Recruitment and retention

OPINION: With UK police forces witnessing a significant churn of experienced officers for new recruits, concerns over confidence, and a continuing challenge to maintain the policing by consent model, Acting Supt Stephen Lenney fears the service could be facing a perfect storm, one which could leave policing all at sea unless there is clarity of purpose and a shared consciousness of the challenges facing officers.

POLICING FRIENDSHIP TOUR: Former Cambridgeshire Police Deputy Chief Constable Alan Baldwin (centre-right in picture) believes clearing the vetting backlogs and attracting the right people into policing – including increased recruitment of under-represented groups – are essential steps for the future of the service in the UK, as he explained to Policing Insight Publisher Bernard Rix on a recent leg of the Policing Friendship Walking Tour.

INTERVIEW: When the citizens of Queen Creek, Arizona voted in favour of establishing a new police department, experienced Chief of Police Randy Brice was given the job of creating the organisation; he spoke to Policing Insight’s Christine Townsend about the challenges of recruiting during Covid, to a tight deadline, while ensuring the town’s community has a strong voice in the mission, values and vision of its new PD.

OPINION: ‘Degree gate’ – the apparent controversy over the value of policing degrees – has been a topic of conversation in UK policing circles and on social media for months; but for former chief superintendent Owen West, now a policing lecturer, the quality and depth of training, exposure to practical skills and enthusiasm of students suggests that much of the opposition to pre-join policing degrees must be based either in ignorance or cynicism.

ANALYSIS: The Institute for Government’s (IfG) recently published Performance Tracker has highlighted the huge pressures faced by the UK’s public services during the pandemic, and policing was no exception; IfG Research Assistant Anoushka Kavanagh looks at the impact of Covid on police performance and activity, as well as the challenges that still remain, and what the latest Spending Review will mean for the service.

OPINION: The pre-join degree scheme seems to be the ‘forgotten’ recruitment route for UK policing, argues Nottingham Trent University Policing Lecturer Phil Rudkin, with only three forces currently ready to accept recruits from these programmes; but with up to 2,600 pre-join graduates likely to enter the police recruitment pool by 2025, it’s time for forces and higher-education institutions to work together to improve this entry pathway into policing.

ANALYSIS: Recent upward trends in the size of the police workforce are welcome, but bring potential issues to be addressed down the line; in the latest in his series examining workforce changes, Ian Wiggett flags up how new training needs will emerge, why development opportunities are unlikely to keep pace with demand and ambitions – and that it really is true, officers are, indeed, getting younger.

Police Supers Conference 2021: Whilst the number of Black, Minority and Ethnic officers joining the police service is improving, the number in senior positions remains low at 4.3 per cent. This year’s Police Superintendents' Association Conference explored how representation in the senior ranks could be improved and how things might be about to change. Tina Orr Munro reports.

Interview: Transferring into An Garda Síochána from Toronto Police, Deputy Commissioner Shawna Coxon wondered how she would be received as 'an outsider' implementing their reform programme. She needn't have worried. Here she tells Policing Insight's Deputy Editor Sarah Gibbons about the warm welcome she's received, her frustrations at COVID restrictions limiting her walks on the beat and how the culturally rich policing style has her smitten.

OPINION: Amid the furore to call a halt to Dame Cressida Dick's time at the helm of the Metropolitan Police, the Government and - crucially - the rank and file respect and support her leadership style and believe she remains the right person for the job with no obvious successor yet identified. Former BBC Home Affairs correspondent Danny Shaw examines some of the reasons why the Commissioner's contract has, indeed, been extended.

ANALYSIS: Recent media headlines suggesting young recruits may not be ready for the challenges of modern UK policing have also prompted questions over the average age of those joining the service; now new research by University of Sunderland Lecturer Adrian Smiles and Police Federation of England and Wales Professional Development Lead David Bamber has confirmed that new recruits have generally got younger over the past three years – and forces need to be aware of the issues that may raise.

JOB ADVERTISEMENT: Police Lecturer vacancies at Babcock International for their new flagship contract partnering with several Higher Education Institutes across London to deliver the new Metropolitan Police Service Policing Education Qualifications Framework (PEQF) framework.

