Guidance

SGSA stewarding factsheet 5: Training

Published 1 August 2023

Background

All safety personnel require appropriate training, beyond any necessary qualifications, to carry out their roles effectively. This factsheet outlines the venue, event and role specific training required.

Ground management has the responsibility for ensuring that all safety personnel, whether in-house, voluntary or provided under contract, are competent and, where not already qualified, have received sufficient training to carry out the duties and responsibilities assigned to them.

The training outlined in this factsheet is in addition to the formal spectator safety qualifications required for stewards and other members of the safety management team.

Training is critical for event attendants, to make sure they are fully aware of venue and event requirements, along with having a clear understanding on the roles and responsibilities they hold – in other words what they can and, importantly, what they cannot do.

As good practice, management should encourage continuous professional development and refresher training opportunities for safety personnel. In addition, management should ensure records of training received are kept for each personnel member.

Venue-specific training

Venue-specific training should normally be delivered to each employee, volunteer or contractor before or when they first attend the venue. This important familiarisation training is to outline the safety and security features and requirements of the venue. This should include but not be limited to:

• the general layout of the venue including key safety features
• location of ingress and egress points
• location of emergency exit routes
• location of first aid and emergency response units
• the venue specific regulations and requirements for spectators and staff members
• venue specific communication signals and codewords
• generic operational procedures and policies

Event-specific training

Alongside gaining an understanding of the venue, training should include elements specific to the nature of the event taking place. This should include, but not limited to:

• the characteristics of the event
• which categories of spectator will be in attendance
• other factors that might influence spectator behaviour, such as the event’s timing, its significance and, where applicable, the attendance of visiting supporters
• any external factors that might influence the safety management of the event, such as the weather, activities in Zone Ex, issues affecting local road networks or transport providers, or other events in the vicinity or on the same day

Importantly changes to the usual operational procedures or policies will need to be identified and communicated.

Role-specific training

Staff members deployed to specific roles or locations within each venue will need to be appropriately trained on the key safety, security and service roles and actions needed for the event and location/deployment. This includes, but is not limited to, these roles:

• car park staff and logistics
• turnstile operators and points of entry scanning
• fire marshals
• safety stewards
• security personnel
• exit or pass gate attendants
• field of play attendants
• lift attendant

Supervisors training

Stewards’ supervisors should receive additional training that develops their skills and competencies, especially when responding to unplanned incidents.

All supervisors should undertake ongoing training in areas such as customer service, communication techniques (including the delivery of cascaded safety briefings), disability awareness and security/counter terrorism awareness.

Refresher training/continuous professional development

It is recommended that all safety management personnel, no matter how experienced, should undergo refresher training on a regular basis and undertake continuing professional development; for example, taking courses on Basic Life Support Skills and ACT Awareness eLearning.

Wherever possible, stewards should be encouraged to develop their own career path by undertaking further training to achieve higher qualifications.

Find out more

Further details can be found in the SGSA’s existing guidance:

• Guide to Safety at Sports Grounds (Green Guide) sixth edition – Sections 3.10 – 3.13 and Section 4.1 – 4.22.

• Supplementary Guidance 03: Event Safety Management first edition – Section SG03 4.12 – 4.26.