Managing Director of X2 Consult, Tom Stead, tells us about his day in the life of an event Safeguarding Consultant.
Hi Tom! With events coming thick and fast, what does your typical day look like?
Every day is different; there’s so much variety in our work! About a month before the event, we’ll go to the venue and do a safeguarding risk assessment where we do some intelligence work that involves walking the perimeter to make sure we have full scope about the place and that we can counter anything that might happen before it happens. Once this is complete, we meet with organisers, security teams, and health and safety officers to give a briefing about who we are, what we’ll be doing, and how they can contact us. Then, a week or two before the event, we’ll contact the client to make sure we have everything we need – everything from radios to accreditations.
And at the event itself?
Generally, we tend to use our radios for communication, and then my staff and I have an app that we use where we share any safeguarding concerns or incidents that will be shared with the organiser/client at the time.
Depending on what our clients want, we can be overt and wearing branded t-shirts so it’s clear we’re there to help or we can take a more covert approach, getting in the crowd and seeing what the dynamics are like. We look for certain behaviours that are above what we class as a baseline; looking how people are behaving towards each other and how they’re behaving in general. Once we identify any of those behaviours, we highlight and respond to it by either sending my team or security officers to deal with the situation appropriately.
We don’t look at stereotypical behaviour protection like theft or disruption, we look at the ways in which adults are acting with children and vulnerable adults and how they’re being treated. If there’s an ejection because of behaviour, we want to make sure that the victim is well supported and that the processes are done the right way.
Safeguarding picks up on the areas that don’t fit within typical security or safety procedures. We have direct contact with local authorities across the UK so not only are we guiding companies on the right thing to do, but we’re also making sure that individuals don’t come to harm further along the line, by letting their local authority know that those individuals have been at a venue we’re working at and there’s been concerns about them.
Is there more work to do post event?
We’ll give the client a full debrief document on the interventions that we’ve done, using specific guidelines that we use to ensure we’ve done the right thing at the right time. From that, we enter into the follow-up procedure. Typically, no later than 24 hours from the end of the event, we’ll take the necessary next steps, whether it be contacting social services again or local MASH (multi agency safeguarding hub). From there, we make sure that the next event the client runs goes just as smoothly, or even better, because we’re learning from the kind of concerns we’ve raised before.
Finally, what’s the best part about the job?
I would say the sense of satisfaction. Leaving a job knowing that you’ve made someone’s day and being able to protect someone who perhaps isn’t able to protect themselves is very rewarding. We always say that if we come away and we can safeguard just one person, then we’ve done our job. A lot of people think safeguarding is just about children but we’re seeing more and more vulnerabilities within adults and young adults so having this great relationship on all three parts is important. We want to help everyone we can!
Recognising that event safeguarding is a niche but crucial area, Tom and the team at X2 Consult have used their expertise to develop a range of accredited courses for organisers, venues, and organisations. These courses not only ensure compliance but, more importantly, promote a stronger awareness of safeguarding responsibilities. For more information, visit X2consult.co.uk or contact tom@x2consult.co.uk