It is our firmly held belief that the Metropolitan Police Service has neglected the issue of professional training for middle manager inspecting ranks for far too long, by our estimation at least a generation. With the notable exception of the recently introduced Firearm Incident command training (IFCAT) and to a lesser degree the 'Managing risks' Health & Safety input, the service has for far too long believed that once an officer has passed selection for inspector that they no longer need training specific to the demands of the rank. There have been too many examples, whereby individual members have been exposed to the risk of both criminal and misconduct proceedings because the service has been negligent and sent untrained managers into high risk situations with insufficient training.

The paucity of training support extends to the non provision of any management skills based training to enable the inspecting ranks to fulfil their role as key managers and developers of others, dispute resolution (both internal and external) and indeed any meaningful guidance on the compilation and content of performance development reviews.

We are so our concerned about this unacceptable situation, that we have recently contributed a large sum of money to assist the Inspectors Central Committee of the Police Federation of England & Wales (PFEW) to conduct a survey of all Inspecting ranks members to establish what training they have had, as well as the frequency and validity of it . The results of that survey were published in May and sadly confirm our worse fears

Click here to view the section of the report as it relates to the MPS.

The areas of particular concern to us are:

87% have had no accredited managerial qualification (Page 5)

62% are not trained in Reviews of Detention (Page 19). This is particularly interesting given the current debate being waged over increasing detention periods for certain classes of suspect and with it the levels of authority required to sanction those periods

76% have had no training specific to their rank (Page 14)

63% haven't attended a development training course for over a year (Page 7)

84% are not trained in financial management (Page) which is again significant given the push from certain areas of the MPS to link officers competancy to their ability to control their budgets. 

We as a Branch Board are supportive of the Centrex devised Core Leadership Development Programme (CDLP) which we believe will begin to fill the void. Unfortunately the MPS have decided not to sign up to CLDP prefering instead to develop their own programme via their leadership academy. We will shortly be meeting with those charged with implementing the Met's plans and will impress upon them the need for inclusive not exclusive training.

So until we are provided with tangible evidence to the contrary we will continue to highlight in as many forums as possible the ongoing failing of the MPS to properly equip it's middle managers and press for a proper programme of rank specific training.

Accredited training is we believe fundamental for officers to be able to evidence their value and personal progression within the Service.