Avantguard News

This month we've had another successful ACS Audit carried out by SSAIB.

We are please to report that we have scored another point so now sit at 107 points and as always, we are so proud of this score as a small company providing services on a local level.

Our report contained a lot of good feedback, including 2 Good Practices identified. These are for our process to ensure continous feedback and training through the welfare system and the implementation of trial audit and spot check system to ensure that standards continue to met at the highest level. 

The report also included some really nice comments from clients and staff which the auditor had noted such as:-

"Cost isn't a consideration. We know our building is being looked after properly by Avantguard"

"Great service, flexible and adaptable"

"They're the reason I'm still here years later"

As usual, we had no Improvement Needs and our auditor also said this year there are no improvement options to consider for the future although we're sure we can find something to work on in the coming year.

In April 2025 we sent out a Customer Satisfaction survey to all our clients.  We're really pleased with the response and thank you to everyone that took the time to complete the survey.

Overall the feedback was very positive to all our questions with no negative responses at all.  Some responses were neutral (N/A) but otherwise everyone either agreed or strongly agreed with the statements.

We also had some really lovely statements which you can view on our testimonials page and some general feedback on our performance such as:

"We are very happy with the service we receive"

"Satisfied with local relationship"

"There's nothing more that I need"

As well as all the nice feedback, we had some really interesting suggestions and ideas for how we might expand our services so we are looking into these ideas in more detail.

You can find the full results of the customer survey in the Customer area of our website (link below). If you can't remember the password then please email your contract manager.

May 2024 - ACS Audit Success

Another year has gone by and we've just had our 11th ACS Audit.

We've managed to improve our score once again and now sit at 106 points.  This is a fantastic achievement by our team, especially for a company of our size and it puts us in the top 15% of all ACS companies according to the ACS Pacesetters.

The average score for a company of our size is 72 points and that includes companies with between 26 and 250 employees.  Avantguard employ around 35 employees so we are very much at the smaller end of this size bracket and that makes us all the more pround of our score of 106.

Amongst the feedback received, the auditor was particularly impressed with comments from a client who had worked with various providers and contractors for 40 years and considered Avantguard to be "by far the best that he has worked with".

The audit identified two areas of Good Practice. The first related to conducting Enhanced DBS checks annually, which is in excess of the generally accepted 3 or 5 years.

The second relates to the newly introduced Private Health Care scheme for all employees.

In August 2023, Avantguard sent out a Customer Satisfaction Survey to our clients.

The results have now been collated and are available to view by clicking the button below.

We're very pleased with the results with most of our clients either strongly agreeing or agreeing with the various statements about our customer service.  Some responses were neutral or N/A, but we received no negative responses so that's great to hear. 

We had some lovely testimonials which you can find on our Testimonial Page

It was nice to receive some specific feedback from a range of clients with improvement suggestions so we're working on ideas and plans for how to implement these suggestions.

We also had some general feedback with lovely comments such as:-

"Continue with the very professional and reliable service"

"Great service, friendly and professional"

In August 2023 we asked our team to complete a staff feedback survey and we have now collated all the results. 

We're really pleased at an overwhelmingly positive response from the team with 100% of our staff agreeing that they would recommend Avantguard as an employer to others.

We also had some really good feedback and suggestions which we are looking to implement and some very nice comments which you can find on our Recruitment page

If you work for Avantguard, you can access the full survey results via the Staff login area.

After more than 3 years of hard work, Kate and Tony of Avantguard Security are very pleased to report on the final approval of a new security apprenticeship.

The Private Security Industry Trailblazer Group announced the approval of a new, government-funded level 2 Professional Security Operative apprenticeship.

The new apprenticeship has been approved by government as a route for those wanting to join the private security industry, and for those already in employment who wish to progress. This achievement represents three years of hard work by employers and stakeholders across industry, supported by the SIA (Security Industry Authority). 

The apprenticeship will provide funded opportunities for professional training in core security skills, and allow employees to choose a specialism:

• Operational Security Operative

• Cash and Valuables in Transit

• Mobile Security Patrol

• Security Control Room Operative.

