Security officers on site, working to written instructions

• Controlling entry to a site or building
• Signing in visitors, contractors and deliveries
• Patrolling inside and outside at set intervals
• Checking doors, windows, gates and fences
• Locking and unlocking
• Recording and reporting incidents
• Following your emergency and evacuation procedures

We survey the site, then write an assessment of what could go wrong and how an officer would reduce it. From that we write the assignment instructions: duties, routes, contacts, what to do if something goes wrong, and who to call. You read and agree them. The officer is briefed on them before the first shift, and the instructions stay on site.

• Assignment instructions

  The written duties for the post. We also call them site instructions.

• A shift report

  A record of what happened on each shift, sent to you after it.

• Incident reports

  What happened, when, who was told and what was done.

• A named contact

  One person to speak to about your site.

• A review

  A date, agreed at the start, to ask whether the cover is still right.

Guarding under contract is licensable. The Security Industry Authority (SIA) licenses individuals, not companies, so we put only people with the right SIA licence on a guarding post, and we check it on the SIA's public register before they start. We also check identity, right to work and work history. You can ask for the licence details of anyone on your site.

A security officer is not a police officer and has no police powers. The job is to deter, observe, record and report, and to call the emergency services when they are needed. If a supplier tells you otherwise, ask for the legal basis.

• Access to the areas the officer will cover, and the keys or codes to do it, given to us directly
• The name of someone who can make decisions about the site
• A call when something about the site changes