Fed deputy chair praises Chief Constable for his work on non-degree entry route

23 November 2023

West Midlands Police Federation deputy chair Jase Dooley has applauded Chief Constable Craig Guildford for introducing changes to the entry routes into the Force which are set to be adopted nationally.

Jase said the establishment of a non-degree route into policing had opened it up as a career to more people and had helped with some of the issues around retention.

It’s also allowed people to move from other roles in the Force - such as Specials, police staff, and police community support officers (PCSOs) - and into regular service.

Since 2020 the routes into the Force were the three-year police constable degree apprenticeship (PCDA) and the two-year degree holder entry programme (DHEP) for graduates.

Jase said one of the issues was that people who wanted a degree were joining the Force and leaving with their qualification after three years because there wasn’t a “buy-back clause”.

“We lost quite a few people after the three years who had a degree to themselves and moved on,” he said.

Jase said it put off people from joining the Force who didn’t want to go down the university education route.

And it also put off people who had worked in other public service settings such as the armed forces.

“We thought long and hard about this and our chair Rich Cooke and the Federation were very vocal that the Force should implement different routes for entry,” Jase said.

“Since our chief constable joined us last year, he’s implemented different routes into policing.

Branch deputy chair Jase Dooley.

“This includes people from all sorts of different backgrounds with different skills and abilities, who don’t have to have a degree and don’t need to go for a degree either.

“We also have the internal police courses, where police staff and PCSOs who are willing to take the jump can become a police officer.

“We’ve had hundreds of people join through this route, and they’ve been really good.

“So we applaud the chief constable for that.”

Jase’s comments come as West Midlands Police’s framework for a non-degree route is set to be accredited by the College of Policing and adopted nationally.

Figures provided to LBC revealed that almost 4,500 officers have left policing during their probation period since 2019, with policing degrees identified as the main reason new recruits are leaving.

Jase said: “West Midlands Police has taken a bit of a stance on it and it’s worked - we’re glad the chief has done that.

“There’s still a long way to go because we’re having a lot of students who haven’t been successful on the university side of things but are signed off as good police officers. We’re trying to protect those people.”

Jase explained that it can be tough for student officers to juggle work with their university studies and commitments in their personal life.

He said: “Initially it was a difficult period for a lot of the students because they were having to learn a new job, having to learn new practices, procedures and policies, they were having to do a portfolio and a university degree on top of that. It was very time consuming.

“Since then the chief’s changed a lot of it.

“We’re still seeing student officers who are struggling because of the workloads, the change in pace of life, and the sleep patterns being all over the place.

“But we now have a student welfare team and I can only speak highly of them.

“They’ve been really good, holding things off, slowing things down and trying to take pressure off. They’re worth their weight in gold.”