Hello my name is... Ian Kilroy
He was born and bred in Manchester and now lives very happily, on the other side of the Pennines in Burnley, Lancashire with his wife and three teenage children and importantly the family Border Terrier dog ‘Princess Maggie’….(see photo)
What is your position?
Trust Security and Emergency Preparedness Manager. Two main themes to the role; I am responsible for providing advice & technical guidance, developing and implementing risk based strategies to manage security risk activities within the corporate security portfolio for the organisation. This means topics like lone working, violence and aggression, asset protection, Police liaison and physical security of Trust premises and people. Separately, but connected in some ways, emergency preparedness looks at Trust wide incident response planning, critical incident management support, emergency plans and business continuity processes to support core activity. This means major incident planning, exercising/testing and training staff to respond to reasonably foreseeable incidents and liaising with other partner agencies to provide system resilience.
Tell us about your career background?
Joined the Royal Air Force in 1995 as a Military Police Officer and lived it for 12 years. I have carried out a variety of managerial roles inclusive of general policing, NVQ Assessor and Instructor, intelligence gathering and spending the last few years in the Special Investigations Branch (SIB). Travelled, with work, to Iraq, Kosovo, Germany, Cyprus, Falkland Islands and all over mainland UK. Joined the NHS in 2007 and have held strategic roles within Security/Risk/Resilience within Primary Care, Acute and latterly mental health secure services with the full range of activities including violence reduction strategies, asset and staff protection programmes, counter terrorism initiatives, emergency incident management and response, amongst others. In the last few years, developing and diversifying my emergency planning management and business contingency portfolio across the forensic secure service estate in the North West.
What are the best bits about your job?
Meeting people, helping people and working with really interesting people. I am a people person. Additionally, nobody ever knows everything, so every day is a new day with differences to it….
What is the highlight of your career so far?
Two really, I was the youngest, in terms of time served and age, officer on my SIB course which I was really proud of and worked really hard to achieve and secondly I developed the Early Action programme at a previous Acute Trust I worked with which entailed working with Policing partners to integrate Police Officers, within a large acute multi-site, working alongside clinical teams within Emergency Departments and Security Teams which had a measurable impact on frequent flyers, partnership liaison and violence and aggression in specific parts of the Hospital. This was nationally recognised as an innovative approach and won a national Hospital Security award in 2015.
Sum up your role in three words?
Busy, diverse, interesting.
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
I wanted to be in the military, a Police Officer and a footballer. Got to do two of them…
Who is your hero/heroine and why?
Growing up (If you ever stop, that is...) there were two really– Flash Gordon and Snoopy. One being bold and brash the other reserved and measured… You figure the psychoanalysis…
When you are not at work how do you relax?
Like to spend time with the family, walk the dog, read books, go on holidays and have done martial arts for the last 25 years, so keeps me active…
What is your favourite place?
Home… But travelling wise, only been once, but loved Rome, Italy.
What would people be surprised to know about you?
Had football trials for Rochdale when I was 11 years old.