In a recent article for this Newsletter, a version of which also appeared in ‘Professional Security’ Magazine, I explained the rules that govern the Trustees, the principles that guide them and the prominence they give to using the money generated from interest on our Charitable Fund investment to help security professionals who have encountered hardship; or individuals, agencies or organisations whose aims are consistent with our own, ie the security and protection of people or property. I emphasised the Trustees’ keenness that during the current period of economic crisis, when nearly all events organised by the Company are linked to fund-raising, members supporting these events should know that the very best use is being made of the charitable element of their ticket purchases.

The concern for the welfare of individuals is exemplified by the Security Benevolent Fund

www.securitybenevolentfund.org.uk (previously Hear4U), overseen by a sub-committee of the Board of Trustees and the re-naming of which was specifically undertaken so that individuals might more easily find free welfare, legal, medical and health-related help. Past Masters John Purnell and Peter French are emphatic about the need to offer welfare support to individuals in extremis, as is Geoffrey Northcott a former Trustee and the sub-committee has formed an advisory group of security industry leaders to help publicise the services offered to the entire security profession.  The Fund has produced excellent pamphlets on such topics as health and personal finances and advice to those in real need is available 24 hours a day by calling 0800 316 0201 quoting the reference code 71685.

The focus on concern for individuals is also strengthened by asking John Troon, a member of the Court of Assistants to advise the Trustees on individual welfare requests reaching them from a wider cross-section of applicants.

A crucial fact is, of course, that the number and size of disbursements that the Trustees are able to make is entirely controlled by the level of interest accruing annually from the Company’s Charitable Fund investment. The same severe economic constraints which have seen members think twice about the number of events they can afford to support have also faced the Trustees in investing the Company’s charitable finances to achieve a maximum profit but at low risk.  (The fact that banks have collapsed no longer make a ‘no risk’ policy achievable).  The Trustees are pleased to report that aided by the perceptive and scrupulous endeavours of the Company’s Treasurer, Andrew Knights, placement of the Charitable Trust Fund with EFG Private Bank in the autumn of last year is yielding a consistent return at the top of the market.

Because many organisations rely on assurances of funding to be able to plan community safety improvements, the Board of Trustees has given an undertaking to support year on year, some compelling initiatives either directly notified to them or brought to their attention by members. The Sheriff’s Award ostensibly to recognise hitherto unrecognised acts of courage and selflessness is a potent example.  Here are two more which require from the Company not just the offer of financial assistance but also an opportunity to offer the expertise of its members.

Victim Support

In 2009, the Company made a gift to Victim Support of £5,000 to help fund a project to train volunteers to deliver services to the victims of terrorist attack.  The project was a direct response to the July 7^th bombings in central London in 2005 and provided training to VS volunteers already qualified to deal with people bereaved by homicide.  The project was initially London-based, the capital being at the most risk of attack, with training to be extended beyond London as finance and risk dictated.

A donation of £2,500 this year (the amount very much consistent with the Company’s limited resources) has been directed to training a further 16 ‘Bereavement by Homicide’ volunteers who provide support to witnesses and families in lengthy, gruelling and highly distressing court cases, a percentage of which are of national relevance and receive media attention adding further pressure on families, friends and witnesses and therefore the level of intensity of support required.  Such cases include the murder trials related to the cases of Baby Peter, Tulay Goren and Robert Knox.  To date, the pool of specialist volunteers funded by the Company is 48. 

The donation will also be apportioned to Victim Support’s ‘Major Incident Response’ course to train a further 16 volunteers thus increasing the number of specialist volunteers funded by the Company to 32 and providing more trained and highly skilled volunteers to respond to the scene of a terrorist attack and increase VS preparations for the Paralympics and Olympics in 2012.

Education, Crime Prevention and Good Citizenship

Whilst the work of Victim Support addresses the aftermath of crime, preventing crime by reinforcing moral behaviour in the development of children and young persons, requires equally committed and skilled intervention and accords well with the notion of apprenticeship extant within the traditions of Livery Companies. That is why the Trustees have recently accepted the proposal to create one or two bursaries (depending on the response) at the prestigious Reeds School for a child of a member of the Worshipful Company of Security Professionals. Information about this bursary has been widely circulated and interested parents can find out more by contacting Jeffrey Stephenson, jeffscsr@aol.com  the Trustee with special responsibility for dealing with educational proposals. 

