Forces need to look beyond their own borders when promoting officers so they do not “stagnate”.

That is the view of Northumbria Chief Constable Steve Ashman who has vowed to open his force’s doors to officers up and down the country.

Speaking to Police Oracle, CC Ashman also outlined his plans to release sergeants from their desks, saying forces have made it impossible for them to leave stations.

The former Met officer and Cleveland superintendent revealed he benefitted by moving from one force to another, saying clearly there are advantages for Northumbria when it comes to selecting candidates from a larger pool.

He said: “For every single promotion, at every single rank we will now go external and I am not sure there are many other forces that are doing that. I think it is really important you try to get the best talent in you possibly can as it freshens up your own organisation.

“I am the product of external movement - this is the third force I’ve worked for.

“I recognise the benefits of moving forces and taking advantage of the opportunities forces offer. I left the Met because Cleveland were asking for superintendents and then moved my way up to chief officer.

“It was slightly different because you needed to move around then, but the College of Policing leadership review recognised it is in everyone’s interests and is quite healthy to move forces. It is healthy to offer opportunities to officers beyond your own borders.”

Will such a move have a negative effect on Northumbria’s rank and file though? CC Ashman does not think so.

“If you think about it logically, this way you have got a proper, free market and, alright, there are issues about moving and so forth, and there are costs associated either for the force or the individual depending on what the arrangements are, but there are some huge benefits of opening up,” he says.

“It refreshes your own work force because they realise if they want to get promoted, or they want to get more advanced in terms of promotion, they are going to have to compete with their peers, not just in this force, but they are going to have to compete with the very best candidates nationwide. I think that it is entirely healthy.

“If you draw that analogy in the private sector, or any other market place for employers, you would not only look from within - of course you would look outside. You want to get the very, very best."

Last year for the first time in many years Northumbria allowed external candidates to apply for promotion in every rank. Transfers were available for constables with promotions at sergeant, chief inspector, superintendent and chief superintendent level .

“This year it is every rank up to superintendents – we may do chief superintendents at the end of the year,” adds CC Ashman.

He says his force will follow the College of Policing’s leadership review because he “fundamentally believes in it”.

He added: “We took a superintendent on promotion, a chief superintendent from the Met was relocated up here and is now in charge of our largest area command. We took two superintendents from Durham, we took a chief inspector on promotion from Cleveland, we took people at sergeant level from Hampshire and elsewhere.

“We are absolutely following what the leadership review by the College of Policing said because I fundamentally believe in it. I believe we should open up opportunities for promotion to every officer in the country because you are fishing in a far bigger pool and we have got some great examples over the last 12 months of people that we brought in.

“We brought a temporary ACC in rather than a do it in house from GMP. That is before we go to market for a substantive ACC when the strategic command course finishes.

“We are really, really pushing the fact that it is not because we have not got talent here – we have got some real fantastic talent here. However, it freshens them up to know that they have got to keep advancing, they have got to keep getting better and better and they have got to be at the top of their game when it comes to a promotion opportunity because it is not just the peers in this force they are competing against.”

So what are the advantages of relocating officers and do they outweigh the risks?

“I know from when I moved forces that you arrive in an organisation and you think ‘blimey that’s good, I never knew you could do that’ and then see other things and you think ‘that’s not very good I know how we can do that better’ so you bring your own ideas and you learn,” CC Ashman says.

“There should be much more movement in the police service because there is a danger that forces can stagnate if you don’t look beyond your own borders. You settle with your own talent and you start to believe your own press. Perhaps you are good at something, but you do not know how good you can be until you start tapping into what other forces are doing.

“There is not enough done between 43 forces to share good practice around the country and I am as guilty of that as anybody. I think this is a good way of addressing that and then looking beyond and saying ‘we’ve got something really attractive to offer’."

What can Northumbria offer officers? While the Newcastle United Football Club mug sitting in CC Ashman's cabinet may point towards an ever-so-slight bias - he talks as passionately about the area as he does about trusting his work force to do their job.

He says: “Everyone will say they are the chief constable of God’s own country but the difference is – I am. It is a beautiful part of the country to live in, your money goes a lot further and it is a good place to spend a significant part of your life. I say that having spent most of my force career working and living in other forces.

“My offer is – come to Northumbria and you can be the leader you said you always wanted to be. You can fall into that trap of getting promoted, having all the bright ideas but not being able to implement them because the organisation will not let you flourish.

“We are dropping a lot of those parameters which for too long have been there. So, if you want to develop your career and you want to look at some real innovation in terms of how you approach your job, you want to be a leader as opposed to as supervisor manager, then you can do that here.

“The boundaries are set very, very wide - get on with your job. We will trust you and we will get the best out of you.”

Later this week - CC Ashman reveals how he plans to lift the barriers constraining officers.

What does the work force say?

Chief Superintendent, Neil Hutchison, moved from MPS to Northumbria.

“I hadn’t previously considered leaving the Met but when I saw the job advertised, I started to think. I did some research into the force, I knew it already had a great reputation and I knew that it was a lovely part of the country and obviously Newcastle is one of the greatest cities in the UK. I looked into it a bit further and saw that Northumbria had the best rate of public confidence and satisfaction of any force in the country, and that was really important to me. I think that is a really key measure of the Police ensuring that we provide an excellent quality of service.

“I also saw that Northumbria was at the forefront of  innovative policing, around managing risk and those issues that really matter - protecting the vulnerable in our communities. Whether that be with sexual assault, child sexual exploitation, domestic abuse it is these things that we need to deal with to make people safer.”

Assistant Chief Constable Vanessa Jardine currently on secondment from Greater Manchester Police to Northumbria.

“I got the opportunity about eight weeks ago to come to Northumbria on secondment from GMP as a Temp ACC. I had heard some wonderful things about the force. It has a fantastic reputation and therefore I was delighted to come here.

“The one thing that sticks out for me is the friendliness of the people, it has been really welcoming. Everyone in the force has been welcoming and of course the people of Newcastle are fantastic. It is a beautiful part of the world, it has great cities and beautiful Northumberland and I would recommend that anyone who has the opportunity should come up here.”

Sergeant James Barton, who moved from Hampshire to Northumbria.

“First and foremost there was an opportunity to be promoted here. My wife is from here and I have come up on several occasions and I have always been attracted to the area. Since joining it’s been brilliant, the people have been so welcoming. I’ve been stationed in Newcastle which is a very busy part of the force area but the people have been really warm and friendly. In all of the processes, moving my family, finding schools and so on, the process of transferring was the smoothest of all. The communication from the resourcing team was first class.”

Assistant Chief Constable, Darren Best who moved from Cleveland Police to Northumbria.

“I spent more than 26 years in another force I would say that the move is a fantastic one and one that I would encourage others to do. This is an amazing place to work. You have city centres like Newcastle, Sunderland -  iconic cities in the North East giving a fantastic policing challenge, as well as the beautiful rolling countryside of Northumberland. For me personally, I’ve been here just over 12 months, and I’m thoroughly enjoying it. The main thing for me is that the Policing challenge is quite unique and will develop people that want to have those challenges. It is the sixth biggest force in the country with all the specialisms expected of a force of our size meaning that there are lots of opportunities for people to diversify, to do to develop their careers and be supported by a good size organisation.”