Applications for this role are restricted to existing employees of the College of Policing, the Civil Service and staff of a UK police force or UK policing organisation.

Background and purpose

The Police Constable Entry Routes (PCER) Optimisation programme aims to maximise the effectiveness of police constable initial education. Highly collaborative between the College, the National Police Chiefs’ Council, forces and their education partners, the programme is embedding approaches to enhance the learning experience and professional development of new officers.  Optimised local PCER programmes are high value for money and learner focused, with engaging and integrated delivery and assessment.

With the national programme due to close in March 2026, we are looking for a force PCER specialist to play a national role in embedding and consolidating strategic benefits at the local level.  Specifically, the secondee will lead the production and promotion of additional PCER strategic management information and guidance resources, focused on optimising value for money, effectiveness and efficient use of a blend of routes.

The secondment will harness learning to date, to support both local continuous improvement and evidence-informed decisions about which PCER to run and how.

Flexible secondment

Recognising the high demands on force teams, the opportunity can be tailored to suit the availability of the successful candidate. The duration of the secondment will need to be arranged to keep within our maximum budget for reimbursing salary costs and it must be complete by the end of this financial year. We anticipate there to be approximately 40 working days of work and we can be flexible around how the secondee fills these days. There is flexibility about the:

• Start and finish date
• Part-time/ full-time
• Sets days per week or total days over a given period
• Total number of days

The opportunity is being offered on a home-working basis. We offer a supportive and inclusive environment for people to thrive and an extensive flexible-working policy.

The secondee will be recruited as a senior leader in the College, bringing in specialist expertise to lead, deliver and promote a suite of high impact PCER strategic management information and guidance resources.

Specifically, the role involves the production of up-to-date and reliable indicative costing information about optimised PCER programmes and promising design and delivery models. The information will be presented as guidance that is widely relevant to forces across England and Wales. The role will require engagement with PCER stakeholders, including to consider and account for local variation in delivery, collaboration approaches and direct/ indirect costs.

Additionally, the post-holder will develop an indicative PCER costing tool for local force use, which will enable greater confidence in modelling PCER delivery options. It will set out, in a readily accessible way, a nationally consistent approach to establishing indicative PCER programme costs and will facilitate cost modelling and comparisons.

This role will be enabling enhanced evidence-informed strategic decision making about PCER use at the local level, supporting forces to optimise delivery approaches and meet strategic workforce aims. 

The posting is for a talented and experienced individual who will be able to step into the role and start contributing at pace. In-depth familiarity with PCER programme design and delivery models will be important, as well as relevant experience, for example, of complex procurement and providing strategic and financial advice to inform chief officer decision making. 

It would be advantageous to work in a force that operates a mix of PCER and that is well advanced with optimising their design, delivery and assessment approaches. It means that these local programmes could be used as case studies, in addition to gathering other examples from forces/ collaborations.

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Describe your experience of costing extended, multifaceted and partnership delivered programmes.
• Describe how you have gained an in-depth understanding of PCER programme design and delivery models