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Questions asked over direct entry chief constable process

Department said no decisions had been made following an apparent attempt to gauge views from within the service
Published - 19/05/2017 By - Ian Weinfass - Police Oracle

The Home Office said no decisions had been taken on direct entry recruitment for chief constables the day before the Home Secretary pledged to introduce it.

The department launched a consultation on the issue with a small number of police officers in late March.

No consultation outcome has been published to date, or sent to chief constables – whose response was sent the day before the general election was called.

In a letter to PoliceOracle.com in response to a Freedom of Information request a civil servant said: “Details of the consultation with policing partners is set out in the letter. No decisions have been taken.”

But the next day the Home Secretary told the Police Federation Conference: “You haven’t agreed with the steps we’ve taken to bring more people from outside policing into the force. But it’s been right for the country and the public.

“And if the Conservatives are re-elected we will go further and open up the very top jobs in policing so that we get the broadest possible skills and talent at the very top of our police forces.”

The idea also features in the Conservative Party manifesto which was released on Thursday.

Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesman Lord Brian Paddick, a former senior Met officer, told PoliceOracle.com: “Was that a real consultation? They had obviously made their minds up before and were just paying lip service.”

Guidance issued to civil servants by the Cabinet Office last year states consultations should not take place “about issues on which you already have a final view”. However that advice has no legal weight.

 

National Police Chiefs' Council chairman Sara Thornton said that there is a big problem in attracting people to apply to become chief constables.

She suggested an initial extension of eligibility to assistant chiefs being able to come from agencies such as the Border Force may be a better first step.

“One of the things we said to the officials is that: the constitutional model is the elected politician, the police and crime commissioner, represents the public and works with a police officer who is expert and understands operational stuff and is held to account [by the PCC]. On the whole that is working reasonably well.”

She added: “I can't quite see how you can appoint a chief constable and then sending them on a training course for six weeks or longer because practically, who is in charge of the force?

“The difference with the inspectors and superintendents is that you're not appointing to a post, you're appointing to a rank and then giving them the job. With a chief, there is only one in a force, you're appointing to a post and then you have to think about the training.

“These are practical things. The main point, I think, is that we do need to do more to encourage people to apply.”

Former Derbyshire chief constable Mick Creedon expressed his doubts about the consultation to this website a couple of weeks ago.

“The letter came from the Home Office with no warning to two or three chiefs […] it didn’t come out to all of us. I didn’t learn of it until I was sitting with colleagues at Durham at chiefs’ council. They wanted a reply by Monday [a few days later], so this was very rushed," he said.

“What’s worrying chiefs is that there’s a slight obsession sometimes that the private sector, the military sector, other national agencies have got something special in their leadership. There’s no evidence to support that whatsoever.”

Those sent the letter included three representatives of the NPCC and two from the Chief Police Officers' Staff Association.

There was a three-week deadline for responding, which the NPCC negotiated a further week's extension of.

The Home Office said they could not comment on the issue due to purdah rules.

A Conservative Party spokesman said: “The point of the consultation was to gather views on it. We’re aware of what came out of it and having had that consultation we’ve decided to go ahead with it.”

He added: “We think it’s the right thing to do.”

Lord Paddick said that the policy would add to a sense of division between the rank and file and chief officers, whose main uniting feature at the moment is that they have all served as constables.

“There was once an incident when two of my officers were shot by a prison escapee, we brought in occupational health nurses to do a debrief and they were shouted out of the room because officers said ‘You have absolutely no idea of the dangers we face every day’.

“What’s a chief constable recruited in this way going to do in that kind of situation when they haven’t been through it?

“Do people not learn from history? We had this before with the Trenchard Scheme when it was tried before [in the 1930s] and it was abandoned.”

The consultation letter was sent to the NPCC, APCC, CPOSA, Superintendents Association, Police Federation and College of Policing.

It claims that the increase in the number of new officers on the scheme between 2014, when nine officers joined, and 2017, when forces hope to take on 75 officers, demonstrates the success it has been so far.

It does not mention that no round of recruitment has met its recruitment target to date, that only eight made it to the end of the programme in 2014, or that just four successfully became officers under the 2015 scheme.

It states: “The College’s survey into senior appointments showed chief constables that due to the limited number of eligible applicants from which to attract candidates, there was a lack of diversity and ability to share ideas, thoughts and experiences. One of the key deterrents to applying for jobs were the challenges around relocating.”

The letter concludes by saying that the Police Reform Act of 2011 will be amended so that anyone who has undertaken the appropriate training by the College of Policing will be able to become a chief constable.

It gives no other options, but asks for the recipients' views on the legislative proposal.

 

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