Recommendation 16

The NAO reported that experienced police tutor constables (who supervise new officers for periods of their training) had shared concerns about the extra effort this role required in addition to their normal duties, and this was echoed by staff from police training teams. The National Audit Office’s survey of chief constables also highlighted tutor constable ‘burn-out’ as an issue. We asked the Department about the risk that more experienced officers were being overly burdened by the need to act as tutors for the high volume of new recruits and to fill the gaps created when they were studying in college. We asked whether it understood the perspective of the more experienced officers and if the extra pressures on tutor officers was having an adverse impact on retention. The Programme Director told us that there was no evidence that this had a significant impact on officer retention, and that the police had the lowest level of voluntary resignations in the public sector, averaging some 7,000 officers per year. The Department also told us that it was looking at the experience of tutors, and was investing in developing front-line supervision and training to make sure tutors and supervisors are best able to assist new officers.24 21 Q 29; C&AG’s Report, para 3.9 22 Qq 25, 30 23 Qq 25–27 24 Qq 28, 41; C&AG’s Report para 3.5 12 The Police Uplift Programme 2 Learning lessons Learning from the programme