Become a police officer - Join our force
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Join our force Are you up to the challenge? If you want a job that’s incredibly rewarding and exciting then becoming a police officer may be the future career you’re looking for. As a police officer you will reduce crime and make a real difference to the communities of Avon and Somerset, helping people feel safe and be safe. Every day will be different and you’ll provide support and reassurance to people who have been a victim of crime. Many will look to you for guidance and protection and you will need to tailor your approach to address particular needs and fears. www.avonandsomerset.police.uk/recruitment 3
Join our force What we look for We want people who will provide We want someone who is both an outstanding service to our professional and friendly who can communities; somebody with build relationships with their integrity and the values to hold a colleagues and their communities. position of trust and responsibility. You need to be enthusiastic, You need to care about making a reliable, self-disciplined, flexible difference, enjoy helping people, and confident enough to take and want to actively engage in control of situations. partnership with others, understanding their needs, We want people who take pride in whatever their background or their work and who will be proud to situation. say they are a police officer. What we offer We offer a unique, stimulating • A final salary pension and rewarding career with an opportunity to make a real • Training and development difference to your community. opportunities throughout For many of our officers, that’s your career enough. But we also offer: • Support and advice through • Starting salary of £19,000 our Occupational Health Unit – 22,000 (depending on skills and a range of staff associations and experience) • Lifestyle benefits, including sports • Annual leave of 22 paid annual and social facilities and activities, holiday days, plus public cycle to work scheme, childcare holidays, which increases to vouchers. 30 days depending on length of service. 4 www.avonandsomerset.police.uk/recruitment
PC Maz Collacott-Nuur “It sounds clichéd and a bit cheesy but I really joined the police to help people. I’m a people person and I never really wanted to sit in an office so this was the natural choice for me. I have two young daughters and I would strongly recommend the police service to them. Working here gives you such a huge range of different opportunities. You meet so many people from different walks of life and learn something new every day.” www.avonandsomerset.police.uk/recruitment 5
Join our force Stage 1 Online assessment Situational Judgement Test If you pass the Behaviour Styles Questionnaire, you will be invited to complete the final stage of the The first stage of the process is an online assessment online process - a situational judgement test. tool which is made up of the following: This describes a number of scenarios and potential actions per scenario. You will be asked to identify Registration which actions will result in a very effective or Initial registration of your details, including driving counterproductive outcome. licence (if applicable) and National Insurance number. You will be provided with a feedback report and if you Realistic Job Preview Questionnaire are successful you will be asked to complete an The purpose of this questionnaire is to help you application form. understand more about the role and whether it’s right for you. The questionnaire will focus on some of the demands that would be placed on you if you were to Stage 2 become a police officer. There is no pass/fail for this, but at the end of the questionnaire the system will give you an overall rating of your suitability for the role Application Form based on your responses so you can make a decision if you would like to progress. Our application form asks for the usual information you might expect such as personal details and education Eligibility Screen and employment history details. We also want you to This section checks your eligibility in line with the complete some competency based questions so we national recruitment standards and will advise you can start to assess your suitability for the role. immediately at the end of the questionnaire if you meet the required criteria. Should you be referred as a result For example, we’ll ask you to give us details of when of any of your answers, a member of our recruitment you’ve provided a great service or you’ve taken team will be in contact to let you know the outcome. personal responsibility for making something happen. Behaviour Styles Questionnaire If you’re successful we’ll invite you to an assessment This questionnaire invites you to review a number centre. of statements and indicate which statements you completely agree with or completely disagree with on a sliding scale. You will be provided with feedback once this has been completed and advised of the result. 6 www.avonandsomerset.police.uk/recruitment
