Page 17 - Bedfed Conf2016 Flip Book

Officers need more training to support vulnerable people
officers need better training in public protection particularly in relation to child, sexual and domestic abuse, the head of the College of Policing told conference.
And he admitted that the college also had to better connect with front-line police officers.
Having taken part in the Wednesday afternoon session on officer assaults, Alex Marshall, CeO, headed up a Thursday morning session dedicated to an update on the College of Policing and argued for a police licence to practise.
“We are pretty strict about licensing to carry firearms, for example, and those officers are checked each year but in the public protection arena and other high risk areas we are quite weak. Officers do not have a qualification in that area and do not have the protection of a licence to practise. We will look at that,” he said.
Alex pointed to a study of the demand placed on forces on a daily basis which showed that on a typical force on a typical day there were 50 arrests and 150 crime reports but it also revealed that in the public protection arena forces were typically dealing with 2,700 registered families, 1,600 domestic violence incidents, almost 1,200 registered sexual and violent offenders and 1,000 children and young
Alex Marshall. the head of the College of Policing.
people on the ‘at risk’ register, representing a massive change to the demand placed on forces.
“We know this because you have seen it happening,” he said, adding that far more people were working in public protection. But he later said that, while these were high risk working areas, there was low level support available to officers and that they should not be put in these positions unless they had received adequate training.
The college, he stressed, was aiming to support the profession but wanted to do more.
He started his presentation by explaining the college’s three main strands of work – knowledge, education and standards. It gathered knowledge for evidence based decisions, guided educational requirements – and carried out some training, including an online learning programme which he conceded needed improving – and set standards for policing.
“We are here for everyone who works in policing in england and Wales,” Alex told conference, adding that it aimed to support the profession, and individuals.
He was joined for the session by Rachel Tuffin, the college’s director of knowledge, research and education, whose theme was passion, patterns and prevention. She
introduced a video featuring two West Midlands officers – Darren Henstock and Simon Williams – who talked about the benefits of developing evidence based policing methods and practices.
In the past, learning had tended to come from one-off stories, incidents which ended up with apportioning blame, but there needed to be a shift towards learning from patterns, noticing when something is going wrong, and then prevention by questioning systems and improving processes.
But, during a questions session, a Northumbria representative asked when hard-pressed officers, already struggling to fit in PDRs with their work-loads and the demands placed on them, were going to get time to get involved in this or the training packages available.
Another representative claimed the college was not in touch with rank and file officers, saying: “The college is a long way away from our front-line officers – unless you have got a rose or a crown on your shoulders. The college doesn’t have anything to do with front-line officers.”
Rachel Tuffin agreed: “It’s a fair challenge and we are trying to sort it out.”
OURREPsAYs
“This provided me with an update on how the College of Policing is moving towards being a professional body, but it still has a long way to go to get there. Now I know that the College of Policing does not provide training, it provides guidance and frameworks, that is not the same message on the ground and that needs to be fully rolled out.“
Martin Peters
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