Door Supervisor Refresher Practical Assessments: Search, Radio and Physical Intervention

The Door Supervisor Refresher has two practical assessments alongside its two exams, and both have a pass mark of 100 per cent of the criteria. Experienced door staff sometimes treat them as a formality and then miss a step they stopped doing years ago. This guide sets out exactly what the assessor is looking for, from the current Highfield specification and tutor and assessor guidance for the Level 2 Award for Door Supervisors in the Private Security Industry (Refresher).

The two practicals

Both are set by the awarding body, assessed by us against its observation sheets, filmed and kept for at least a year for Highfield's quality assurance. You are assessed individually. There is no prompting before or during the assessment.

Practical 1: the search and communications assessment

A volunteer conceals a prohibited item on their person or in their possessions while you are out of view, in a different place each time, and you conduct the search properly on film. Only one item has to be found, but every step has to be shown. The observation sheet requires you to:

1. Explain the search policy to the person.
2. Ask for and obtain consent before starting. No consent, no search.
3. Search in an appropriate place, with a witness where possible.
4. Use the right PPE and equipment: gloves, a hand-held metal detector where provided, a torch.
5. Conduct an outer garment search, a bag search and a person search, each systematic.
6. Demonstrate a self-search, where the person turns out their own pockets and opens their own bag, with no physical contact, for anyone who does not want to be touched or where a same-sex search is not available.
7. Respond correctly on finding the item: seize, bag and store it, record it, and know whether it is a police matter.
8. Communicate professionally throughout.

Then the questions. The assessor chooses at least two protected characteristics and asks how searching someone with each would change your technique; across the course every characteristic you would meet on a real door gets tested. You are also asked how you would search a child or young person: only outer garments removed, a parent, guardian or responsible adult present, spoken to appropriately and told what is happening and why, consent obtained and understanding confirmed, and searched by someone of the same sex.

The communications part uses a radio or similar device: a radio check, call signs, the standard procedure words and the phonetic alphabet for anything that has to be spelt. If you have been on a quiet door with no radio for three years, practise before you come.

Practical 2: physical intervention

You are assessed individually, on film, performing every technique in the unit, and then answering the assessor's questions on the critical knowledge. At least three participants are needed for some techniques, so this is done in a group but marked one person at a time. Introduce yourself on camera, state the date and the technique you are about to demonstrate, then perform it.

The techniques on the observation sheet are:

• stance and positioning;
• evading and protecting against blows;
• disengaging from grabs and holds;
• non-aggressive intervention to stop assaults or fights;
• communicating professionally throughout;
• physically prompting a person;
• low-level restrictive standing holds to escort an individual;
• one-person and two-person standing holds to escort an individual;
• transitioning from a disengagement into an escort;
• escorting an individual on stairs;
• disengaging safely;
• managing risk immediately after disengagement.

The oral questions cover the risk factors of physical intervention, the signs and symptoms of acute behavioural disturbance and psychosis, the specific risks of positional asphyxia, the specific risks of prolonged intervention, how to deal with interventions on the ground and how to manage and monitor a person's safety during an intervention. The assessor records your answers. You pass only when every technique has been demonstrated successfully and every question answered satisfactorily.

If your original training was years ago, expect the current techniques to differ from what you learned. The refresher exists to update you to the current standard, and the assessment is against that standard, not against what you remember.

What to wear and bring

Clothes you can move in and flat, closed shoes. No jewellery that can catch. Radios, gloves, detectors and search props are provided.

If you do not pass a practical

The assessor tells you which criteria were missed and you repeat the assessment after going over them. The ASA Exam Warranty covers the multiple-choice papers; practicals are assessed in the room as part of the course.

For the written side, see the Refresher exam guide. The renewal process is in the Door Supervisor renewal guide, and dates and current prices are on the calendar.

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