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andy
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« on: September 24, 2008, 11:14:12 PM » |
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The next stage is to start your foundation training.
Until fairly recently, this consisted of a short stint at your force headquarters followed by up to 15 weeks at a residential training college known as a Police Training Centre (PTC). However, this is all changing now and it is very likely that you will be trained under a new scheme known as the Initial Police Learning & Development Programme, or IPLDP for short.
The IPLDP was developed by the Home Office, with the help of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), Centrex and other key stakeholders. The principles of the IPLDP, which have been agreed nationally, are that the main responsibility for the training of new officers should rest with forces. Officers will be trained more closely within the communities they will ultimately serve, with less emphasis on long periods of residential training.
About the Initial Police Learning & Development Programme
The main aim of your foundation training is to equip newly appointed constables with knowledge of the law and the qualities of judgement needed to achieve effective operational performance on the street. Constables in their two year probationary period are no longer known as "probationers", but "student officers". Although in the real world everyone still calls them probationers!
Forces now have responsibility for delivering their own probationer training, rather than sending them off to the PTCs as in the past. This means that depending on what arrangements your force has made, you may be trained at your headquarters, at an external training facility, or even at a University or other similar further education establishment. Your force will advise you of the exact arrangements.
Most training is no longer residential. This is ostensibly to give the recruits more time to study outside of the training environment. Oh, and it happens to cost considerably less if recruits live elsewhere and feed themselves!
The IPLDP Curriculum
The curriculum comprises of 22 modules, which have been divided into four phases. The four phases are:
Phase 1: Induction
Phase 2: Community Safety and Partnership
Phase 3: Supervised Patrol
Phase 4: Independent Patrol
Whilst the four elements of the programme are set out separately they should not be viewed as individual and distinct phases of learning and development. Each is inextricably linked to the other within the overall programme.
National Occupational Standards
National Occupational Standards (NOS) define the skills, knowledge, understanding and level of competence expected of individuals to perform key tasks.
National consultation by PSSO (now Skills for Justice) with forces, the Home Office, APA and community representatives identified 22 units of NOS as the level of performance at which probationary officers need to be operating prior to confirmation.
Student officers will be assessed against these 22 units of NOS during their two-year training period.
APEL
The IPLDP Central Authority is considering how best to implement an Accreditation of Prior Experience and Learning (APEL) scheme. The scheme would allow new recruits to use existing qualifications and experience to bypass sections in the IPLDP curriculum.
Student Officer Learning and Assessment Folder
Each Student Officer is provided by their force with a 'Learning and Assessment Folder' which outlines the required learning for new recruits and provides them with somewhere to record their progress through the four learning phases. The Student Officer Learning and Assessment Folder replaces the much-loathed PDPs (Personal Development Portfolio)previously used by forces.
Community Engagement
Community Engagement is one of the key principles behind IPLDP. The student officer must be able to understand the needs and expectations of the community in which they will work. Students will need to understand the dynamics of their local communities, in addition to current relationships between the community and the police service. Phase 2 of the curriculum will focus on Community Engagement.
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