Best Bar None is a government and police recognised national scheme that aims to ensure all members/venues have measures in place to sell alcohol as responsibly as possible and to ensure people who come to the bar are looked after in the best way possible.
This year we have been awarded Gold Accreditation, the highest accreditation you can get from the scheme, for all the efforts of the staff and students that work in our venue. As well as coming Runner Up as the best SU venue in the entire country! Which is incredible (it was a close match with a 1% lead from Leeds SU, well-done guys!)
"I am extremely proud of all the immense hard work that our fantastic team has put in over the years to strive to make UPSU a safe, friendly and welcoming venue for all. This award is testament to our efforts and I now look forward to welcoming back all of our current and new student members in September.'"
- Daniel Forster, UPSU Bar Manager
The awards are focused on the 4 licensing objectives: Public Safety, Protection of Children From Harm, Prevention of Crime and Disorder & Prevention of Public Nuisance, and basically speaking we do all four of these things better than all but one Students' Union in the entire country, and we take it very seriously.
"Personally, I'm incredibly proud of our venue as we're often the first place students come to after being dropped off by their parents and before venturing out into the jungle that is Plymouth nightlife, so knowing that we do enough for not only a GOLD accreditation, we have to add the extra layer of competition of being 2nd place nationally, means that when students come to us they know they don't just get cheap drinks but they can come for a safe, enjoyable time.
Since I've started working here it's also been enlightening to see just how many policies and procedures are put in place for our hospitality operation, many of which you wouldn't even think about. The whole assessment is a co-operative effort across every department including bars, security, venue operation, facilities and HR so it just goes to show how much effort goes into this and it makes me feel glad to be a part of it."
- Ben Gilbert, UPSU Deputy Bar Manager
BBN is split into two assessments, firstly you have the local assessment (in which we consistently win best student venue!), and then the accreditation we received recently was NUS Best Bar None, which assesses all Students' Unions, and is a nationwide assessment split into essential/desirable criteria, and it was these desirable criteria that decided our runner-up placement nationally.
This means we do way more than the bare minimum and go above and beyond to ensure we're making the bar as safe as possible for our students.