Join our force Stage 3 Stage 4 The Assessment Second interview Centre After you pass the assessment centre – we’ll invite you for an interview out on one of our districts. The assessment centre consists of: At this stage we want to know more about you – what • A 20 minute competency-based interview motivates you, what life skills or experience you’ll bring to the role and whether you can relate to people from • Two written exercises all walks of life and different backgrounds. • Four role play exercises The kinds of things we’ll ask you about might include: • Numerical reasoning questionnaire • Community focus and a verbal logical reasoning test. • Achievement focus • Integrity These exercises will test your ability to think on • Personal standards your feet, make quick decisions based on sound • Leadership judgement and also measure your basic maths and literacy levels. Some of our questions may be scenario-based – we’ll ask you to tell us what you have done – This will take half a day to complete and you’ll or what you would do in certain situations so we can receive your results two to three weeks later. see how you might respond as a police officer. If you’re successful, we’ll invite you for a second interview. www.avonandsomerset.police.uk/recruitment 7
Join our force Stage 5 If you pass – the next stage is your medical Pre-employment assessment which will be carried out by the checks Force Occupational Health Nurses. Medical The role of a police officer is demanding. During this What we’ll check: assessment we’ll be checking to make sure you’re • BMI medically and physically fit to do the job. • Eye sight • Colour vision Medical risk assessment • Lung function What we’ll check: • Hearing • blood pressure • urine test We may ask you to have a further medical carried out at our Occupational Health Unit. This will ensure you’re fit to take the physical tests. You will also be asked to complete a Confidential Physical assessment Medical History questionnaire and bring it with you to We test two areas: endurance and dynamic strength. the assessment. Endurance is tested through a fitness shuttle run Please bear in mind – at some point during the often known as the Bleep Test. A good indicator of recruitment process – we will carry out a drugs test. the fitness level needed for this test is to be able to run at a good pace for around four minutes over a Once you have been cleared medically and distance of about 700m. physically then we will progress your application to the next stage. The Dynamic Strength test involves performing five seated chest pushes and five seated back pulls on a machine called a Dyno. If you can do five full body press ups, i.e. lifting your own body weight, then you’re in good shape for this test. 8 www.avonandsomerset.police.uk/recruitment
Join our force Stage 5 contd. Sergeant Shaun Finn Vetting checks “It’s a bit of a cliché, but I joined the We carry out security checks on you and your: police because I wanted to make a • spouse/partner difference. I wanted to actually be • paternal father in a position where I was physically • step father/mother’s partner able to do something about burglars, • paternal mother thieves and anti-social behaviour.” • stepmother/father’s partner • brothers/sisters (full, half and step) • children/children of your partner (only those over 10 years old) • any other adult living at your address. You must declare any convictions or cautions on your application form and security questionnaire. If you do have any to declare, it will not necessarily preclude your application, we’ll need to take the nature and the circumstances into account. 10
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Join our force Stage 5 contd. Stage 6 Biometric vetting Starting your training Once you have received your provisional offer for the post of student officer – we’ll need to take your All new student officers will take part in a two-year fingerprints and DNA samples to carry out some training programme. This programme is structured final vetting checks against our databases. around three distinct phases, designed to give new officers the best possible start to their careers. Phase 1: Initial training is based at Police HQ based in References Portishead. Taking 20 weeks to complete, the training covers basic policing, law and skills practice. During We send references to all of your previous employers this phase, student officers may only take annual leave in the last three years. If you haven’t been employed at set times. for three years, we’ll ask for a character reference or an educational reference instead. We’ll send the Phase 2: During this phase student officers will be reference requests out around five to eight weeks posted to their home district and will work closely with before your start date. a tutor constable, completing a range of operational tasks. They will be guided and supported to help them Once all the vetting checks and references have been reach the required standard for independent patrol. carried out and we’ve received clearance – we will This phase can last up to 15 weeks. write to you to congratulate you on your successful application and inform you of a start date. Phase 3: For the remainder of their training student officers will work independently as part of a shift or team of more experienced police officers. They will complete additional ‘protected learning’ and will be assessed against national standards. If successful, student officers will be awarded a Diploma in Policing and will be confirmed as constables. www.avonandsomerset.police.uk/recruitment 13
Join our force Free page Chief Inspector Norman Pascal “Working as a police officer has given me an education and a good standard of living. I’ve been an officer for over twenty years now and I would definitely recommend it as a career. There are lots of different career opportunities available in the police. I’ve worked all over the service, from the Communications department – which deals with the emergency calls, to CID to being a frontline officer.” 14 www.avonandsomerset.police.uk/recruitment
Avon and Somerset Constabulary Working together to make the communities of Avon and Somerset feel safe and be safe www.avonandsomerset.police.uk
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