New recruits welcomed to innovative pilot scheme

Four Warwickshire Police recruits taking part in a pilot Probationer Modernisation programme will be sworn in to the force at 3.30pm on Thursday 4 November at Police Headquarters in Leek Wootton and officially welcomed by Chief Constable, John Burbeck. The pilot scheme, based in Coventry, is a joint initiative with West Midlands Police and lasts a total of 16 weeks.

The new recruits begin their training in Coventry where they will spend their first four weeks developing an understanding of their role in Warwickshire Police and how that role sits within the needs of the community. This will then be developed further when the recruits return to Warwickshire to undertake placements throughout the county, spending time with community groups on youth, mental health and drugs projects enabling them to get to know the community they will be policing and develop an understanding of their particular needs.

The recruits will then return to Coventry where this community knowledge will be further developed into a thorough understanding of the law, procedures and police techniques.

This classroom based training will be interspersed with mentorship attachments with an experienced constable to enable the recruit to experience at first hand the teachings in the classroom.

On their return to Warwickshire, at the conclusion of the course, they will start a mentorship work programme with an experienced constable. During this stage they gain further real-life experience on the streets and within the community - continuing to make Warwickshire a safer place to be.

Three of the new recruits will be posted to the north at Nuneaton, Atherstone and Rugby, and one to Alcester in the south. The recruits come from a variety of professions, including a carpenter/builder and a customer service guide, and bring a wealth of experience to their new roles.

The Probationer Modernisation Programme was launched following a Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) report called Training Matters which looked in detail at probationer training. As a result, stakeholders agreed that the time was right for a fundamental review of the training of new recruits and a Modernisation Project Team, based in the Home Office was appointed to develop options for the way forward and implement agreed changes.

The HMIC report included clear recommendations to modernise the police recruits training to reflect the modern demands on the police service and expectations of the public. The recommendations cover the recognition of prior learning, experience and qualifications, the need for consistent training for all forces, accreditation, attestation and the importance of recognising the needs of communities to name but a few.

The programme is now in the implementation phase and West Midlands Police is one of several forces that have agreed to trial aspects of the new programme and feed valuable information back to the Project Team to help ensure the new programme works effectively.

Anne Parker-Tyler, Head of Training at Warwickshire Police explained

"The Midlands region regularly collaborates on training and development so when West Midlands Police extended an invitation to Warwickshire Police to take up four places on their pilot of the new Initial Police Learning and Development Programme we were happy to accept. This is only one of five pilots being run nationally.

"Warwickshire Police will be contributing to the pilot by hosting the Investigative Interviewing elements of the programme at their headquarters training centre in a new purpose-built interview suite."

Anne added

"This is an exciting opportunity and it is always rewarding to be able to work in partnership with other forces. We are sure collaboration on this project will be a mutually rewarding experience."