Impact and Insights Report 2020/21
Delivering unique value to policing and communities
"Policing needs to reflect the communities it serves and Police Now are a shining light in striving to recruit and promote diverse leaders in policing.”
Karen Geddes,
Mission Support Superintendent and Chair of West Midlands Police Black and Asian Policing Association.
POLICE NOW IS UNIQUELY POSITIONED TO SUPPORT POLICING IN THREE CORE AREAS:
- Attracting and developing the most diverse group of officers in policing.
- Working with our partner forces, participants are encouraged to think differently, adapt and create new ideas to deliver innovation on the policing frontline.
- Operational leaders who have a visible impact in their communities and policing.
WE ARE FOCUSED ON OUR MISSION, AND HELPING POLICE FORCES TO ACHIEVE THEIRS:
Strengthening the police service with diverse talent
- Police Now recruits more officers who are women or from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds compared to other entry routes into policing. High levels of social mobility has also been achieved.
- Nationally, 17% of participants who began the National Graduate Leadership Programme in 2020 identify as from a Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic background and 54% as women.
- Of those who began the National Detective Programme in 2021, 24% identify as from a Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic background and 66% as women.
- We have a unique diversity and inclusion strategy focused on driving inclusivity and creating a workplace that is inclusive and empowers everyone.
- Programme retention rates are high and consistent by ethnicity and gender.
- Police Now has won over 25 awards within the graduate recruitment marketplace over the last five years, including numerous awards for our work on diversity and inclusion.
Our recruitment processes are highly competitive and nationally recognised
- We attract 22 applicants for every place on the National Graduate Leadership Programme1 and 39 applicants per place for the National Detective Programme2.
- Our established brand possesses national reach, expertise, and recognition within the sector, allowing us to recruit diverse talent at speed and in high volume.
- In 2020, Police Now rose to 29th place in the Times Top 100 Graduate Employers and ranked 6th in the Times Top 10 Public Sector Employer of Choice.
We innovate to support policing
- Police Now launched its National Detective Programme at pace in 2019 to help address a reported investigative shortage, partnering with eight forces across England and Wales.
- Following a successful pilot, 224 participants joined the second cohort of Police Now’s National Detective Programme in 2021 across 14 partner forces.
- 55% of Detectives who joined our National Detective Programme in 2021 would not have considered policing were it not for Police Now3.
We respond quickly to feedback and to challenges facing policing and society
- We are agile and responsive to feedback, insight, and change.
- We have a track record of responding to feedback and moving at pace to meet the needs of police forces and communities.
- We recruit emotionally intelligent and technologically able officers to join police forces, ready and able to respond to the challenges facing society and policing (e.g. technological change and challenges of legitimacy)
We have a clear proposal and track record supporting frontline leadership and progression
- Frontline leadership and progression has been identified as a key lever of force efficiency, effectiveness and legitimacy, and an area in need of significant development.
- We possess significant experience recruiting graduates and delivering leadership development at increasing scale.
- Since 2015, a significant number of our alumni have been promoted, successfully gained a place on the College of Policing Fast Track Programme or become Detectives.
We offer two Policing Education Qualifications Framework (PEQF) compliant programmes with more time spent serving the public than other training programmes
- Forces are working to implement the PEQF, which represents a wholesale change to the way that initial police officer training is carried out, and this is not without challenge.
- We are now onto our second and third year of developing and delivering PEQF programmes at volume.
- Police Now Degree Holder Entry Programmes have a 20% abstraction rate across their two-year duration. This is lower than comparable programmes4, ensuring officers spend more time directly serving the public.
We are a not-for-profit social enterprise focused on creating a safer environment for everyone
- Police Now is a charity with no profit motive. Every single penny is invested in recruiting, developing, and inspiring a diverse group of leaders in policing.
- Our model allows forces and government to invest funding in a way that directly benefits communities and police forces and specific national priorities such as diversity and workforce transformation.
- Early evidence points to reductions in crime and anti-social behaviour, and improvements in public confidence, in the communities where Police Now participants work5.
We use data to continuously improve our programmes and share unique insights to improve policing
- We gather and analyse a range of data and share unique insights with policing in the areas of attraction, recruitment, diversity and inclusion, participant and line manager experience, officer attitudes, performance, retention, and progression.
- Despite the challenges of doing so, Police Now also analyses data on crime, anti-social behaviour and public confidence in the police in the communities where Police Now participants are posted. This is to help drive improvements in our recruitment and training and better understand the impact that police officers are making.
FOOTNOTES
Based on applications for the 2020 National Graduate Leadership Programme: 10,053 applications for 563 places. ↩
Based on applications for the 2021 National Detective Programme: 8,321 applications for 224 places. ↩
Measured via an online survey at the start of the 2021 Police Now Academy (n=188) ‘Were you planning to join the police before you heard about Police Now?’ ↩
College of Policing, PEQF Initial Entry Routes Learning to Date, 2020. ↩
Precludes statements of causation. ↩
