Policing UK 2013 - Police Federation

THE POLICE REFORM PROGRAMME
Institutional change
Derek Barnett is President of
the Police Superintendents’
Association of England and
Wales. He sits on the ministerial
working group for the
police professional body
Editor’s introduction
The new police professional body, the College of Policing, representing officers at all
ranks and police staff, started up in December 2012
The College of Policing’s mission will be to safeguard the public and support the fight
against crime by promoting professionalism in policing. It will work in the interest of
the public by setting and improving the standards for excellence in policing, including
recruitment, promotion, training and assessment. It will also help officers and staff to
bring greater professional discretion and judgement to their duties.
Police and crime commissioners (PCCs) will have an important role to play on
the College of Policing board. The board will have an equal balance of policing
representatives and others, including PCCs from non-policing backgrounds. It will
have an independent chair. The College of Policing’s governance will be based on
principles of openness, accountability and transparency. PCC representatives on
the board will participate in setting the strategic direction and tone for the college,
monitoring performance, and ensuring proper financial management.
What will a professional body mean
to policing?
A professional body for policing will
have a profound effect on the police
service and those who serve within it. It is
important that we free our minds to think
of what a professional body will look
like and what it will do, not by simply
rearranging what we do now, but starting
with a clean sheet of paper.
It should take the best of the
leadership training and development of
our officers and staff currently delivered
by the National Policing Improvement
Agency (NPIA) and blend it with the
work of the service in creating policing
policies, ethics, practice and standards.
This should then be aligned to an
evidence base to develop policing further,
creating a body that will enable police
officers of all ranks to be clear what
is expected of them. It will train and
equip them to a higher level and officers
will be able to have their skills properly
assessed against a set of standards and be
appropriately rewarded for those skills.
It is universally accepted that we have
world class universities in the United
Kingdom. The Home Secretary and the
Prime Minister have said we have the
best police service in the world. This is
a golden opportunity to combine those
two to work alongside each other within
a professional body. This ultimately must
be for the betterment of policing for the
public.
Is the police service not
professional already?
The police service has some of the most
dedicated, talented and professional
police officers and staff at all ranks,
comparable with any profession
within the public and private sector.
However, you have to firstly look at the
characteristics of a profession and one
definition is that it is a vocation requiring
knowledge of learning or science.
This is about properly training,
developing and equipping people involved
in policing, creating and implementing
policing practice and policy based on
evidence of what works and is affordable
in a rapidly changing world, and in a
way that enjoys the confidence and trust
of the public we serve. We have to be
clear that what we have now is a service
of talented people working to a high
standard of ethics, integrity and skill, but
short of being considered as a profession.
A professional body is an essential part of
that transition.
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