Police pay should be linked to performance

Former chief constable suggests forces may stop rewarding officers simply for length of service

Radical plans to modernise the police by linking pay to performance and recruiting outside experts on shortterm contracts have been proposed by a former chief constable. Mike Cunningham, chief of the College of Policing, said it was time to review the model of policing where pay had been based on length of service. He said reforming the pay and work patterns would be “quid pro quo” for extra funding.

RADICAL plans to modernise the police by linking pay to performance and recruiting outside experts on shortterm contracts have been proposed by a former chief constable.

Mike Cunningham, chief of professional body the College of Policing, said it was time to review the traditional model of policing where pay had been based on length of service.

He said reforming the pay and work patterns of England and Wales’ 125,000 police officers, and the way they are recruited and deployed would be “quid pro quo” for extra government funding.

Sajid Javid, the Home Secretary, is locked in talks with Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, for extra funding to help tackle a surge in violent crime and has hinted he is confident of success.

But Mr Cunningham, formerly chief of Staffordshire police, warned this would not be a blank cheque and that police would have to shift toward a performance-related model – an approach seen as controversial by many beat officers – and open up the service to outsiders.

“When the Government talks about pay reform, everyone knows they are talking about breaking the connection between length of service and pay progression, which is the current model,” he said. “Instead it would reward officers according to their contribution.”

This would mean officers would not go through the pay scales unless they achieved what was required of them in their existing roles.

“Individuals can have the benefit of being clear about what is expected of them, being told when they are doing a good job or when they are not doing a good job in an honest and supportive way,” he said.

“Officers would be accredited for the training and skills they have and the whole area of professional development would be taken far more seriously than it has been to date. The development of staff in policing has historically been seen as a cost rather than an investment.”

Although not explicitly performance-related pay, it was closer to it than the current model, he added.

Mr Cunningham said the shake-up would also bring short-term entrants into the police which, he believed, would appeal to the millennial generation who wanted a more flexible approach to work and careers.

“Historically people came in as a police constable and stayed for 30 years until they were tipped out at the end. This model has served policing well but I think it is time for significant review,” he said.

“It might be a chief constable needs people with lots of digital and cyber skills. How do they bring them into the police for a short period of time not necessarily as police officers or maybe as police officers?”

Mr Cunningham said police authorities were looking at opening up senior ranks to outsiders, better representing ethnic minority and female officers and offering graduates and school-leavers alternative routes into the service including new apprenticeships.