Mark Williams, Security Operations Manager, Parliamentary Security Department, and Chair of the Trailblazer Group responsible for developing the apprenticeship, said:

“I am really pleased that the hard work of employers and others has paid off. This is a major step forward for the industry. This apprenticeship will address some of the workforce issues that we have, by helping to attract new talent to the industry, as well as retaining and developing existing staff. I am extremely proud of the hard work, tenacity and collaboration shown by the group to achieve this step forward to help professionalise the industry.”

Heather Baily QPM, Chair of the SIA, commented:

“We are really pleased to have supported the group to achieve this outcome. It is another great example of the progress that can be made when industry collaborates on skills issues with our support and hopefully a further step along the way of making the private security industry a career of choice.”

Further information:

For employers wanting to find more about offering apprenticeships visit:

Hire an apprentice (apprenticeships.gov.uk)

The new Professional Security Operative apprenticeship can be found here:

Institute of Apprenticeships & Technical Education

The Professional Security Operative apprenticeship is available in the United Kingdom. In Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland employers seeking to access apprenticeship funding should approach their local apprenticeship funding body.

Apprenticeship levy payers in England – employers in the private or public sector with an annual wage bill of more than £3 million will, for the first time, be able to use their levy to pay for high-quality training for their private security operatives.

Great News! 

On the 8th & 9th May we had our annual Approved Contractor audit and it was another success. Despite a challenging year for everyone, we have raised our score to 103 points. That puts us just 2 points short of being an industry pacesetter (top 15% of all ACS companies in the country). 

Our auditors spent time interviewing clients and staff and we received some great feedback.

Observation of service delivery highlighted that security staff were highly motivated, customer focused and demonstrated good attention to detail. They fully understood the high expectations that both Avantguard and the clients had of them and took a pride in meeting these. They had a good awareness of site issues and vulnerabilities. The confidence and competence of new members of the team was also evident. This is a testament both to Avantguard’s focus on training and the peer support that all staff said they enjoyed. 

When the Assessor asked staff about their experience of working for Avantguard, the phrase “I’m loving it” was said by three of them, both long-serving and recent recruits.

Clients praised Avantguard for being genuinely local, responsive and professional.

The assessment found that Avantguard’s USP is that it is a technology-led security company. GuardTools is embedded across all areas of the business and extensive evidence was seen of the efficiencies it has achieved, including automatic reports to clients giving assurance of service delivery as well as helping Avantguard plan and manage processes and understand performance. Data was used by the Senior Management Team to understand what does (and doesn’t) work,  leading to a culture of learning and innovation.

We are pleased to say that we had no improvement needs (things that need to be improved quickly) and were provided with a couple of improvement options which are ideas we might want to consider for the future.

It is fair to say we could not achieve this without a great frontline and admin team that are fully supporting in delivering the Avantguard vision. So, a great BIG THANK YOU to you all!

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1018708/sia-acs-guide-to-buying.pdf

Our Score History

2022 Score = 103/145

2022 Score = 102/145

2021 Score = 98/145

2020 Score = Audit only partially completed due to COVID restrictions

2019 Score = 88/145

ACS Workbook and scoring mechanism changed in 2019

2018 Score = 117/174

2017 Score = 98/174

2016 Score = 86/174

2015 Score = 70/174

2014 Score = 51/174

We have booked our stand to exhibit at the Worthing Better Business Show in September 2023.

This year, the event will be held on Thursday 21st September 2023 from 10:00am to 3:00pm and will be at the Worthing Leisure Centre.

https://worthingandadurchamber.co.uk/BBS-2023

It's always an informative and interesting day with a variety of local companies showing what Worthing and Sussex has to offer (and there's usually a few tasty freebies to pick up along the way).

We look forward to exhibiting alongside everyone, including some of our clients and suppliers who we've known for many years:-

https://nsureinsurance.co.uk/

https://www.carpenterbox.com/

https://www.jan-it.com/

https://www.baconandco.co.uk/