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Community Safety Accreditation Scheme (CSAS): The Key questions to ask?

When considering CSAS training can your supplier tick all of the boxes to ensure that accreditation by the Police is more of a formality? Failure to ask these six key questions may lead to frustration, delay and failure of accreditation.

1. What does the syllabus contain?

The College of Policing has set the national framework for the Home Office approved Community Safety Accreditation Scheme (CSAS). Following Royal accent of the Police Reform Act 2002 TFS has been a principal collaborator with the sector skills body Skills for Security and Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), the previous owners of the national framework, in determining the taught content and assessment strategies. Latterly TFS recommended the mandatory modules routes that have been subsequently adopted by The College of Policing.

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Approved PCPA CSAS Provider

2. What Award do I get?

The College of Policing have mandated that the CSAS qualification should be positioned at level 2 in the national qualification framework albeit the award status is recommended as best practice since individual Chief Officers of Police have the right to determine if the qualification is mandatory in order to grant relevant powers. The TFS CSAS programme replicates and exceeds the national framework as set by The College of Policing and is listed on the customised qualification framework with Industry Qualifications (IQ). In addition the TFS programme is accredited by the National Police Chief's Council (NPCC). TFS clients are therefore future-proofed should The College of Policing determine that the CSAS award should be a formal qualification.

3. Who delivers your CSAS programme?

TFS complies with, and in most cases exceeds, the following mandated delivery processes as prescribed by The College of Policing:

Approved Trainers:

  • All trainers are required to hold a relevant teaching or training qualification at NQF level 3 or above, accredited by the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) or the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA), or other relevant qualification endorsed by the Higher Education Authority.
  • In addition, trainers in Conflict Management are required to hold a relevant qualification in Conflict Management training endorsed by the Security Industry Authority (SIA) or equivalent.

Sector Competence of Approved Trainers:

  • All trainers must know and understand current legislation relevant to Community Safety Accreditation Schemes, Accredited Persons and the powers that may be exercised.
  • In addition, all trainers must have recent, relevant experience in community safety or related occupations.

Additional relevant industry practice

The dedicated TFS team are drawn from a pool of LLB (Hons) practitioners, serving and ex-police officers and members of the extended policing family who have a rich experience from within the criminal justice system, enforcement and private security.

4. What is your approach to the training schedule?

The programme can be delivered in a classroom-based context or a blended approach utilising online facilitated events.

The correct organisational fit will be dependent on delegate learning styles, delegate cohorts and delegated CSAS powers.

5. Who have you already delivered CSAS training to?

Successful partnerships include, for example, The London Boroughs of Hounslow and Croydon, Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital, Brunel University, Hillingdon Hospital and Ultimate Security who have commissioned TFS CSAS training for operatives based at Victoria Bus Station (traffic offences & the removal of abandoned vehicles) and The Shard (anti-social behaviour and cycling offences). National engagements include, for example, Waitrose and G4S and many other local authorities. Please contact Rob McHarg for more information ().

6. How do you evaluate the success of the CSAS programme?

TFS uses the Kirkpatrick evaluation model:

Level 1 evaluation is met by the completion of a post course evaluation return.

Level 2/3 evaluation is achieved by using a variety of developmental tools (including trainer observations, direct questioning & probing, individual tasks, group tasks, hot debriefs, self-test questions and formal written tests), underpinned by the experiential learning cycle that is the fundamental measure of learning (cognitive & psychomotor domains) and behaviour (affective domain). At the upper-end accelerated learning is the preferred TFS methodology whereby delegates undertake practical demonstrations (where knowledge & application of the learning is evaluated against scripted outcomes) and simulations (that are video-taped for later reflection) where the outcomes can be varied (e.g. enforcement, warning, disengaging from the situation, etc.).

Level 2/3 outcomes are directly mapped to the CSAS national framework using the process set out by the qualification awarding body IQ. In essence this provides an audit trail of achievement and attainment and where a delegate fails to reach the required standard an accurate personal action plan is delivered to both the individual and the client in order that remedial action be agreed. This process is important since future accreditation of CSAS powers by the Chief Officer of Police relies on the objective determination of competence as contained within the CSAS national framework.

Please see the TFS CSAS page for more information