Service must not ‘sneak in’ extra work for promotion candidates

THERE is an important difference between choosing to do extra work to help your promotion prospects and that extra responsibility being mandatory.

That is the view of Essex Police Federation Chairman Steve Taylor, who says the service should not “sneak in” extra responsibilities for officers wanting to progress without giving them a pay rise to do so.

He was responding to the introduction of “Advanced Practitioner Police Constables”. A pilot is running for 18 months and has begun in eight police forces across England and Wales – although Essex is not one of those taking part.

Advanced practitioner constables will take on more complex work, which would be similar to the lowest levels of the sergeant rank, according to the College of Policing.

Officers involved will be expected to lead complex casework, assess how procedures can be developed and improved, and think and plan ahead for weeks and months.

Mr Taylor said: “Generally speaking, taking on extra responsibility has always been in the officer’s best interest when it comes to a promotion, and as a Sergeant myself I went out of my way to be proactive in what I could do to improve my own chances.

“Now that’s something that I did willingly and accepted. It wasn’t something that was forced upon me or that was mandated or written up in policy, or something that was expected as part of the procedure.

“There’s a difference between what an officer is prepared to do off their own back, and what it’s mandated that they must do. The danger in setting up advanced practitioner schemes where the expectation is if you’re going for a promotion you must have completed this, then it mandates that extra work.

“For me it breaches that covenant between what I’m prepared to do and what I’m expected to do. Because the brutal truth is, if you’re expecting people to do more and take on extra responsibility, and that without that they can’t advance, there’s a name for that and it should be rewarded, there should be compensation for it, and it shouldn’t be snuck in under the guise of, ‘Well if you want to develop this is what you’ve got to do’.

“There’s a difference between self-generated, progression orientated extra work, and essentially mandated, ‘You must do x, y and z otherwise you’re not even going to be considered’, particularly when x, y and z save the force x amount of money.”

The Advanced Practitioner Police Constables role is being introduced at Avon and Somerset, Cheshire, Lancashire, the Met, North Wales, South Yorkshire, Thames Valley and Humberside Police to provide “lateral career opportunities” for constables.