OPINION: The recently published Police Leadership Commission’s Professionalism and Performance report offers a blunt verdict that leadership development is inconsistent, talent is wasted, and something structural must change, says Dr Aksar Bashir, Manager of West Midlands Police Force Contact Training Academy, who argues that while the report is a significant examination of police leadership in England and Wales, it offers mainly structural and managerial solutions to what are cultural and relational problems.

OPINION: While public debate around the recent Police Leadership Commission report focuses on proposals such as the National Academy of Police Leadership and new promotion pathways, The Open University’s Professor Clifford Stott, ACC Nick Caveney, Dr Jennifer Norman, and Dr Iain Raphael, argue that the report’s key contribution is on the issue of whether policing has the institutional capability to deliver and sustain the scale of change envisaged by both the Commission and the wider reform programme.

OPINION: The recently published report of the Police Leadership Commission highlights a range of key challenges for the service in England and Wales, explains Commission Co-chair and former home secretary David Blunkett, with “devastating” findings in relation to the recruitment, training and development, promotion, monitoring and appraisal of police officers among the issues addressed within the report’s 27 recommendations.

ANALYSIS: This week saw the publication of the Police Leadership Commission’s much anticipated report; in an exclusive article for Policing Insight, Open University Emeritus Professor Jean Hartley, one of the Commissioners who took a leading role in gathering evidence for this “root and branch analysis” of police leadership in England and Wales, highlights some of the report’s key findings and recommendations.

OPINION: Following the publication of the report and recommendations of the Police Leadership Commission this week, Supt Nick Smart, President of the Police Superintendents’ Association, highlights the continuing need for a definition of the policing mission in England and Wales, as well as some of the measures required to address the gaps in officer development, the move towards a learning culture, the importance of ensuring reforms are mandated, and the ongoing challenges around inadequate funding.