Ongoing Training and Professional Development Survey

The Paul McKeever Scholarship was set up in April 2014 by the Metropolitan Police Federation in recognition of the commitment and dedication that Paul gave to the Police Federation in improving conditions for police officers prior to his untimely death in January 2013.

The purpose of the scholarship is to fund students to undertake a Master of Science in Research Degree at Canterbury Christ Church University on matters pertaining to the improvement of the working conditions and environment of police officers. This is an opportunity for the Police Federation to embrace academically based research in partnership with a University which has a leading reputation for research in the Public Services and also has a pioneering Policing Studies department, in order to formulate evidence-based policy.

One of the matters that the Police Federation has requested be researched is the provision of ongoing training within the service.

Commentators, politicians and the public are constantly calling for the police to have more and more training in wider and wider subjects in order to do their jobs better; from race and diversity to how to deal with anti-social behaviour, stop and search practices, dealing with persons with mental health issues all the way up to issues in counter terrorism on a national and international scale.

Not only that, when major changes in the law and police procedure occur police officers need to know about them, how it will affect hem and how they will incorporate these changes their day to day working practices. In fact training is often seen as a panacea for many of the problems within the police service and barely a week goes by without a story in the press or an official report including the phrase “Police need more training in {insert issue here}.”  

However this also needs to be set in the context of the Government’s austerity measures, in a time drastically shrinking budgets during which training units and officers are often the first casualties as savings need to be made without compromising front-line provision, yet with an ever increasing demand and public calls for service.

To this end a staff survey has been created and is being circulated with the assistance of the Police Federation of England and Wales who are also supporting the project, to all current serving police officers in England and Wales who are of a federated rank (and not involved in training design).

The study will examine the satisfaction and attitudes of police officers undertaking training and what motivated them to complete it. It will also examine the relationship between officers’ motivation to complete training and the fact that often attendance at these courses is often mandatory.

There will also be a particular focus on the increased provision training via e-learning products created by the National Centre for Applied Learning Technologies (NCALT) and how officers perceive this as an effective method of training delivery.

Officers completing the survey will also have the opportunity to attend focus group session in the South East London/Kent area to follow up the results of the survey and discuss and suggest ways in which training provision can be improved. The results of the study will be included in an operational report which will be submitted to the Police Federation to provide evidence which can assist them in formulating policy.

Click here to take part in the survey

Note: The survey is open until 30th June 2015

If anyone wishes to contact me as the researcher (I am myself a serving member of the police service) for more details I can be contacted via email at [email protected]

Any officers who are further interested in undertaking University level study can also check out Canterbury Christ Church University’s School of Law, Criminal Justice and Computing for its wide range of Policing Studies courses.