Independent Review of Police Officer and Staff Remuneration and ...

Independent Review of Police Officer and Staff Remuneration and Conditions – Final Report
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diploma should be removed from the scheme and continue to be constables, if satisfactory in
all other relevant respects.
The national police college course
3.2.233 The course should last two years and be based at the national police college. Unlike the special
course in the 1960s, which spent much of the year focusing on the general education of those
attending, these two years should cover three police-focused areas: operational policing,
leadership and management skills. The emphasis should be on knowledge and practical
instruments. The course should not train participants to be specialists, but it should give them a
broad range of skills which, coupled with their intellectual capacity, should enable them rapidly
to become competent in any area. Members should leave the course knowing how to lead and
inspire the officers and staff under their command, how to make the most of their resources,
and with a strong understanding of the principal areas of operational policing. This will assist
them in becoming leaders of the future.
3.2.234 Those attending the course should learn through classroom-based tuition, simulations and in
the workplace. They should discuss their learning with their force or regional learning group
whilst away from the college. These groups, which should be organised by participants, should
meet regularly to provide members with peer challenge and advice and assistance. It will be
important for members in the largest metropolitan forces to meet with colleagues from other
forces to avoid insularity.
3.2.235 Trainers, tutors and leaders on courses taught at the police college should predominantly be
serving police officers, particularly in areas involving operational command. Forces should
put forward their most able for such posts. It is essential that the skills and knowledge taught
during the course (and in the other courses recommended in this Chapter) are put in an up-todate
policing context. A secondment to the national police college to train its future leaders
should be regarded as a mark of high distinction for a police officer, one earnestly to be sought.
3.2.236 The curriculum for the course should be developed by the new Police Professional Body, with
advice from the sector’s skills council, Skills for Justice. Many of the areas covered in the
postgraduate diploma in police leadership and management run by Warwick Business School
for the HPDS scheme are relevant, but as explained above there should be a greater focus on
operational policing and leadership.
3.2.237 Members should learn about the theory of leadership and have regular opportunities to put
this into practice, both within their intake and in their forces. They should receive regular
lectures from leaders in different sectors. Members need to learn about the practicalities of
managing a section of an organisation. As in the postgraduate diploma in police leadership and
management, members should learn:
• project management skills;
• about the management and use of resources in the policing environment and a wider public
sector context; and
• about designing, developing and implementing programmes in the police service and in cooperation
with other institutions and organisations.
3.2.238 Members of the scheme should also continue to learn management theories concerning
organisations and people. However, a significant component of this part of the course should
be the practical application of the management instruments available to officers and staff. In
the course of the review, it has been repeatedly stated that forces have the policies and tools
available to deal with problems, such as unsatisfactory performance, but managers often do not
know how to use them, or are reluctant to do so. Members of the scheme should be taught how
to use instruments such as the unsatisfactory performance and attendance procedures, and how
to apply the disability elements of the Equality Act 2010 correctly. This will not only assist
them with their own direct line management responsibilities, but will enable them to advise
those below them, spreading good practice.