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Succession planning and
career development scrutiny?
The Metropolitan Police Authority is responsible for
recruiting and appointing all senior officers in the Met. We
want to ensure that the quality and diversity of those coming
forward in the next decade continues to be of the high calibre
we are used to seeing and Londoners deserve.
Top
class leaders are thin on the ground, and this problem will
only exacerbate unless current arrangements for identifying,
developing and accelerating promotion at all ranks are fully
addressed. The Met’s Director of Human Resources has already
commissioned some work to look at developing a more
representative workforce, particularly in terms of leadership
roles. However, it would be too easy to assume that the
Authority’s concerns are being fully addressed. This may not
necessarily the case and we carried out this comprehensive
scrutiny to investigate the issues around succession planning
and career development in order to address the needs of the
Metropolitan Police Service in the 21st Century.
The Police Federation places an absolute premium on the need
for senior officers to have experience of life on the beat.
While we broadly agree with this, we believe that very shortly
we will have to introduce a scheme that recruits the best
talent from a variety of backgrounds and exposes them to
experience of life policing London’s streets.
Intensive
training will emphasise leadership and the best will be fast
tracked through the ranks, while those falling short of high
standards will not be advanced.
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