Who would have thought that dedicating your life to helping others would present so many potential dangers. Years of studying and a commitment to making a lasting difference in the lives of other human beings is what millions of people sign up to within the healthcare, education and security industries.

Empowered with the knowledge to perform their job, these vital cogs in every community wheel enable us to stay safe, healthy and learn to read and write. They make the huge step into public service unaware of the personal safety dangers that lie ahead.

Can you imagine being a Paramedic attending a scene in which your only purpose is to protect life and then find yourself center stage of a verbal or physical assault.

Maybe its easier to transport yourself into a classroom where you are driven to develop young minds and yet find yourself being confronted by an angry child or their parents.

As an individual working within the security sector you are constantly thrust into vulnerable situations and often witness the darker side of society. Alcohol and drugs play a huge part in determining a quiet or lively shift at work.

So, the question is, How good is the training to support professionals in these vulnerable situations?

Well, the stats speak for themselves.

– Nearly 70,000 assaults were recorded on NHS staff in 2015
(This figure has risen 25% in the last five years)

– 4 in 10 paramedics were violently assaulted in 2015

– 50 kids are suspending from schools every day for physically assaulting teachers

– 7,844 Police officers were assaulted in the year 2014/15

Individuals are leaving their professions every day and citing the increasingly dangerous situations they are having to work in as the reason.

Tight legislation in the area of use of force has to be adhered to and should be celebrated in many cases as it clearly restricts the amount of serious injury and death as a result of excessive techniques being applied, however working professionals can be provided with much better training.

How can a system that supports just a few hours of personal safety training every YEAR, be an effective one.

Employers need to do more to increase the safety of their staff, after all safer employees have more confidence and are more productive. If that isn’t a big enough draw for employers then they should consider their recruitment costs as the retention of key members of staff can and will save huge amounts of money.
So, what do employees want?

A difficult question to answer in a few words as each profession will encounter different challenges, however those questioned for this article suggested that more enthuses could be placed on their ability to assess situations and in those circumstances where a physical confrontation is inevitable some practical and effective break away techniques.

100 teachers, nurses, paramedics, police and security officers questioned for this article said they would welcome training in the following:

Personal safety awareness
Conflict reduction communication skills
Body language assessment training
Grab release techniques
Proven use of force C&R techniques
Companies / authorities have a recruitment nightmare as more and more people are fearful of life on the front line.

SCL Training provide bite size L&D solutions that support internal training matrix’s so that working professionals can concentrate on perform at their best in safe working conditions.

www.scltraining.uk