Thames Valley Police ‘struggling’ to hire new officers

Thames Valley Police (TVP) is ‘struggling’ to recruit and retain new officers, a new report has found.

Officer recruitment is down 10 per cent from last year, according to an assessment from the Chief Constable’s Management Team (CCMT), which was presented at the TVP and Crime Panel on September 15.

The force also lost 35 officers per month in 2022, 25 of which were resignations or transfers out, which the force labelled an ‘avoidable’ attrition/turnover rate.

TVP said potential recruits had instead been attracted to neighbouring forces which also now offer the Initial Police Learning and Development Programme, an entry route combining classroom and ‘on the job’ learning.

Other reasons the force cited for its sluggish intake of new officers include, job market saturation, the cost of living crisis and ‘associated bad press around policing generally’.

TVP Chief Constable Jason Hogg highlighted some of the difficulties facing new recruits as he addressed 12 new police constables who started today (Monday September 18), after training at Police Now’s national academy.

He said: “You are joining policing at a particularly challenging time, when public trust and confidence is lower than it has been for many years.

“Remember that every interaction you have with the public, however small, is a chance to change that.”

The number of candidates failing at vetting has also risen, meaning TVP’s training courses are only running at 83 per cent capacity, compared to 90-10 per cent last year.

The assessment says this is due to police standards being revised after high-profile cases of police misconduct in London’s Metropolitan Police.

It reads: “CCMT are well sighted on the issues TVP are facing round retention of officers and staff within TVP.

“The recruitment labour market remains challenging and we are struggling to attract sufficient numbers and to retain these people, their skills and experience within the organisation.

“A lot of hard work has taken place over the last two to three years to achieve the Police Uplift Programme, the toll on the enabling departments should not be underestimated.”

The Police Uplift Programme (PUP) was the Government’s scheme to recruit an ‘additional’ 20,000 police officers in England and Wales between September 2019 and May 2023.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Home Secretary Suella Braverman hailed the programme a success after more than 20,000 officers were recruited between April 2020 and March 2023.

However, analysis suggests that policing cuts under the Conservatives in 2010 should also be taken into account.

Under the PUP, TVP’s total number of officers swelled to 5,000 – the largest in its history – as an additional 785 officers joined the force, exceeding the target of 609 officers.

TVP said PUP data also showed that it was 41st out of 43 forces for resignations alone and 38th out of 43 for overall police constable turnover including retirements/dismissals.

The assessment adds: “The qualitative impact of this is a decrease in experienced officers within TVP to help us achieve our strategic aims and indicates that we are potentially not an employer of choice.”

The starting salary for police officers joining TVP is £31,551, which rises to in excess of £49,044 after seven years of service.

The force covers an area of over 2,200 square miles across Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire, serving 2.34 million people.