About the initial training scheme and the studied intake

Since over ten years ago, initial policing learning and development programme (IPLDP), the curriculum for training police constables developed by College of Policing, has been implemented in police forces in England and Wales. The programme includes four main phases, namely introduction, community (legislation and placement), supervised patrol and independent patrol. While the format, length and structure of the initial training has been roughly standardised by the IPLDP, each force has its own discretion in selecting content to cover, organising placements and designing courses.

In the Force, its espousal of professional knowledge seemed to lay the ground for its ‘all-inclusive’ initial training. The Force was said to be one of the forces that tried to cover everything in depth from the IPLDP learning package. Besides, members from nuclear and terrorism departments were invited to deliver lectures to inform new recruits of their specialised functions, which was quite ‘unusual’ in initial training among police forces (officer 14). Besides, with the purpose of exposing recruits to different types of public services and alternative perspectives, the Force incorporated a wider range of placements into the initial training, including operational response

teams, neighbourhood policing teams, road policing teams, crime investigation department (CID), NGO organisations and other fledging associations.

Specifically, most probationers of the Force had their IPLDP training in a training centre (hereafter referred as the academy), which was located in a very rural and quiet area. The programme for normal recruits constituted 30 weeks of training, which included two policing development unit (PDU) sessions and community placements. The PDU sessions were vital for recruits’ development. Each session lasted for four weeks, with recruits posted to different LPAs to do patrolling activities under supervision of a personal tutor. And the two sessions started respectively from week 10 and week 22.

On the condition of successfully passing the training assessments, recruits would then be attached to neighbourhood policing teams and criminal investment department for another 4 weeks, following which they would start independent patrol under probation in local stations. Provided recruits passed the Diploma of Policing assessment during probationary period, they could then progress into normal constables at the end of the second year of entrance.

The studied intake joined the Force in October 2014. It was constituted by 19 newcomers, including 1) 7 internal recruits, who earlier worked as police community support officers (PCSOs) or special constables in the Force, 2) 3 adjacent recruits, who previously working in fledging organisations of the Force, and 3) 9 external recruits, among whom 3 were graduated less than 2 years. 9 out of the 19 recruits are female, higher than the gender proportion of police officer in the Force, which was around 29 % according to its own force diversity report in 2010, also the proportion nationwide, which was 28.2% according to Home office’s report in 2015 (Home office, 2015b), but not significantly higher than other intakes to the Force at the time of research. Their ages ranged from 21 to 29, which was common among intakes. In 2014 and earlier years, around 300 normal recruits joined the Force each year.

Two of the new recruits, one female and one male, were ‘direct-entry’ probationers, whose route of progression was faster than the majority recruits (promoted to inspector in three years’ time). The direct-entry scheme was also part of the series of reforms ensuing Winsor’s Report. Candidates of direct-entry were required for higher education level (minimum 2:1 degree in bachelor degree), and

trained for only 6 months before going on to independent patrol. They had initial

training together with others in the intake for the first 9 weeks, and did their 1st PDU

session for 4 weeks. But after that, the two of them started to receive condensed training courses separated from others. From the end of March 2015, they acted as normal officers until their inspector exam in October. After they passed the exam, they were promoted into sergeant position in January 2016, and will be progressed into an inspector in October 2017. These two fast-trackers were the only two direct-entry probationers in the year of 2014.

Besides, since 2014 there have been some changes in the entry requirements and routes, as well as initial training structure in the Force. One of the most ostensible changes is that the training for normal entry route has been shortened to 23 weeks, but applicants are required to, apart from two A-Levels, hold a Certificate in Knowledge of Policing (CKP), which is a qualification of basic knowledge of policing. Besides, another major route of entry, through obtaining the Foundation degree (FdA) of policing at the partner universities of the Force, has become more competitive than before, due to increasing population of graduates and restricted percentage of successful application. Moreover, the fast-track route for inspector trainees is now open for both external and internal candidates rather than only external ones. Special constable, another major entry route, has also heightened its threshold, i.e., two A Levels on top of a CKP. Apart from these 4 main entry paths, there were two other routes, namely direct entry (superintendent) and Police Now (Graduate leadership development programme), which are both partnered programmes that are run between forces.