Research Officer, Support and Intervention Team

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.

Our mission is: Leadership, Standards, Performance. This guides our work with individuals, forces, and policing partners towards our vision. We exist to support police officers, police staff and volunteers to deliver the best service to the public. Only through high quality leadership, consistent standards and continual performance improvement can everyone in policing reach their full potential. Our mission guides our work with individual, forces and partners towards our vision.

Although we are a relatively small organisation, our work has a big reach. We are uniquely placed to work both with national policing organisations and local forces to support frontline officers, staff and volunteers in their day-to-day roles.

We offer a supportive and inclusive environment for people to thrive. Our extensive flexible-working policy, employee wellbeing support, family friendly policies, employers’ network for equality and inclusion membership (ENEI silver award winners), and status as a disability confident leader means everyone can bring their whole self to work.

Additional Information:

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles.

Due to our status as Public Servants, we are not eligible to participate in the Civil Service transfer process. Therefore, while successful candidates can transfer in on their existing terms and conditions, any subsequent transfer out of the College to the Civil Service cannot be guaranteed on existing terms and conditions, and new starter/modernised terms may apply.

The College embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we comply with the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) and apply the minimum selection criteria at sift stage of the recruitment process.

Our vetting

If you are successful at interview, you will be required to undertake pre-employment security checks. You will be sent a security questionnaire which must be accessed within 24 hours.

 Please note, these checks can take up to 10 weeks. You will only be offered a start date after the checks have been completed. If the outcome of these checks is not satisfactory, your recommendation for employment will be withdrawn.

Support & Intervention Team

As part of national policing reforms, a new capability is being established in the College to help forces tackle issues that may be impacting quality of service to the public.  Part of this capability includes the set-up of a new specialist support and intervention team designed to work directly with forces to make tangible improvements, drive cultural and operational reform and build public confidence. This role offers a chance to work at the centre of national policing performance improvement.

We’re looking for a Research Officer to join our Support & Intervention Team. This is an exciting opportunity to be involved in the design and delivery of social research to drive evidence-based police improvement.

We look forward to reading your application for the role of Research Officer.

Some of your responsibilities will include:

• Conducting in-house research and analysis, applying appropriate methodologies and basic analytical techniques to produce accurate, timely outputs that meet customer needs.
• Supporting the design and delivery of evidenced-based improvement support, in line with agreed timescales and budgets, and GSR and College standards.
• Contributing to evidence reviews and synthesis work, supporting senior colleagues and the What Works Centre to identify gaps and gather best available evidence for policing practice.
• Build collaborative relationships and promote confidence in using evidence, through outreach and engagement activities with College colleagues, practitioners, and academics.

To be successful in this role you’ll need:

• Experience in designing small scale and less complex research projects, defining research questions and writing draft specifications
• Strong analytical skills and experience interpreting data and producing statistics
• Membership of the GSR profession (badging available as part of the recruitment process for candidates who meet the eligibility criteria (see GSR Membership and Eligibility Guidance)
• Meets the Government Social Research Technical Framework for Technical Skills and Using & Promoting Social Research at Research Officer level pdf.

Please see the attached job description which contains full details of the role.

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

• Changing and Improving
• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace

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

• The below technical skills at Research Officer level as set out in Government Social Research Technical Framework - Analysis & interpretation (see attached document)
• The below technical skills at Research Officer level as set out in Government Social Research Technical Framework - Leading, communicating and championing social research(see attached document)