For several years more, the Company have been supporting the Whittington Course; an annual event for children from socially deprived areas designed to diminish the allure of crime by stimulating a realisation that the opportunities for working in the City of London or in careers previously thought unobtainable are open to all.  The brain-child of Steve Neville a Past Master, who during his year as Master captured the influential support of the Company’s sponsoring Alderman, Sheriff and later Lord Mayor David Brewer, the intention is to show to students a City-based experience of work - as opposed to a work experience - and prompt a fresh motivation for academic achievement, moral behaviour and endeavour.

The Business Academy Bexley was the first of the New Labour Business Academies built to operate within the infamous Thamesmead catchment area and chosen for the vision and commitment of its staff to create change within the third worst socio-deprived area of London.  Guest speakers visit the Academy prior to the Whittington and then during the course itself the children are taken to City institutions including the Guildhall, the Stock Exchange, Wood Street Police Station, the Transport for London Control Centre. The visit is complimented by transportation by police launch and a view from the top of Canary Wharf.

Besides opening the eyes of the students to new vistas, the Whittington engages students with potential role models and has led to more formal opportunities being extended by banks to students seeking work experience. On the basis of the motivation so far engendered, the Assistant Principal at the Academy, Guy Hewson has become passionately committed to the Course and to extending the numbers who could be incorporated on it.  Contending with the finding that 60% of the intake is of ethnic background and that new arrivals in the area constantly challenged the culture and values of the school or any form of authority, the inspiration and tireless commitment of the Headteacher Guy Nichols, members of his staff and Steve Neville, has seen the creation of constant staff visibility, delegation of responsibility to students with leadership qualities, representation by students from each year on a school parliament, the formation of an Army Cadet Force and also, arrestingly, a Volunteer Police Cadet Scheme. The latter has introduced a self-discipline and pride in appearance acceptable to some students not normally associated with such behaviour. A female police officer with over twenty years service is permanently within the Academy and policing is presented to the 1200 students as yet another aspect of a mature society the role of which it is hoped will be understood and encountered as far more than enforcing indiscriminate compliance. The cumulative effect is to create an identity extending into the surrounding community with which parents and residents begin to take an interest and even pride and which is also offsetting the gap between the authorities and youth with no historic ties to this country.

When first opened, the Academy’s exam pass rate was approximately 4% but with the reform of the school and its culture, it has risen to 40% and continues to go up. Bullying has been all but eradicated and the school has become safe for pupils and staff.

Conclusion

The staffs of Victim Support and the Business Academy Bexley are committed individuals who require encouragement not just of a financial kind.  Specialist voluntary work with VS is enormously satisfying – and necessary. Serving or former military and police officers can offer valuable morale-boosting support to the staff currently running Army and Police Cadet or alternative Youth Schemes by helping to provide more opportunities for encouragement.   Similarly, members who have occupied senior positions in large organisations or public service can offer their experience to the staffs of educational establishments hard-pressed by Ofsted inspections, media criticism and parental indifference but which are actively helping to build confidence and pride in young people becoming virtuous citizens.  

The ad hoc fund-raising events as well as the major annual events in the Company’s calendar, require the ideas, energy and expertise of busy people who somehow do find the time to sustain the Company’s advancement and reputation within the City Livery movement.  They need fresh support from the membership. After barely ten years of existence, the Company has acquired a Royal Charter, which in association with the Security Institute may entitle the bestowing of formal recognition of security competencies in the form of Memberships, Fellowships and Companions of the Institute.  Present, when our Master received the Charter from the Lord Mayor were fifty Masters of other Liveries, by their own admission an astonishing number. With their commendation comes the privilege of a distinguished and historical place within the livery movement of the City of London.  It is hard won and easily lost and relies on members recognising the perpetual obligation of charitable contribution - in all forms including time - which is implicit in membership of a City Livery Company.

The Trustees have recently revised the Company’s Charitable Trust Deed to increase the number of non-Court Trustees within the twelve-member Board of Trustees to five.  This signals their belief in the importance of appropriate competencies independent of the formal structure of the Company and appeals again for voluntary commitment from busy people.

The fact of an economic recession and its harmful consequences for individuals and for society is entirely a time for the exercise of a Livery Company’s altruism both individually and collectively.  I sincerely hope that members, especially new members on the periphery of the Company will recognise that the privilege of belonging to a Livery Company- especially the newest and the brightest - brings with it a co-relative obligation of supporting charitable endeavour in its widest meaning. In return, I and my fellow Trustees will do our best to honour that commitment by signalling where money, time and effort will achieve the most significant benefit.