Quell Training

I want to train all my staff in Personal Safety Training incorporating how to fight off an armed attacker?

 

I want to train all my staff in Personal Safety Training incorporating how to fight off an armed attacker?

This comment is a line that some of our new clients are using, as they have been told that it is the safest way to cover all the subjects of protecting your staff, with the use of aggressive skills to fend off potential assaults.

Well we disagree and are delighted to see that once we have explained the consequences and gone through facts such as the risk to each person, inclusive of it not being written down in any policy the majority of clients have agreed that perhaps the information they were initially given was a little extreme.

However, some specific roles within the workplace may require the training of Physical Intervention, but we as a team take each client/organisation back to the start and review the boundaries of the organisation, including a review of is it really a necessity to train each member to that level of skill, or is it not better to identify the different levels required to the capabilities of the member of staff.  For example, teaching a 57 year old female receptionist who weighs approximately 10 stone, to hold a 35 year old male weighing 18 stone a holding skill when disengagement would be more beneficial, added onto the session for dealing with aggressive people.

Before anyone that we train goes through one of our Physical Intervention packages, they must attend our Conflict Management session first as it enables them to assess the level of risk, starting with the systems in place, through to the law and then into escalation and de-escalation to deter the use of Physical Intervention. Once all realistic avenues of de-escalation have failed and the aggressor is breaching on duty of care and safety then Physical Intervention can be used, but throughout the action each attendee knows all the relevant medical and legal implications.

The use of control & restraint, personal safety techniques and unarmed combat skills does have a history of rolling around mats, punching bags and then generating inner aggression to escape or overcome the aggressor.

However, when emotions are high (and we have all encountered these situations) our judgement can be clouded by rage or shock, so when we approach the use of Physical Intervention we have to determine that the person using them understands the build-up, then also not using strength against strength, but simple techniques of how to escape to resolve the situation without causing escalation or harm to the person or the organisation.

We advise numerous people and organisations throughout the United Kingdom & Ireland on the differences between training a physical skill, to training that we have learnt is not only safer but more practical for staff, as not all our staff can bench press 300lbs or fend off a knife attack with a pencil, but they can all think, calculate and react safely when shown the simple signs of a potential threat.

For more information on personal safety training, please don’t hesitate to ask for information, as we have a vast amount of experience in matters of dealing with aggressive and potentially threatening situations.

 

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