Field notes2 min read
Security at the Progressive Preschool Awards 2023
Securing an event full of children asks for something different from securing a venue full of adults.
We provided security for the Progressive Preschool Awards 2023, an event celebrating people who work in early years education.
It is not a typical deployment. The room is full of children, the atmosphere is meant to be joyful, and a security presence that changes that has failed even if nothing goes wrong.
What changes when children are present
- Access control matters more, and has to feel like less
- Officers need to be approachable rather than imposing
- Lost child procedure is planned in advance, not improvised
- Every officer is screened and licensed, which is not negotiable anywhere but is felt more keenly here
Our team worked the event so that the people running it could concentrate on the people they were celebrating. That is the job, and it looks like nothing happening.