Care Teams Legal Status : working on a legal recognition
Since 2023, Brussels By Night has been working closely with a coalition of organisations, care team workers, and public partners to explore the recognition and formalisation of care teams in nightlife and public spaces. Unlike volunteers in various roles at events, security guards, or medical teams, Care Teams stand out for their specialized profile and role. They are essential for preventing and managing incidents related to excessive consumption (not requiring first aid) and sexual violence, while creating a safer environment for partygoers. However, Care Teams currently operate in a legal gray area.
Our Contribution
Advocacy around legal recognition of care teams
Brussels By Night carried significant advocacy and coordination work around the legal recognition and regulation of care teams (sfeerbeheer) in nightlife and festive events, alongside the City of Ghent, the Brussels Night Council and Vi.Be. Several meetings were held with prevention workers, cities, nightlife federations, night councils, and ministerial cabinets to address the current legal framework, which remains poorly adapted to on-the-ground realities.
The main objective is to have care teams recognized as a complementary actor to private security, focusing on prevention, well-being, and verbal intervention rather than coercive measures.
Definition of a roadmap
This work led to concrete discussions with the Federal Public Service of the Interior and political cabinets, highlighted tensions between security-based and public health approaches, and identified three possible paths forward: integrating care teams into a future law on non-police security roles, adapting the existing circular for associative events, and, in the longer term, revising the private security law. These steps represent an important milestone toward the structural recognition of care teams, with progress expected beyond 2026.