PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
A peaceful anti-racism protest in Walthamstow, London on the 8th of July this year Photo – Shutterstock
I near the end of my service I find myself asking, what have I got to show for it other than a plethora of war stories and a load of NCALT certificates? What use is that to me?
PP: With some new joiners having come through a graduate route, and others having policed for some time with no degree, how can policing value everyone’s skills? PM: The initial idea behind PEQF back in 2016 was to afford ‘serving’ police officers the opportunity to gain academic recognition for their existing skills, training, and experience, and to give them the opportunity to gain a degree or other transferable qualification. The conversation back then was about pre- join degrees, so that the forces could minimise training costs and save money, but when forces found themselves having to give money to the apprenticeship levy, the conversation soon changed to “how can we get it back”. The ambition to recognise the
‘talents, skills and experience’ of existing officers was soon ignored, with emphasis placed on new recruits and their training. This has led to division between the ‘haves and the have
32 | POLICE | AUGUST | 2024
nots’, with new recruits having the opportunity to embark on a three-year program of training and education, resulting in a degree for their efforts, when back at the station, existing officers are expected to impart their experience in return for nothing. This has created animosity and divisiveness,
“I would like to see clear yet flexible career paths for officers in the service, with accredited learning opportunities made
available from the moment you join to the moment you leave.”
with many vociferous officers, past and present, arguing that a degree in Policing is irrelevant. There needs to be a change in
this narrative and forces need to be investing in their existing staff in stead of front loading at the point of entry. We need to develop a learning culture within Policing that starts when you join and continues until you leave. This learning should be accredited with forces measured on how this learning is embedded and leading to cultural change and improved performance. Training should be about upskilling and not simply to mitigate risk when something goes wrong.
PP Given the costs of policing are again under scrutiny how can skills be developed whilst achieving value for money? PM: Ideally, there should be a way to align what people do at work, with what they are rewarded for, based on their validated skills. There are existing CPD formats within policing based on yearly performance appraisals, so why can’t these be mapped against the outside world criteria to use an existing effort invested at work between supervisors and their staff
count. The irony is we already do lots of things around skills but these are simply not aligned to externally validated common standards. By keeping things in house we force the need for duplication, leaving those in the service with an internal system that doesn’t count in the outside world. We shouldn’t have to spend more
money, just do more joined-thinking and align our skills to measures that the rest of the world recognises. That would be better for police professional morale, enable better role transition, promotion selection and boost public confidence using the transparency of external benchmarks.
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