This post is about conflict management | personal safety | dynamis training. A leading ambulance mental health escort services firm asked our team to devise and deliver a series of training workshops for their mental health escorts. The training focused on the main violence flashpoints these teams encounter during their work for mental health services.
📊 The scope: Secure transfers throughout the UK for adults, children, and adolescents with mental health illness — including journeys to and from low, medium, and high secure psychiatric settings, court escorts, transfers from police stations and A&E departments, and outpatient appointments.
The initial phase of the Secure Escort Training project included gathering data and evidence to identify the specific flashpoints the CPD day would cover.
Because incidents often happen proximal to — or inside — the vehicle used for transport, the training focused on a very special set of tactics addressing the unique environmental concerns and confined spaces these teams navigate daily.
About 80% of the previous physical interventions training was not in use by this team — because the “off the shelf” approach was only partially fit for purpose.
Key themes that emerged during the course included the importance of Initial Contact with the client, Explaining Why, and the ways in which teams use Persuasion to ensure physical interventions remain an absolute last resort.
The teams were already adept at conflict resolution — but they recognised the need to keep learning and refining their approach.
Our approach was to observe the tactics this team had evolved over time — a natural response to the lack of “fit” from their previous training — and to add our tactical advice on top of their practical experience and what already worked for them in the field.
Our job was to ensure that the known risks involved in restraint were not becoming part of everyday practice, and to bring efficiency benefits to the specific tactical choices the team was making. That’s how we made this a genuine CPD event — springboarding off a baseline of knowledge, coupled with the teams’ own experiences, and aligned with recommendations from recent high-profile cases.
💡 Key takeaway: Effective secure escort training isn’t about replacing what teams already do — it’s about observing, refining, and ensuring safety while building on real-world experience.
Feedback from this team after just one CPD training day was exceptional. The project is ongoing — upgrading these teams from off-the-shelf training to a better, more “fit for purpose” system of work they can use with confidence when control and restraint becomes necessary.
✅ Learn more: Full details about our Secure Escort Restraint Training course are available at dynamis.training/what-is-mental-health-secure-escort-training.
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