We firmly believe that a reputation needs to be earned, maintained and expanded, says Martin Woollam, Group Commercial Director at Professional Security.

Professional Security has always sought to benchmark itself to the highest nationally recognised standards.

The company was started 20 years ago by a challenge issued to CEO David Fullerton whilst working as a Door Supervisor to fund his way through university.

When Dave went to his manager and suggested some improvements to service delivery, he was told “If you can do better yourself – be my guest”. That challenge was well and truly accepted. 

In the past 12 months alone Professional Security have achieved the following:  

• Our highest ACS score with a score of +138 points which also included an extension of scope to include Close Protection, which will help us drive service provision to new levels for a wide number of existing and future clients  

• Cyber Essentials to drive improved electronic security for our clients and stakeholders safeguarding ours and their data  

• ISO 45001 was achieved to the highest standards of occupational health and safety management to safeguard our colleagues and clients  

• Disability Confident Committed to drive greater awareness and understanding of the needs of our colleagues with disabilities  

• Product certification was achieved for Door Supervision and Security Guarding to further enhance the depth of our commitment to service provision quality and benchmarking  

Why are these accreditations so important to Professional Security and its reputation?   

We firmly believe that a reputation needs to be earned, maintained and expanded.

You simply can’t do that by standing still.

Our clients’ worlds are moving at such a hectic pace and the challenges they face are coming thick and fast, so we need to be ready to deliver not only now but predict their future needs and be positioned to deliver to a high and industry leading standard as and when they arrive.

We do this by engaging with clients to understand exactly what’s happening now and in the short, medium and long term so we can invest and align our capabilities and capacity to maintain our position as one of the leading providers of hospitality security in the UK.  

The accreditations we have chosen to pursue are important as they demonstrate our commitment to the delivery of a professional and dependable service that looks after the needs of our colleagues and clients at the same time.

The span of qualifications prove we are looking for a 360-degree review of what we do, how we do it and most importantly that we do it to the highest standards to set us aside from our competition.  

How do you fulfil your commitment to social value?  

Professional Security has a rich seam of social value initiatives running through its operational delivery model and formalised in a robust plan aligned to the five core themes of the Social Value model and interweaving the eight core principles of Social Value UK. Some measurable examples of these are:   

• Investment in our partnership with the EY Foundation to encourage students to consider a career in security, to promote the vibrancy and exciting career options that can be had and how delivering security services keeps communities safer and more secure.  

• 25 live apprenticeships will be delivered in 2025 including excelling in operational management and excelling in team leadership which includes modules on DE&I, emotional intelligence and net zero sustainability. This modern curriculum helps us to manage more effectively the diversity and generational differences present in the security sector currently and the to cope with the challenges ahead with recruitment in the key 18 – 30 and female demographics.  

• Driving CO2 footprint down with the normalisation of key processes on uniform supply and delivery with our uniform partners Mathias. Reviewing innovative textiles for clothing and PPE, building in circular workwear and developing links to recycle old footwear and PPE to create rPet pellets and 100% polyester yarn supplies.  

• Use of the Treekly app to create a competitive environment amongst staff to challenge colleagues to adopt a more active lifestyle by taking and measuring the steps they take per day in return for the planting of mangrove trees. If an employee completes 5k steps for 20 days out of 30 they are rewarded with the planting of a mangrove tree. This helps to reduce the impact of our daily carbon footprint.  

What skills programmes are Professional Security currently involved in?   

2024 witnessed the creation of an apprentice levy maximisation process to enable us to deliver a clear return on investment on something a lot of businesses see as a stealth tax.

It has seen Professional lay the bedrock for a skills future proofing initiative programme to both develop and maintain our exceptional people.  

Management & supervisory skills  

Working with our partners at Raise the Bar we are delivering a skills programme for the development of 20 managers and supervisors to Level 3 and Level 5 standards.

This will infuse a suite of new skills into the business that will equip us to manage our workforce more empathetically and efficiently with the widescale infusion of skills such as project management, DE&I awareness, sustainability, emotional intelligence and strategic thinking.  

Data management  

In an age of AI and digital transformation we are making steps to drive our data management capabilities with our partners at QA with several initiatives including: One Level 3 Multi Channel Marketer, three Level 3 Data Essentials and two Level 4 Data Analyst.

These apprenticeships will help drive data skills into the business to help us manage, analyse and harness the data we create to fuel better decision-making processes.  

Security operations centre skills development  

2025 will see the evolution of our Security Operations Centre, which saw impressive investment into people, processes and training in 2024.  

A total of 12 colleagues were put through the SIA Public Surveillance (CCTV) training and licensing process.

This was then followed up by investment into cutting edge Halo Incident Reporting software to act as a core tool to record and analyse key operational data for the business and our clients.

This facilitates a different suite of remote services we can provide to our client base which is expanding all the time. Our investment in the data academy is key to this.  

The world is evolving with the creation of new digital frontiers.

The current frontier of AI is predicted to last six years, by which time it will be succeeded by a new, more efficient and far-reaching frontier which we need to prepare for now.

By remaining current with data management and digital capabilities is the only wave to survive the future.  

Do you plan to expand the company’s involvement in skills programmes in 2025?   

People are our lifeblood and their development is key to our success and sustainability. With this in mind, we are aligned to deliver the following:  

• 2025 will see our most expansive and far-reaching training plan yet. With over 20 managers and supervisors signed up to undertake Level 5 Excelling in Operational Management and Level 3 Excelling in Team Leadership.   

• We will expand our Data Academy programme to include more apprenticeships into key areas such as Level 4 Business Analysts.  

• We will be running further Level 5 Crowd Safety courses to deliver core skills to frontline management and supervisors as we develop our events portfolio further with some exciting acquisitional, organic and new business growth in this sector.  

• We will continue to support the EY Foundation Secure Futures programme to help engage with this core demographic and inspire future generations of security professionals.   

• Most excitingly, we’re proud to announce that we launched our own Qualifications Network (QNUK) approved training academy in December.   

• Our goal for 2025 is to develop and embed our own training division and internal functionality to enable us to effectively control our own supply of officers and create hybrid solutions to meet the needs of our clients.   

This will give us the ability to create a new supply stream of officers and drive social value by removing the barriers to entry from many who want to join the sector but have not been trained or licensed.

It will allow us to deliver competence-based confidence in our front-line teams and will allow us to reimagine the next phases and frontiers of training to help us further align our customer relationships and value.  

2025 is looking challenging, exciting and most importantly, fun.

It will see us further demonstrate our commitment to living our values of providing and creating exceptional people, putting clients first, always winning and most importantly, enjoying the journey.

It will also see us kick up a gear in terms of our ability to influence the sector in a positive way and one that has a tangible and demonstrable legacy for the now and the future. 

Sarah Baugh’s influence in the sector has been recognised with a finalist nomination in the Outstanding Security Performance Awards in the prestigious category of Outstanding Female Security Professional.

This comes as no surprise to anyone who has ever had the pleasure of working with her. 

This article was originally published in the January 2025 Edition of Security Journal UK. To read your FREE digital edition, click here.