Agenda item

The Police and Crime Commissioner provided the Panel with a report on the Recruitment, Retention and Exit Interviews process within Derbyshire Constabulary.

For the last 3 years (April 2020 – March 2023) the main recruitment focus for the Constabulary had been on police officers’ numbers, as part of the Government Uplift programme - to recruit 20,000 new officers.

Derbyshire Constabulary’s allocation was for an additional 283 new officers over this period and the Constabulary had successfully recruited more than the additional 283 officers’ target. The additional number beyond 283 was in the region of 43 to 50 some of which would be funded and discussions continued with government on this matter.

There was an acknowledgement that increasing police officer numbers would require additional support staff. Therefore, there had been investment of £1.363m which covered a combination of associated costs including trainers, vetting, training, laptops, phones, IT licences, body worn video, Radio devices to support the Police Officer uplift programme.

The Police and Crime Commissioner had regular meetings with the Chief Constable and her team to scrutinise progress in this area of business as this falls under the Police and Crime Plan priority “Strong Local Policing”.

As this was an operational matter, the Commissioner had asked the force to provide a detailed summary of  the relevant information for the panel which was attached as an Appendix to the report.

Members were given the opportunity to make comments and ask questions and particular reference was made to the following:

Were the force looking at the recruitment of military veterans, as although they may not currently have the required qualifications, they may have many transferable skills.

The Commissioner commented that the force was already doing that and had a programme in place to attract former military personnel to the force.

A number of panel members raised concerns on the retention of officers and highlighted the following statistics that were contained within the information provided by the Force:

-      that a significant number left within the first 6 months;

-      5% of officers leaving preferred to not say why they were leaving

-      Only 6% of police officers leaving requested an exit interview

-      70% of officers resigned in their first 5 years of service with majority saying they had left for a better job

The Commissioner noted the comments made and explained that the force was constantly striving to improve the take up on the exit survey, which would then provide better information as the reasons why people were leaving.

A Panel Member commented that the information provided didn’t show the diversity and make up of the people who had left and it would be useful if that information could be provided.

The Commissioner responded by saying that as discussed at a previous Panel meeting, the people most likely to leave in the first 2 to 3 years were women or members of the BEM community and that the force were striving to provide additional support for that cohort of people. It was agreed that more details giving a further breakdown on this matter would be circulated to Panel members.

RESOLVED to note report.