Case Study: Helping West Midlands Transport Officers & the Public Travel Safely
Everyone agrees that safety is paramount across the rail network. Training is an integral part of safety standards being maintained for the staff and public and so therefore, is delivering training in such a way that the information is put into practice.
For the first time, two Police forces, British Transport Police and the West Midlands Police came together as the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) to undertake training designed to improve safety for both its staff and the travelling public across both the rail and bus networks. In order to achieve the highest levels of training recall and on-the-job best practice, they selected Top 2 Percent to train its Travel Safe Officers (TSOs).
Raising the Bar for Rail & Transport Safety
The 14 trainees took part in a 10 day course that covered all the essential elements of the Rail Safety Accreditation Scheme (RSAS) plus a wider curriculum that included behavioural psychology and wider social issues that impact their work with the public.
The TSOs received in-depth legal training for 16 powers that relate to low-level offences, from anti-social behaviour through to under-age drinking and smoking and now understand how to deal with offences under the bye-laws and their citizen’s powers.
With the Travel Safe mantra of Engage - Educate - and lastly Enforce running as a foundational theme, the legal side of their training also covered the use of force and self-defence, the National Intelligence Model, 3-5-2 , crime scene management , JESIP and Protect UK.
Understanding Conflict Management, County Lines & the Complexity of Policing
Top 2 Percent’s enhanced RSAS course has been specifically designed to raise a trainee’s awareness and understanding of psychology and behaviour as well as the social issues that surround us every day. The goal is to help TSO’s better understand conflict situations to be able to respond appropriately and safely.
The trainees learnt about County Lines from Francis Osei-Appiah who shared his experience of being groomed by one of the first major gangs in North London. British Transport Police and Sgt. Nigel Williams also shared how their work is combatting the scourge of County Lines.
As TSOs operate as a part of the wider Police family, they were taken to see the British Transport Police control room in Birmingham, to give them greater context about how their work supports the police. Then, a presentation by Lucy Fawns, control room manager, revealed how they can work more effectively with police as she demonstrated the detail and complexity behind policing the railway network.
A better understanding of human behaviour and one’s own response in conflict situations is a key part of minimising and de-escalating incidents. Top 2 Percent’s COO, Juli Price shared her extensive experience of managing young people with social, emotional, mental health and learning needs to help trainees gain a new perspective on behaviour that leads to conflict, as well as helping them reflect and recognise their own behaviour when faced with aggressive situations. Learning the reasons behind many of the difficult behaviours exhibited by individuals with learning, behavioural or mental health issues helps Travel Safe Officers choose an individual-led and therefore the most appropriate response when managing conflict.
CSAS accreditation enables your team to efficiently manage incidents, protecting your employees and the public. This includes everything from accidents and medical emergencies to terrorist incidents. Properly trained staff are then able to respond promptly in association with Police personnel, making all the difference in critical situations.
Training Outcomes
The 14 Travel Safe Officers (TSO) are now accredited officers under the Railway and Community Safety Accreditation Scheme having completed two tough exams one on law and one on the wider training they received with a 100% pass rate.
And the feedback from candidates was excellent:
“Colum delivered the course extremely well and was very helpful, covering all the materials provided with a clear and friendly approach. Francis was fantastic: very interesting insight into the real lives of gang related crime etc. Many thanks."
"Thank you for providing a fantastic, enjoyable, well-structured course."
"Really enjoyed the course, especially the delivery from Colum and would definitely recommend both the course and Colum and would look forward to any further courses presented by Colum."
"Exceptional training technique. Amazing course presented by Colum."
"Really impressed with the information provided and also from Juli Price and Francis."
"Very helpful course and would recommend Top 2% to anyone Colum talked through every topic and ensured each person on the course was confident. Thank you, Colum. A lot of fun, thank you."
"This has been the best training I have ever done. Colum is a brilliant trainer.”