The Metropolitan Police has changed the format of next year’s Inspector promotions.

The application stage and written exercise has been removed. 

Candidates applying for the process launching in January must hold a valid pass for the exam to be eligible to apply.

The application stage has been removed, and candidates are required to submit an expression of interest when the process launches on 11 January 2021. There is no portfolio of evidence required.

Line managers will then confirm the applicant meets eligibility criteria, but will not assess suitability.

The 2021 assessment centre for inspectors will consist of a competency based interview and a stakeholder briefing exercise. We have removed the written exercise from the assessment centre.

A Met spokesperson told Police Oracle: “Our next sergeant to inspector promotion process will launch on 11 January 2021 with candidates having to submit an expression of interest before sitting an assessment centre later in the year.”

The force has around 1,200 inspectors but has a shortage of detectives. The force has had to rapidly adapt its assessment processes due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

The first stage of the process will be the formal request from the officer to their line manager setting out why they should be included in the next promotions round. They will then be assessed for sickness and disputes.

The stakeholder process will be the same as last year.

The Met explained why the changes had been made: “We regularly review our internal promotion processes and this year we have streamlined the process. This builds on the success of the changes introduced to our sergeants’ process, which was based on the feedback of staff that the NPPF process was overly complicated and protracted.”

The lack of written assessment does not mean officers are getting off lightly; instead senior officers will be under pressure not to leave promotions assessors to weed out weak candidates.

Former Met Borough Commander Ellie O’Connor told Police Oracle: “It puts the pressure on senior officers not to avoid making decisions on unsuitable candidates. If the feedback is that it was either too early for the candidate or they weren’t right, it will highlight their judgement-making.”