“It is encouraging that women now make up 50% roughly of the UK executive development program. That is exactly what should happen when barriers are removed, however the stats indicate there are probably barriers for non-Caucasian police officers still remaining.” – Jane
December 9, 2013 – by Jack Sommers of Police Oracle – Female officers outnumber men on scheme delivering ‘future leaders’ of the service by .
The High Potential Development Scheme (HPDS) has more women than men taking part for the first time in its history, the College of Policing has said.
The next batch of officers enrolled on the initiative, which takes 55 promising officers annually and sees them mentored through the Federated ranks over a five-year period, will have 28 women and 27 men.
This is compared to 26 women last year, 23 in 2011 and 19 in 2010.
Thames Valley Police Chief Constable Sara Thornton, the Director of HPDS selection, said: “I am delighted that the assessment process has resulted in such a healthy representation of female officers.
“It is a milestone that such a prestigious scheme will represent the proportion of females in our overall population – this is an important feature of the policing by consent and participation model operated in the UK.”
It has been confirmed that the latest cohort has 52 candidates from a white background and three black and minority ethnic officers.
The average age of successful candidates was 32 and their average length of service was eight years. Three were student officers, 33 were constables and 19 were sergeants.
A total of 50 candidates were from an English force, while three were serving in Wales and two came from the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
There were a total of 780 applications for the HPDS this year. Of these, 233 passed the first stage, which comprises an in-force written assessment.
A total of 126 passed the second stage, which is made up of a written exercise and situational judgement test run by the College of Policing.
The final stage is a national assessment involves candidates undertaking a series of individual and group exercises. A total of 123 officers attended this between from November 16-26.
The successful candidates will begin the scheme in February.
