About Police Now  

Our mission is to transform communities, reduce crime and anti-social behaviour, and increase the public’s confidence in the police service by recruiting, developing and inspiring outstanding and diverse leaders in society and on the policing frontline. 

We are working towards a day when every community, whatever the socio-economic background of its residents, can thrive without being fearful of crime. We are looking for talented, committed and mission-aligned individuals who will drive us towards achieving our ambitions.

Police Now recruits and trains graduates and career changers with leadership potential to become inspirational police officers and outstanding crime fighters on our National Graduate Leadership Programme and our National Detective Programme. Beyond these programmes, our officers may join our Frontline Leadership Programme and be further developed giving them the best possible chance to progress through the policing ranks and have a lifelong connection with us.

Our 115-strong not-for-profit organisation aims to create systemic change. We need highly capable impactful staff to support the recruitment and development of our officers and to cultivate strong relationships with partner forces and the wider sector.

The purpose of the role

Police Now seeks an exceptional individual to lead the delivery and evolution of our Frontline Leadership Programme, as well as lead the alumni offer for graduates of our two-year National Detective Programme and National Graduate Leadership Programme. The one-year Frontline Leadership Programme (FLP) aims to develop diverse cohorts of serving constables from forces across the country to be ethical, effective leaders, and to support them to rapidly achieve promotion to sergeant. The FLP combines five dynamic, in-person taught days over the course of the year with bespoke online modules, alongside 121 online support sessions with a Police Now coach which are tailored to the individual officer’s needs. Separately, we are seeking to retain as many of our graduate programme alumni within policing as possible, ensuring Police Now officers have a lasting impact on the service. We support alumni to develop their skills and progress within policing, particularly by gaining promotion. This role represents a genuine opportunity to influence the policing leaders of the future who can drive the cultural change that policing needs.

The role comprises five main parts:

Role model Police Now’s mission, strategy, values and leadership principles. As a member of the senior leadership team, you will have collective responsibility for the strategy and direction of the organisation, ensuring that it is a role model of leadership, integrity, wellbeing, efficiency and effectiveness, in policing and beyond. You will also lead and develop your own team of c9 individuals to enable them to thrive within their roles.

Communicate effectively, energetically and inspirationally, advocating and representing the FLP and our alumni work with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders, ranging from programme participants and alumni through to force contacts and other internal teams. 

Deliver an outstanding Frontline Leadership Programme, with multiple cohorts running each year, which equips participants with excellent police leadership and people management skills, and the understanding of how to deploy those skills and abilities in ethical and procedurally just ways that increase public confidence and police legitimacy.

Deliver an excellent alumni offering for graduates of our two graduate programmes (neighbourhoods and detectives), continuing their leadership development journey, and putting interventions in place to maximise the number of alumni who stay and progress up the ranks within policing.

Collaborate internally and externally to evaluate programme delivery and then design and iterate the Frontline Leadership Programme and our alumni offer year-on-year, so that it continues to be successful, measured against Police Now’s mission, strategy, participant experience and police force/stakeholder requirements. 

Key responsibilities

ROLE MODEL

Inspire your team (currently 9 individuals), including three direct reports, hundreds of programme participants, and colleagues from partner forces and stakeholders. Be a powerful advocate for modern police leadership, and the transformational change that can be achieved when it is delivered well. Effectively, energetically and authentically communicate Police Now’s mission, our theory of change, strategy and vision so that those experiencing our programmes, delivering our programmes and supporting our programmes believe that a more effective, more legitimate, more just police service can be a reality in the future.

• Act as an effective senior leader and line manager to the FLP and Alumni team and wider Programmes directorate, supporting and developing your direct and indirect reports to deliver outstanding results and improve their own skills, knowledge and abilities. Make plans for the future of your team, ensuring sufficient team resilience to avoid unforeseen events impacting on programme delivery. 
• Lead your team to ensure they are confident and equipped in their roles and are able to effectively project-manage the delivery of each FLP cohort, and continuously support our graduate programme alumni. Holding responsibility for all Police Now’s activity beyond the two-year graduate programmes, you will ensure the importance of alumni retention and progression is clearly understood and that this is considered a priority across the organisation.
  
  

DELIVER

• Deliver two overlapping cohorts of the FLP each year, with the potential for future growth, to a standard of excellence measured against Police Now’s mission, theory of change, strategy, priorities and the views of programme participants, partner forces, stakeholders and colleagues. 
• Oversee programme delivery, quality assuring the curriculum and content of the Taught Days to ensure the FLP remains a first-class product. Achieve the primary aims of the FLP, which are to equip programme participants with the skills to be effective and ethical police leaders, and support them to quickly achieve sergeant rank in order that they can put these skills into practice, with a particular focus on women and ethnic minority officers who are currently underrepresented in more senior police ranks. 
• Separate from the FLP, you will lead our alumni offer for those officers who have completed our neighbourhood or detective programme. Currently this includes providing support for high-achieving constables to attain a place on the College of Policing’s constable to inspector fast-track programme, and more broadly supporting our alumni to remain and progress within policing, focusing especially on increasing the number of alumni at higher ranks, thus maximising Police Now’s influence on the police service.
• Have a clear understanding of the participant journey through the FLP, ensure the programme is provides an excellent participant experience and is sufficiently flexible to support constables, who are at different stages of their promotion journey, to thrive and progress toward sergeant rank and beyond
• Oversee robust participant risk and progress tracking systems, including ensuring the seamless transfer of responsibility for new alumni as they complete either of the two graduate programmes.
• Ensure the FLP includes excellent remote learning content, which complements outstanding in-person delivery. Given the FLP is for busy, serving officers, making sure that our online learning materials are accessible, efficient and user-friendly is of paramount importance.
• Maintain accurate data on our graduate programme alumni retention, promotion and development, enabled by fostering strong relationships with force partners. Monitor trends and regularly report on progress in partnership with other internal departments.
• You will set the team budget based on required activity, ensuring that spend is forecast accurately, and then own this throughout the financial year ensuring effective tracking of spend and reforecasting if required, procurement for goods and services is robust and value for money is achieved.
  
