According to ALSAR you are not qualified to manage or control a search unless you have passed an assessment to say you are competent to do so! I think this is quite right. I do not care how good a course you sat through – unless you can prove you have taken some of it in, you should not be making life or death decisions [and have no doubt that is what a search manager/controller does!]

I am always very pleased then, to receive people’s Search Controller’s Assessments after they have sat their UKLSI Course. Those that sit through the course and then believe they are somehow “qualified” to run a search are wrong!

However, very often delegates have a problem completing the assignment. This is generally not due to their not being able to do the work, or them being somehow incompetent. More often it is due to a misunderstanding of how to pass assessments. So here, exclusively, is my guide to passing your search controller’s assessment!

When you are given your assignment you are given a list of assessment criteria. This is your guide to what you need to do to pass. Write or say something about each point and you have a good chance of passing. Miss any of them and you CANNOT pass!

So number one on the check-list is “recognise common pitfalls”. Look at your two searches, see whether any of the common pitfalls Charlie Hedges wrote about were present. If they were, say so. If not, say something to the effect that none were present – you might like to explain one and what happened on the search to prove its worth.

Number two, “demonstrate understanding of the benefits of pre-planning”. If one of your searches was pre-planned state how this helped. If it wasn’t pre-planned state what help it would have been had it been pre-planned – what went wrong or took time that could have been prevented by pre-planning. Note on your pre-plan how it helps with the next search incident at that location.

Number three… well, hopefully you are seeing that pattern. The assessment is not there to be difficult – in fact the activities were deliberately chosen to be useful to you and your Unit. But in order to demonstrate your competence you must discuss everything on the assessment sheet!

Have no doubt it will be hard work. It will take some time – something none of us have much of! But if you want to run a search and make those decisions – I think you ought to at least put in the time and effort to prove you are up to it!

Hopefully, this will have helped some of you. If anyone wants to add something – please do…