ANALYSIS: The UK Government’s ‘Uplift’ initiative to recruit an additional 20,000 police officers in England and Wales is well underway, but the challenge of balancing new recruits with those leaving posts means not all forces are expanding at the same rate; in the latest in a series of articles on the police workforce, Policing Insight’s Ian Wiggett looks at the key issues of service leavers and joiners, the pandemic effect and the need for more accurate data.

POLICING FRIENDSHIP TOUR: Avon and Somerset PCC Mark Shelford is leading the force’s hunt to find a new chief constable following the departure of Andy Marsh; but while traditionally the top job has been filled by existing chiefs or deputies, the force is widening the recruitment pool to include assistant chief constables and overseas applicants who possess the right leadership and Peelian qualities, as Mr Shelford explained to Policing Insight Publisher Bernard Rix on a recent leg of the Policing Friendship Tour.

ANALYSIS: Policing in England and Wales is now over half way through the UK Government’s ‘Uplift’ initiative, designed to recruit an additional 20,000 officers by April 2023, but while the programme is already delivering significant workforce growth, not all forces or roles are experiencing the same expansion; in this second in a series of articles on the police workforce, Policing Insight’s Ian Wiggett looks at changes in the numbers of police community support officers and police staff, and what that means for the total workforce picture.

ANALYSIS: Almost two years after Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged to recruit an 'Uplift' of 20,000 additional police officers, latest workforce figures show that the officer headcount has increased significantly; but in this first in a series of articles looking at the changing police workforce, Policing Insight's Ian Wiggett explains why a return to 2010 staffing levels will need to be more than just a numbers game, and how Government attempts to 'level up' could still leave a landscape of inequality.

FEATURE: When the Swedish Police launched a recruitment drive to employ more than 6,000 additional officers by 2022, the challenges included ‘no show’ applicants, unsuitable candidates and concerns over diversity; by adopting a data-driven approach to the issues, they have been able to adopt new ways of working that have improved the application process and kept them on track for their ambitious target, as Policing Insight Contributing Editor Tina Orr Munro reports. 

Insight: As Operation Uplift continues to attract new recruits, many candidates appear confused about the process and have ill-conceived ideas of what attributes are required to be a successful police officer; former Deputy Chief Constable Alan Baldwin explains how the service and outside agencies can help promote and hone key skills to ensure appropriate representation from diverse communities.

INNOVATION: With the national police recruitment uplift programme well underway, and many forces also looking to recruit additional officers on top of those identified by the Government, Hayley Wallis, Recruitment Marketing Lead at Lancashire Police, explains how the implementation of a flexible communications platform at the organisation has helped to drive recruitment.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Police forces in England and Wales face a huge challenge to recruit an extra 20,000 officers by 2023, but there are helpful lessons to be learned from elsewhere. PwC has been working with the Swedish Police, who have a similarly ambitious recruitment target. In their second article, Muz Janoowalla, Director of Data and Analytics at PwC UK, and Fredrik Birkeland, Public Sector Consultant at PwC Sweden, look at the Swedish experience of how data analysis of the applicants’ experience can provide insights to improve the application process.

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ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Police forces in England and Wales face a huge challenge to recruit an extra 20,000 officers by 2023, but there are helpful lessons to be learned from elsewhere. PwC has been working with the Swedish Police, who have a similarly ambitious recruitment target. Here, Muz Janoowalla, Director of Data and Analytics at PwC UK, and Fredrik Birkeland, Public Sector Consultant at PwC Sweden, look at the Swedish experience of using survey data and the importance of knowing your target group.

TAKE PART IN THE SURVEY: Policing employers and employees across the UK are being encouraged to take part in a biennial research project, to gauge the skills and training support needs of the entire workforce. Leading the national study, Jon Parry, Head of Research at Skills for Justice, discusses how the findings will help shape a future where staff resilience and wellbeing is both nurtured and adept to meeting the demands of the modern service.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: Together with the Metropolitan Police Service (Met Police), Babcock and its university partners have welcomed the first cohort of 196 new officer recruits who are embarking on the Met Police’s new Police Education Qualification Framework (PEQF) training programmes, which began on 25 January 2021