  

COLLABORATE

• Work in partnership with the Programmes Director and the heads of the two graduate programmes to ensure consistency, efficiency and best practice is achieved between the three programmes.
• Work with colleagues within and across departments to evaluate the FLP and make recommendations to the Programmes Director and Senior Leadership Team to iterate, innovate and improve the design and delivery of the programme and our alumni offering year-on-year, including possible growth in future years. Close collaboration and alignment with our Recruitment and Marketing team and Force Partnerships team is also vital to ensure a consistent and exceptional service to participants and forces.
• As a member of the Senior Leadership Team, you will contribute to the formation of Police Now’s strategy and influence major decisions. You must be able to communicate and explain our strategy and priorities to your team, as well as to partner forces and other stakeholders. You will role model our values and leadership principles, provide feedback and support to your senior peers and the executive team. You will act as an escalation point for colleagues across the organisation including, from time-to-time, making ethical, logical, reasoned decisions on urgent matters outside of your functional expertise.
• Be an expert on Police Now’s three programmes and how they fit into the wider policing landscape, being knowledgeable on other entry routes into policing and continuous professional development programmes, including promotion processes, within and across forces. Be able to explain in detail to colleagues, partner forces and stakeholders, how the FLP and our alumni offer help to drive lasting cultural change in policing. 
  
  

What you'll need

• Experience of leading medium-sized teams: Demonstrable experience of authentically and successfully leading multi-disciplinary teams in complex environments, ideally for a mission-driven purpose, to build positive cultures and unlock discretionary effort, and thereby create outstanding results, at speed, involving complexity, and against adversity.
• Project management: the ability to oversee large and complex projects, including management of decisions, timelines, interdependencies and risks, coordinating your team and working closely with others across the organisation to ensure that programme deliverables are achieved on time and to the required standard.
• Diversity & Inclusion: Experience of leading and positively influencing a diverse and inclusive workplace, with a particularly strong understanding of women and ethnic minority officers within policing, and the barriers faced by these groups. 
• Budget management: The ability to set and manage large budgets, including high-value procurement, and the need to make difficult choices so that every pound counts.
• Strategic thinking and innovation: the ability to think strategically, grasping the bigger picture and acting on it, to reflect honestly on the performance of self and others and to alter own behaviour and feedback accordingly, and to critically analyse and problem-solve logically and effectively.
• Understanding of Police Now’s mission: Genuine emotional and intellectual connection with, belief in and understanding of, Police Now’s mission, theory of change, leadership principles and strategy of quality, differentiation and sustainability. You should be prepared to explain this in some detail if invited to interview.
• Knowledge of the strategic policing landscape; including how policing in England and Wales comprises a blend of the 43 territorial police forces, several thematic forces, and national institutions, and an understanding of how they intersect. 
• An understanding of outstanding public service delivery; and what this would look like for the Frontline Leadership Programme and participants. This could be gained from policing or other public service role.
• Outstanding written and oral communication skills; including the ability to convey complex concepts in a simple and compelling manner appropriately to a range of audiences via public speaking to large audiences, in person and online, briefing notes and business cases.
• Integrity: A firm commitment to organisational justice and the value and ethical imperative of diverse teams and organisations, acting with integrity at the heart of decision-making and communication.
• Willingness to travel: the ability to travel and stay overnight to deliver FLP Taught Days, currently taking place in Birmingham on a monthly basis. Other travel will be required, including to attend force meetings or programme events throughout the year, which may require overnight stays. 
  
  

What you'll get from us

• A bright, airy and modern office in Zone 1. 
• A supported working from home set-up with the technology and certain equipment required.
• Competitive salary of £63,000- £81,000 per annum (dependent on experience)
• Flexible working
• 27 days holiday each year plus bank holidays 
• Access to a benefit platform, which includes salary sacrifice schemes such as cycle to work and smart tech as well as access to over 750 retailers and discounts.
• Sanctus coaching (private mental health coaching for the workplace)
• Access to the Vitality programme which includes healthcare benefits, an Employee Assistance Programme and discounts
• Training opportunities for personal development 
• Participation in a pension scheme (with 6% employer contributions and 2% employee contributions)
  
  

Please note

This role will require working at least 3 days a week in our London office.

We strongly encourage candidates to look through our Leadership Principles document at the bottom of this page and these underpin our culture and values, and feature heavily in our recruitment process.

This job description is issued as a guideline. It is not exhaustive, and we would be pleased to discuss any constructive comments you may have. Due to the evolving nature and changing demands of our business this job description may be subject to change. You may, on occasions, be required to undertake additional or other duties within the context of this job description and according to the needs of the organisation.

Applications will be screened as they are received and invited to interview accordingly.  Police Now reserves the right to close the advert prior to the advertised date, should a suitable applicant be appointed.  Early applications are therefore encouraged.  

Please note that some roles within Police Now require certain levels of National Security Vetting or screening in order to effectively work with our partners. Therefore, we may ask you to complete this if you are successful.

Interview dates

• Telephone interview: Thurs 7th and Fri 8th March
• First stage interview: Tues 12th– Thurs 14th March
• Final stage interview: Weds 20th – Thurs 21st March

Please note these dates may be subject to change

Download the Head of FLP and Alumni Job Pack