For ASB Awareness Week, we caught up with Tim Maxted, one of Magna’s Community Safety Officers, who is currently studying for a BTEC Level 3 Advanced Award in Community Safety.

Tim is part of our community safety team and is often visiting customers who have been the victims of anti-social behaviour (ASB) to offer support and seek resolutions. Tim comes from a police background, so he’s got a fantastic skillset for finding resolutions for our customers.

He said:

“I was in the Metropolitan Police but switched to Dorset Police when my wife and I moved down to Weymouth. I loved police work, but I found the hours and the shift patterns tiring. Feeling safe in your community is important for everyone and I genuinely felt that my background meant I had the skills to help Magna tackle ASB issues.”

As well as supporting victims of ASB, Tim also works with customers who have been reported for alleged ASB to help manage their behaviour. He continued:

“We might visit with a housing officer or a police officer, depending on the concern. The goal is always to chat, to get under the skin of what’s happened, and to empathise.
“In my experience, it’s generally true that there are two sides to every story.”

Tim has been doing a BTEC course alongside Andy Burdess, another one of Magna’s Community Safety Officers, to expand his learning of things like the regulatory framework around ASB, and also resolution techniques and victim and witness support.

He continued:

"It will be great to have another qualification under my belt when I finish the course in mid-December. It’s also interesting to hear from delegates in other regions about the types of ASB they see most frequently. There’s lots to learn from hearing about their challenges and successes.”
“There’s some crossover with things I learnt as a police officer - both in the job and on the course. Like investigation and de-escalation techniques, for example. It’s great to have relevant experience but I’m learning so much that’s new too and I’m really enjoying it.”

Supporting the learning and development of our colleagues is something that’s really important to us at Magna, and we’re proud to have colleagues like Tim and Andy that are always seeking to expand their knowledge to better support our customers.

Tim finished by saying:

“I’ve been here less than a year and, I can’t lie, one of the bonuses is having my weekends back! But it’s also really rewarding working with colleagues, customers and partners to tackle ASB and play a small part in building safer and more resilient communities.
“There seem to be lots of learning opportunities here at Magna and I’ve been supported through my studying, so I’m thinking I might look at other courses to help me progress personally and professionally. But first I’ll take a break from the books!”

Are you interested in joining #TeamMagna? We’ve got a wide variety of different roles across the organisation, so take a look here and find your dream job with us today.