Earlier this month, the College of Policing launched a ‘call for evidence’ to their newly established police Leadership Commission. Over a decade on from their last leadership review, this Leadership Commission aims to comprehensively review leadership at all levels of policing.
For more on the ins and outs of this Commission, see my November blog, in which I also critique the apparent absences of the front line’s voice. But with this ‘call for evidence’, there’s now an opportunity to directly have your say on the future of police leadership. Here’s the College’s survey invite and questions asked.
In my brand new podcast (below), I thought it worthwhile to examine this survey and scope of the feedback they’re seeking…
Police Leadership Commission Call for Evidence
“The Leadership Commission is taking an independent view of what is needed to deliver effective police leadership that cuts crime and keeps people safe, equip police leaders at all levels for the future, and how such leadership can be developed effectively. It will make recommendations which will be reported to government and policing.”
On January 8th, the College launched their free text survey, inviting ideas on police leadership. The closing date for responses is February 12th, so just over a month to complete the form.
There are 7 main questions being asked, plus a bonus “Anything else?” question 8. Each question has a 700 word limit for your response. While you don’t have to complete all the questions, that’s potentially a 5,000 word thesis being submitted by those passionate about police leadership. Might this favour the more academic or other roles in policing over front line perspectives? Especially since the end of the survey asks you to ‘cite your sources’ for responses.
It’s highly unusual to run surveys like this, with such an overwhelmingly qualitative basis to responses. There’s no ratings of existing leadership training and promotion processes, nor even categorisation of what people think are important leadership traits. Given evidence is being invited from every man and his dog (see below respondents being targeted), they could easily get thousands of responses, culminating in millions of words.
That’s a massive amount of information to analyse and meaningfully incorporate into all the other evidence the Leadership Commission will consider, ready for its final report to government and policing by May this year! Assuming it’s not a token exercise or responses won’t be selectively reviewed, the analysis will necessarily use AI to aggregate, theme, and make sense of this data behemoth.
I wish well and take my hat off to the individual(s) charged with this unenviable task, while also ensuring respondents feel their time taken to provide a response has been worthwhile!
The 7 Key Questions…
Should you have time around busy operational duties, you’ll be presented with the following seven key questions to submit to the Commission:
- What is working well in police leadership to deliver trusted and effective policing that cuts crime and keeps people safe?
- What is not working well – and what should change – in police leadership?
- What is working well with training and assessment for police leadership roles and positions?
- What is not working well – and what should change – with training and assessment for police leadership roles and positions?
- What does good police leadership look like? Please describe the knowledge, behaviours, decisions, processes and outcomes that deliver trusted and effective policing that cuts crime and keeps people safe.
- What are the biggest challenges police leaders must tackle in the future—and what leadership and leadership development is needed to meet them? Please be specific (avoid general answers like “technology”).
- What knowledge or promising practices from other sectors or countries should be adapted for policing leadership and leadership development—and how might it be applied to England and Wales?
While the wording isn’t the clearest, the questions cover a broad range of subject areas. Promotion isn’t explicitly mentioned, but there is reference to ‘assessment for positions’. SIPP is the current direction the College appears to be taking things in, with a seemingly more complex promotion process vs. NPPF. As you might have noticed in my blogs and podcast interviews with Chief Officers, there’s also plenty of good ideas out there to make a fair process.
Question 5 is really the crux of it. If you’ve downloaded my rank-specific leadership and promotion toolkits for PC to Chief Inspector, you’ll know exactly what good police leadership looks like and how to develop yours. But there are many clues elsewhere, for example about how cops like to be led. Here’s how frontline officers actually described to me what makes a good police leader and what good leadership looks, sounds and feels like to them. Even AI has some ideas!
For now, the latest CVF is the main way that the College describe the knowledge and behaviours for desired leadership in policing. Forces have a myriad of ways of assessing this under the NPPF aligned to their desired outcomes (more recently including Operational Credibility) or with the new and more complex SIPP scheme being trialled in several forces ready for potential implementation in 2027-28.
For question 6, this is a common theme or topic for a 10 minute presentation preceding as it does, many promotion boards, especially at Inspector level and above. In my toolkits and promotion masterclass, along with hot topic issues discussed via my blogs and podcasts, I cover these in more depth. For a starter, check out my free PESTLE for policing.
Have Your Say…
While there’s plenty to critique about the methods, audience, and approach of this survey, there’s no time like the present for you to influence the report and future recommendations of this fast-track Leadership Commission.
Before you click ‘Submit’, there’s a couple of bonus questions inviting more free text responses…
- Is there anything else you would like to add?
- Use this box below to list any sources you used across your answers.
Having tested out the Leadership Commission’s form, I notice that the question response boxes allow you to enter well over 700 words. However, it does not let you proceed and comes up with an error if you don’t stick to the limit. Typical of some online forms, this will obviously cause frustration for anyone ‘in the flow’ of a response, having to then remove content and try again.
To avoid this issue, I highly recommend first compiling your answers in Microsoft Word (or Pages for Mac). You can easily check word counts and edit there, before simply copying and pasting into the restricted form spaces. This simple pro tip is also something I encourage aspiring promotion candidates to do, especially when faced with completing force online promotion application forms.
Here’s the direct link to the survey itself. Do you believe it gives officers and staff a voice? Will the short deadline for responses or high respondent burden of the questionnaire (thousands of words, sources) mean perspectives and contributions of many in frontline roles are not captured? What do you think about this once-in-a-generation call for evidence?
Either way, I hope you’ve found this summary blog and podcast useful. Let me know how you get on!
Kind Regards, Steve
Don’t leave your promotion to chance! Start preparing like a pro today, with instant access to proven resources like my Digital Promotion Toolkit and Police Promotion Masterclass. For more tailored guidance, get in touch for a free call. Tune in to my extensive Police Promotion Podcast for regular powerful leadership CPD and promotion insights.
