Security shift handover template

A failed handover is usually information that stayed in the outgoing officer's head: a fire door that would not lock, a contractor still in the plant room, a camera that went offline at 03:00. HSE's guidance on shift handover describes effective handover in three steps: preparation by the outgoing person, a two-way exchange, and cross-checking by the incoming person as they take responsibility. It recommends handovers that are face to face and use both verbal and written communication. The template follows that order.

The guidance comes from high-hazard industries; HSE cites a failure of communication between shifts in the 1983 Sellafield beach incident, and the Cullen Report on Piper Alpha named failed information transfer at shift handover as one contributing factor. On a guarded site the stakes are lower, but the mechanism is the same.

The format of a handover is agreed between the security company and the client. In the US the handover is often called a pass-down, and the post orders should say where pass-down notes are kept. In the UK, the SIA ACS workbook guide expects assignment instructions to cover the site's procedures, and timekeeping is among its example contents, so put the handover time and method into the assignment instructions. In both countries, a handover where the outgoing officer leaves before the relief arrives should itself be logged as an occurrence.

With COREDINATE's guard tour system, the incoming officer reads the shift's digital log on the phone before taking over. Key handovers are recorded with date, time and the officer receiving them; with NFC key seals one scan identifies a whole key ring. The handover checklist itself can be rebuilt as a flexible form with mandatory fields, so the cross-check cannot be skipped. Issues that run over several shifts can be tracked as cases in the ticket system.