Security review Place of Worship

Following a theft, we worked with a Church in Tyneside to assess its security culture and examine threats and vulnerabilities to the organisation, its buildings and its congregation.

The Church could not afford systems such as access control or extensive CCTV, so our assessment and recommendations focused on practical measures designed to improve and augment the security culture. This is always the bedrock of any security improvements and should be the primary aim of any security assessments or improvements.

This enabled the church to reduce what had been predicted to be a large increase in its insurance premiums, enhance staff confidence in understanding and managing its security risks, and reduce the risk of further thefts.

Security systems design for BREAAM credits

Our client was involved in the construction of a mixed-use development that would be expanded over a period of five years. As a result, the initial external walls would become internal walls. We designed a security plan based on our examination of the threats to the facility and the security culture of the organization. This plan was proportional to the risk and cost-effective.

Our planning process ensured that we accounted for local Police Counter-Terrorism advice and provided guidance on the measures required for the site. This prevented impractical measures from being imposed later at greater cost with little practical security benefit. Additionally, our security design allowed the organization to obtain additional credits for the security section within the BREEAM requirements.

Security framework implementation

Our team collaborated with a humanitarian client in revamping their security framework and crisis management systems across 34 countries. We tailored these plans to align with operational needs, ensuring they were easy to understand and implement by staff members from diverse organizational sections like logistics and finance.

We recognized that their risks went beyond traditional security concerns and developed a streamlined security strategy that encompassed political and operational challenges, including issues with electricity supplies and challenging driving conditions. Our approach also involved incident management plans and comprehensive security budget training, which empowered the team to adequately resource the security function.

Finance is a language that security often struggles to express itself in, but it must master it to secure appropriate funding.

Thermal Roof Surveys

Energy efficiency is key to an organisation's sustainability; it requires identifying energy waste to address issues and make cost savings. Our drone surveys enabled a client with a mixed-use estate of new, old and industrial buildings to identify the heat loss from buildings.

​This enabled them to take measures to reduce energy waste from electrical items left on, out of hours and to identify which buildings required treatment first to address energy waste from poor and old infrastructure.

It also identified damaged roofs and items left on roof spaces during building works, which posed a risk to the site's safety, particularly given the presence of an active helipad.

Risk Management Review

During our evaluation of an organisation's counter-fraud services, we carried out a comprehensive review of their abilities to detect and respond to fraud incidents. We not only focused on their capacity to deal with suspected cases of wrongdoing but also on their ability to identify and act on vulnerabilities within the organization that enable fraud to occur.

Our review highlighted several gaps in the processes and procedures that were no longer suitable for the purpose. We also identified a vulnerability in the investigations conducted by the third-party counter-fraud provider regarding the sharing of relevant information with the organization. This enabled the organisation to address the identified vulnerabilities. It also emphasizes the dangers posed when investigations are solely conducted to identify a guilty party, and vulnerabilities within the organisation and its work systems are ignored.