facilities of the Guild went against the original concept of the Guild, it was apparent that the Guild could achieve so much more if it had funds which it could use to develop itself so additional benefits were incorporated inot the site for paying members.

To this day, the Guild remains a non-profit organisation run by volunteers working in the security industry to further the aims of its members and to promote better working practices and conditions within the industry.

Achievements

The Guild took up the challenge to protect CCTV users from a loop-hole in the Display Screen Equipment Regulations (DSE Regs). In short, computer users were afforded protection by minimising risks from musculo-skeletal-disorders (MSD) and repetitive strain injuries (RSI) by the DSE Regs. Some of the key areas we looked at were the way the ergonomics of the workstation, rest breaks and general equipment used for computer users. We campaigned long and hard to have display screen equipment which was used for video images included in the Regulations. One of our main arguments being that although computer monitors had to be positioned at normal eye-level to minimise the risk of MSD under existing legislation (DSE Regs) monitors used for ‘video images’ were exempt but they still presented the same level of risk. Indeed, we argued that the risk was higher because of the nature of some security control rooms for example, to mount CCTV monitors as high as ceiling level and sometimes these stretched the whole width of a room. Not only do these types of layouts increase the risk of MSD but eye-strain had to be considered as well due to the distances some monitors are away from the operator’s eyes. Since we started our campaign, the DSE Regs have been amended not only to include any display screen equipment used to monitor video images but, CCTV monitoring control rooms are specifically mentioned.

The Health & Safety Executive issues guidance to its local enforcement offices through local authority circulars (LACs). The HSE have issued several pertaining to the security industry and we have an on-going campaign to ensure the current guidelines are amended when these are reviewed to reflect the true nature of the industry.

Our industry is unique in that we work within almost everyone else’s. To that end, we continue to campaign for industry specific health and safety legislation in order to safeguard those employed within the industry. Indeed the Guild has issued its own Code of Practice- CoRE, which goes someway to addressing some of the more common problems associated with the industry.

The Guild endeavours to set the highest possible standards for the industry by issuing its own Codes of Practise and Guidance leaflets for both employees and employers.
The first of these, the Constitution of Responsible Employers (CoRE) was made available in the Spring of 2003. Although the level of compliance needed to attain Guild Approved status is not attainable for the small cowboy element, it is an achievable level for ANY company IF they take their commitment to their workforce seriously.

Since CoRE was first launched, changes in legislation now require employers to discuss health and safety issues with thier employees - this one was one the fundamental area's adressed orignally by CoRE