CGC Oakgrove 4.0

Police Service

Sector Outlook There are currently 123,142 serving police offices in 43 forces in England and Wales in 2017, the lowest number since 1996. Other roles in the services are also on a downward train due to budget cuts. There are 61,000 staff (-1%), 10,200 Police Community Suppor t Officers (-7.5%), all down since 2016. Even the volunteer specials numbers have declined since last year, 15% less at 13,500. Conversely there are 17,200 full time equivalents in Scotland which is 6% higher since 2006. The Police Service Nor thern Ireland PSNI currently has 6840 officers and 2000 suppor t staff with no change since 2015. The British Transpor t Police has 2000 serving officers. Despite the many cuts some positive statistics are that there are now 29% serving females, up 10% since 2003 with 6% from ethnic groups, up again from 2003. Although recruitment is down, 8568 staff left the force this year but the 43 forces in England and Wales recruited 7526 officers, of which 33% were female. It’s wor th remembering that there are 43 regional police forces in England and Wales each with its own authority. You might need to be prepared to move elsewhere to find the oppor tunity you want. In par ticular forces that have upped their recruitment include Kent, West Yorkshire, Durham, Humberside and Gwent. A number of forces are developing apprenticeship schemes for school leavers in areas such as digital design, motor vehicle, administration and IT. By 2020 Police entry in England and Wales will be a degree route, so either doing a relevant degree, a 6 month postgraduate course or the work based route will your route in. The Met police are already exploring a degree apprenticeship and the College of Policing is in discussion with 12 universities with regard to the new degree course. Gaining life experience used to be one of the keys to entry into the Police Service, but now you will need to think of academic study as well. If you have IT skills, customer service skills, business administration ability or other skill sets, you may want to look at the range of suppor t oppor tunities that are available in the police. Check out your local forces career pages www.police.uk/forces or look at websites such as www.bluelinejobs.co.uk or http://recruit.college. police.uk for more information.