Recruitment drive on track
31 July 2020
The Force is on track to meet its Year 1 recruitment target as part of the Government’s three-year programme to increase officer numbers nationwide by 20,000 over three years, according to the secretary of West Midlands Police Federation.
Steve Grange was responding after the Home Office released figures showing the progress with the recruitment drive yesterday.
The update showed the Force’s officer headcount has increased by 27. It’s first year allocation of recruits is 366.
“When you look at the official monthly figures released by the Home Office, each month from October last year until June this year we were still showing our numbers falling,” says Steve, “This meant we were actually well under the projection but we are now catching up.
“With the large intakes that are planned in July, which will be more than 200 recruits, I believe, and with regular intakes for the rest of the year I think we are on track to hit the target set. This will, of course, pile the pressure on the learning and development team and the tutors while the public won’t see the benefit of these increased numbers for some time to come. But it is a really positive step forward”
Nationwide, 22 per cent of the 20,000 target for recruitment has been met, this marks the largest annual recruitment of officers since 2003/04.
