Standardising doorstaff

With the demand for qualified doorstaff on the rise, the industry is working towards setting a recognised standard. By Phil Mellows.

Licensees are taking a greater responsibility for what goes on in and around their pub. Increasing police powers mean houses at the centre of a disturbance can be closed on the spot and there is a realisation that any future reform of licensing that brings more flexible hours will depend on the government being confident that the industry can keep order.

At the same time, the old fashioned publicans who can keep control over their premises by sheer force of personality are disappearing from the city centres where they are most needed.

The job of preventing trouble at most high street managed venues now falls to trained professionals - door supervisors, the breed formerly known as bouncers.

This has brought a rising demand for doormen - and doorwomen - which the profession has sought to meet not just in numbers but in cleaning up its act and seeking to shake off that dodgy bouncer tag.

Seeing the need, the British Institute of Innkeeping (BII) has stepped in with the first national qualification for doorstaff in the shape of the Door Supervisor's National Certificate. But the doorstaff industry remains fragmented, lacking any overall set of standards.

This is in large part due to the fragmented state of the authorities who could control such a scheme. Each local council has its own "badge" for registered doorstaff who have to undergo a variety of tests to be able to work in an area. The BII is working hard to pull them all together, but it certainly hasn't happened yet.

The many companies which act as employment agencies for doorstaff are still quite localised. The past year, however, has seen a fresh attempt to bring them together under a commercial initiative.

The Association of Door Supervisors and Bodyguards (ADB) - there is a big overlap among the people involved in both - was set up by Ken Springer along with a couple of business partners.

It is based on a website described by Ken as "a Yellow Pages for the door supervisor industry" and faces two ways, supplying a service both for doorstaff and the people, such as licensees and pubcos, who need them.

At the core of the idea is a searchable database of doorstaff. A licensee who needs a doorman simply indicates which area the pub is in and up comes a number of individuals who all carry the badge of the relevant local authority. Brief personal details, such as past experience, are included along with a picture. To hire somebody, you call the ADB and it puts you in touch.

The database is, as yet, far from comprehensive and has a heavy bias towards counties to the west of London, and although each of the doorstaff listed has a local authority badge, Ken warns that licensees should still carry out their own vetting before taking anyone on.

With its national aspirations an organisation like the ADB might well have the potential, one day, to set standards for an industry that is in desperate need of them. But for Ken, the immediate future is focused on building up his database and developing contacts.

His own background is in the industry. About 15 years ago he had his own security company employing, at one stage, up to 40 doorstaff around Berkshire. He went bust in the recession but was encouraged to return a couple of years ago when he saw the changes that were taking place in the pub industry and the demand for doorstaff from the new wave of superpubs.

"The venues have got bigger in the last eight or 10 years," he said. "It's common to find more than 1,000 customers in a place and in that situation you always have to have security in mind.

"But there are not the same problems with mobs as there were in the 1980s. Any trouble is more likely to come from individuals who have had too much to drink. So doorstaff have a greater courtesy role than before.

"There is also a new breed of doorman around," he continued. "The old school is going and our image is getting better. The industry has been cleaned up 10-fold. But there is a need to bring everyone together and that's what we're trying to do.

"We are growing all the time. We are advertising on the radio for doorstaff to register and we hope to attract more with a stand at the Pub & Bar Show in September."

Ken estimates that there are at least 4,000 registered door supervisors out there, so he's got a long way to go before he can claim a truly comprehensive list.

Yet he is ambitious - he offered to provide security for the official Jubilee weekend celebrations but he was turned down. Nevertheless, he is optimistic.

"I wouldn't describe ourselves as a professional organisation yet, but we are going towards that," he said. "We are already dealing with a number of security companies and passing on information.

"There is certainly a need for standardisation in our industry and we would like to work with the BII on what they are trying to do. But everyone wants to get their own point across and before we can get a consensus we need to bring them together on a practical basis. That's what the website is all about."

Visit the ADB website at www.springson.com.